Federal Update: COVID-19 Relief Plan
American Rescue Plan Act Becomes Law
Image provided by the New York Times
The American Rescue Plan Act, which passed the House earlier this week, was signed into law by President Biden. The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package provides immediate relief for children and families, works to address the racial and economic injustices that COVID-19 has exacerbated, and takes a long-overdue step to address our nation’s shameful child poverty crisis, cutting child poverty in half in 2021. The package includes several important provisions that will directly impact the child welfare system.
$100 million for CAPTA Title I – State Grants for grants to support state child protective services programs and infrastructure.
$250 million for CAPTA Title II – Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention for grants directly to communities to provide community-driven services to support and strengthen families so children can remain safe.
$150 million in funding for Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) programs to ensure families that are pregnant or recently had children have the resources they need to promote their children’s healthy development.
$10 million to establish a National Technical Assistance Center on Grandfamilies and Kinship Families to provide training, technical assistance and resources for government programs, nonprofits, and other community-based organizations, Tribes, and Tribal organizations that serve grand families and kinship families. The center will provide assistance to programs and organizations supporting relatives raising children and will engage experts to stimulate development of new evidence-based, equitable, and culturally appropriate practices for serving kinship families and to support implementation of those practices.
$800 million in Education Stabilization Funds focused on homeless children and youth for grants to identify homeless children and youth and to provide them with wrap-around services and assistance to enable them to attend school and participate in school activities.
$450 million for the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act for formula grants, the national domestic violence hotline, and support for survivors of sexual assault.
$10 million for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network
$30 million for Project AWARE to build capacity in schools to address trauma and mental health needs.
Additionally, there were a number of provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act that, while not directly child welfare related, will have enormous impacts on the child welfare system, including provisions that are estimated to lift 50% of children out of poverty in 2021. The Children’s Defense Fund has prepared a summary of what the American Rescue Plan Act means for children and families here.
