Title IV-B Reauthorization Outlook
As child welfare and adoption advocates survey the political landscape and discuss what might still get done in an otherwise tumultuous midterm election year, one issue has stood out – the reauthorization of Title IV-B. This law provides a source of significant flexible funding for adoption promotion and support services and other issues of interest to the adoption community.
Title IV-B reauthorization presents both an opportunity to improve key issues in adoption and permanency and a potential risk that these issues will be lost as other advocates advance their own priorities.
No bill has been drafted yet and House insiders have suggested that no action will occur earlier than this summer. Final action, if it occurred, would not happen until the end of the year, probably as part of a larger bill that could also include a reauthorization of CAPTA and MIECHV, the federal home visiting program. Nevertheless, the process has already begun. House Ways and Means staff are already encouraging individual members of Congress to identify their top priorities and share them with the committee, the earlier the better. Some advocates have also begun submitting their recommendations.
There is much to like about many of the ideas that have been floated so far. As discussed in VFA's April 4 newsletter, Associate Commissioner Aysha Schomburg has highlighted prevention services, kinship care, the child welfare workforce, and youth transitioning to adulthood as the Children's Bureau's top priorities. The president's budget has proposed several changes, most notably (with respect to Title IV-B) a proposed $300 million increase in mandatory funding for the Promoting Safe & Stable Families (PSSF) program (i.e., Title IV-B, part 2).
The Title IV-B recommendations of the National Child Abuse Coalition, released in late April, also include many important recommendations. Their recommendations emphasize supporting upstream, prevention-based family supports and requiring states to devote a certain percentage of their Title IV-B discretionary dollars to non-child welfare community-based agencies. Other priorities emphasize family reunification, building evidence for effective prevention services, and other reforms.
While there is much to like among these many proposals, the adoption community’s voice must also be heard. VFA plans to solicit input from its members and submit detailed recommendations of our own to the relevant House and Senate committees. This process has just begun, but here are a few potential areas of interest:
Protecting the 20% Carve-Out for Adoption Promotion and Support Services: Under current law, 20% of PSSF (Title IV-B, part 2) funding is reserved for adoption promotion and support services. This funding could come under pressure as new proposals are added to Title IV-B overall.
Supporting and Funding Diligent Recruitment: States are already required under Title IV-B to "provide for the diligent recruitment of potential foster and adoptive families that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in the State for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed." Unfortunately, there is no dedicated funding stream for this work beyond what can be reimbursed as part of Title IV-E administrative (matching) funds. Establishing a more reliable source of funding, along with other potential reforms, could be a focus. VFA will be advocating for enhancements to diligent recruitment requirements, including emphasizing the importance of relative and fictive kin searches, requiring data on barriers to recruitment of and licensing/placement with kin and families of color, and more.
Including Provisions for Kinship Adoptions in Any Kinship-related Changes: The emphasis on supporting kinship and guardianship arrangements is evident in both the president'’s budget and among child welfare advocates. Leaders on this issue, like Generations United, are working to establish a dedicated funding stream for “Kinship placement support services” within Title IV-B and also to operate and evaluate kinship navigator programs, among other IV-B proposals. For some children who are being raised by kin, formal adoption can be a desired permanency outcome. Working to ensure that kinship adoptions are not forgotten or overlooked in any broader kinship-related policy changes is one possible focus for adoption advocates.
Building Evidence for Pre- and Post-Adoption Services: The National Child Abuse Coalition’s recommendations to build the evidence base for effective prevention services that would qualify for Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) funding could, if enacted, have enormous implications for the adoption community. According to administration estimates, FFPSA could account for 80% of all federal prevention funding within the next decade. Under current law, an “adoption or guardianship arrangement” that is “at risk of a disruption or dissolution that would result in a foster care placement” is eligible for FFPSA funding. Such programs must also meet the law's other requirements, however, including stringent evidence requirements that are mostly missing for adoption-related programs. This proposal, if implemented, could open the door to this growing, multi-billion dollar funding stream to support services for adoptive and guardianship families.
This is an article from Voice for Adoption’s free monthly public policy newsletter.
