Utah Reauthorization Project
P. O. Box 270090 Fruitland, UT 84027-0090
(435) 548-2630 FAX (435) 548-2438 wrw@ubtanet.com
www.slcap.org/UREAP/ureap.htm

Position Paper
Finalized June 6, 2002

The Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP) seeks common ground recommendations for the next phase of welfare reform. UREAP is described in the final pages of this Position Paper, including its goals, principles, and membership.

The child welfare system includes a broad array of core services: Prevention/Family Support; Early Intervention/Family Preservation; Child Protective Services; Foster Care; Permanence Placement; After Care; and Independent Living. The state public child welfare agency is the center of the system [in Utah, the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) within the Utah Department of Human Services], but other players include the courts; private agencies; public programs, including domestic violence, mental health and substance abuse; and communities. At the federal level, there is no one child welfare program, rather a collection of programs, grants, funding streams, and regulatory requirements. The major federal funding stream is Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, including matching funds for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance, which only pays for the care of low-income children based on an AFDC eligibility test. States pay 100 percent of the costs for children in higher income families. Smaller funding sources are the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA), Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF), the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), and the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (assists with independent living). States have also utilized funding from Title IV-A Emergency Assistance (EA), Title XX Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), and Title XIX Medicaid for children in the system.

PRWORA made drastic changes in the law to direct the behavior of adults, but had little to say about child welfare or well-being. UREAP believes that child welfare policy is tied in some very important ways to welfare reform and should be addressed as welfare reform is reauthorized. The following recommendations regarding child welfare are offered as ways to correct system shortcomings and raise awareness of needed reforms to benefit troubled families and children.

Policies to Support Vulnerable Families

We urge Congress to . . .

1. acknowledge the stress that poverty places on families and take steps to mitigate that by making child poverty reduction a purpose of TANF.

2. correct the disjuncture between TANF time limits and child welfare requirements for resolution, usually at 12 months for children and six months for babies.

3. revise the "lookback provision" that ties eligibility for Title IV-E to AFDC standards in place on July 16, 1996, to more realistic family-beneficial provisions.

4. support state demonstrations to coordinate pertinent systems where they overlap.

5. support state projects to provide family advocates so that prevention options can be tried and parents be made aware of their rights and responsibilities.

6. in situations where children are removed from the home, provide transition services for the parent so s/he can make have resources to make adjustments, rather than suffer loss of all financial assistance.

7. modify time limits more flexible to assist vulnerable families to progress, e.g., pause the clock while adults work, exempt kinship care from time limits, and eliminate the 20 percent of caseload ceiling on exemptions from time limits, and instead allow states to specify circumstances under which families can receive benefits after 60 months.

8.make work requirements more flexible, e.g., by permitting states to design individual barrier removal plans and count participation in steps in those plans toward participation rates and to exempt kinship caregivers from work requirements, while ensuring that they receive needed services for the children.

9. develop safeguards to prevent inappropriate sanctions by ensuring that families are, 1) provided information and assistance before sanctions are levied, 2) contacted and monitored after sanctions are imposed, and 3) allowed to return to the program, receive full benefits, and begin to participate again after a reasonable period of compliance.

10. require descriptive information in State Plans related to these matters, e.g., how kinship families will be served, how "dual system" families will be served, how TANF agencies will work with other agencies to address families' barriers to employment, and what activities count towards participation.

11. streamline and facilitate the receipt of substance abuse treatment in families served by child welfare systems, by encouraging  partnerships among service agencies, revising confidentiality standards, and removing barriers to resources such as Medicaid.

12. support outcome-based accountability in partnership with states, allow states input into HHS reporting requirements, and repeal provision-specific penalties and instead, use review processes with broader approaches to foster care review.

13. amend federal licensing regulations to ensure that children placed with relatives for family continuity and permanency reasons are acknowledged.

14. revise child welfare waiver policies so that HHS is not limited in the number granted to states, revise approval criteria, and develop alternative baselines to determine cost-neutrality.

15. support child welfare workforce recruitment, preparation, training, and retention as critical to the performance of the system.

16. support juvenile courts in addressing their backlogs and developing their capacity to work with other players to achieve permanence in placements for children.

17. ensure flexibility and support of kinship permanency placements for children.

18. support child welfare language being proposed in the preamble to the four existing TANF purposes in the President's Budget as a step in the right direction.

Funding

We urge Congress to . . .

1. permit Indian Tribes to access federal child welfare funding and assistance to address the needs of Native American children.

2. fully fund Special Education Entitlements and enforce special education mandates for children in foster care.

3. increase funding for children's mental health services for children in foster care and to allow treatment without requiring  families to enter the child welfare system unnecessarily, thereby risking relinquishment of their children.

4. pursue a national research agenda in at least five areas: practice, program evaluation, policy, prognosis, and research synthesis.

5. preserve and enhance funding streams in TANF, Title XX (Social Services Block Grant), and Title XIX (Medicaid) to support the child welfare system.

6. fund child welfare adequately, including domestic violence and substance abuse programs.

7. reauthorize the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and increase funding dramatically, especially for prevention.

8. reauthorize the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) Act, increasing funding and flexibility, reworking definitions where needed, address the backlog of children with a permanency plan but needing follow-up, provideing funding for state incentives and post-placement services, and providing mentors to families of incarcerated parents. [Passed.]

9. maintain Title IV-E as an entitlement, but allow reinvesting foster care monies into other child welfare services.

10. extend the federal commitment for foster care and adoption to all children, beyond the present commitment to just AFDC-eligible families ("delinking").

11. allow states to spend Title IV-E funds on in-home services that may prevent child removal or reunite families.

Utah has a long history of considering how to help welfare families become self-reliant. The Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP) is a broad-based effort to educate state and national decision-makers and the public about needed refinements to the current welfare system, to muster congressional support for common ground solutions that will help stabilize vulnerable families, and to enhance efforts to address poverty in our state and nation.

UREAP has as its vision of the next phase of welfare reform strengthening our nation by building families' and individuals' economic and social well-being. We seek to be involved in realizing this vision as Congress considers the 2002 Reauthorization of major pieces of the 1996 welfare law, as well as related measures in the intervening months and beyond. 

UREAP will support and encourage provisions which:

1. set a clear and consistent goal to reduce poverty.
2. meet temporary and emergency needs.
3. facilitate job advancement and increased earnings through training or skill-development for those who can move toward self-reliance.
4. sustain basic needs and dignity for those families and individuals who are not able to achieve self-reliance.
5. afford families and individuals with the opportunities and resources they need to address their barriers to achieving economic independence before they leave the welfare system.
6. support the efforts of families and individuals to move forward.
7. make work pay.
8. provide necessary supports to families and individuals as they transition from welfare to work.
9. emphasize the care and well-being of children, as they are the majority of welfare recipients.
10. include appropriate flexibility and encouragement to allow states, localities, and Indian Tribes to run programs that are responsive to special populations and circumstances.
11. provide increased or at least present levels of funding to support necessary programs and services to effect positive outcomes for families and individuals.
12. finance welfare reform without resulting in harm to other vulnerable groups.

Active Re-Entry, Price, (Southeastern Utah)
Box Elder Family Support Center, Brigham City, (Box Elder County)
Bringing Hope to Single Moms Foundation, Logan, (Cache and Box Elder Counties)
Community Action Services, Provo, (Utah, Wasatch, and Summit Counties)
Disabled Rights Action Coalition (DRAC), Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Family Support and Children's Justice Center of Carbon and Emery Counties, Price
International Rescue Committee, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
JEDI for Women, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Mental Health Association in Utah, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
New Hope Refugee and Multicultural Center, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake City)
Options for Independence, Logan, (Northern Utah)
Peace and Justice Commission, Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
People Helping People, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Salt Lake Community Action Program (SLCAP), Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake and Tooele Counties)
Tri-County Independent Living Center, Ogden, (Weber, Davis, and Morgan Counties)
United Way Executive Directors Association (UWEDA), Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake County)
Utah Children, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Utah Community Action Program Association (UCAPA), (statewide)
Utah Issues, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Utahns Against Hunger, Salt Lake City, (statewide)
Valley Mental Health, Salt Lake City, (Salt Lake and Tooele Counties)
Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies, Fruitland
Your Community Connection, Ogden, (Weber County)

Membership as of June 6, 2002

The URL for this position paper is www.slcap.org/UREAP/UREAPChildWelfPosPr.htm. For more information on the Utah Reauthorization Project (UREAP), please go to www.slcap.org/UREAP/ureap.htm or contact Shirley Weathers and Bill Walsh, Walsh & Weathers Research and Policy Studies, P. O. Box 270090, Fruitland, UT 84027-0090, (435) 548-2630, FAX (435) 548-2438, email wrw@ubtanet.com.