The Maintaining Connection for Success and Enhancing the Adoption Act of 2008 (enacted as Public Law 110-351) is a Congressional Act in the United States signed into law by President George W. Bush on 7 October 2008 It was previously unanimously passed in both the House and the Senate. The law makes many changes to the child welfare system, largely being the IV-E Title of the Social Security Act, which includes federal payments to states for nurturing and adoption assistance. According to experts and advocates of child welfare, the law makes the most significant federal improvement to the child welfare system in more than a decade.
Video Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Changes
The new law makes a number of changes to the child welfare system, which is primarily the responsibility of the state (the Federal government supports countries through funding and legislative initiatives). Major changes include:
- Allow all states to choose to give birth help kinship, or payments to foster parents who are relatively committed to maintaining permanently for a child who has lived with them for at least six months. This will help facilitate the transfer of children from state custody to relative guardianship in cases where home or adoption is inappropriate.
- Allowing countries to provide IV-E-funded care for children up to age 21, bearing in mind that the child is enrolled in a school, vocational program, employed, or unable to meet this requirement because of a medical condition. This option helps facilitate longer support periods for children up to 21 years of age.
- Need a case plan to ensure that nursing placements do not overly interfere with children's education.
- Require countries to develop case plans for the supervision and coordination of health care services for children in care, together with state Medicaid agencies and other experts.
- Require countries to make reasonable efforts to keep brothers and sisters in parenting placements.
- Let, for the first time, tribes receive federal funds to directly manage their own child welfare programs (previously, the tribe had to negotiate with countries to receive IV-E funding).
- Gradually "de-connect" a child's eligibility for the adoption grant payments from obsolete Assistance for Families with Separate Child Standards, which have not been updated for inflation since 1996, because the program no longer exists. Because this provision requires money, the removal of links will occur for nine years.
Maps Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Savings and fees
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the new law will reduce the deficit by $ 12 million between 2009 and 2018, although it will initially increase direct spending by $ 323 million between 2009 and 2013.
Leadership
In the House of Representatives, Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) and former Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL) are active in the drafting of the law and finally the section. In the Senate, Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) are leaders in the bill.
Implementation
California
Having the largest caregiver population in the United States, California was one of the first states to enact the Fostering Connections Act by enacting the Bill Assembly 12 (AB 12, also referred to as CA Fostering Connections to Success Act) in 2010. The law came into force in the year 2012.
All eligible foster teenagers can now participate in the extended AB 12 parenting program from their eighteenth birthday until their twenty-first birthday. Eligibility is determined by at least one of the following in accordance with federal requirements:
- High school completion or GED
- Enrollment in a university, college or vocational education program at least half the time
- Participation in job preparedness training programs
- Jobs for at least 80 hours a month (20 hours a week)
- Inability for all of the above due to medical or mental defects
Those who participate in the AB12 program are considered nonminor dependents of the area in which they are placed into foster care. Foster children are allowed to re-enter the program until the age of 21 if they opt out early.
The AB12 program allows for two independent independent supervised placement placements for nonminor dependents. Plus Plus Placement Plus Placement (THP - Plus - FC) provides housing and services to promote self-reliance such as case management, transportation assistance, and job-readiness training. Options of residence under the type of placement include group homes and orphanages.
The second type of housing placement is the supervised Supervised Personal Life (SILP) and most popular among foster youth for allowing greater independence. SILP placements may include apartments, rooms for rent at home, college dormitories, and single room residence hotels. This placement should be assessed and approved by the region, except for university housing.
Challenges in AB12 Implementation
If the nonminor dependent is placed outside the country, the sending and receiving agent must undergo a ten-step process in accordance with the Interstate Compact on the Child Placement. Even if a nonminor depends on staying in a SILP placement outside the state, case managers should have monthly face-to-face visits with each adolescent. In addition, case managers are requested to visit youth stationed elsewhere in California, and cases are not transferred from one area to another.
Having to travel large enough each month adds huge travel costs and more pressure on the huge social workload. The recommended number of cases to be serviced by workers by the American Child Welfare League (CWLA) is at most 12-15 children while some institutions already have caseload cases that may exceed 40 cases per worker.
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Leading organizations involved in various stages of drafting, and revising legislation, and lobbying Congress include:
- Alliance for Children and Family
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- United States Children's Association Center and the Act
- Casey's Family Program
- Social Law and Policy Center
- The American Child Welfare League
- Children's Defense Fund
- The Court Appoints a Special Defender
- National Legislative Country Conference
- Sound for American Children
The future of the law
Since its signing in 2008, countries have moved to implement changes in different laws and states at different stages of implementation. The Resource Center for Fostering Connections was also created to help disseminate information about the law.
References
External links
- Fostering Connections Resource Center
- Title IV of the Social Security Act
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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