Foster Care to College Mentoring Program: Preliminary Report: This report presents information on the first 18 months of the Foster Care to College (FCTC) mentoring program in Washington State. It expands the availability of education-focused mentoring to foster youth in all regions of the state. The total number of youth referred, served, and matched in the program was lower than projected. Although not meeting the goal of 75 matches in year one, each DSHS Region with an established mentoring program met the goal of matching 50 new youth per year in the most recent twelve months. About 80 percent of youth in the program ever matched to a mentor were still actively matched as of March 31, 2008. The report suggests ways the program could be modified to facilitate referrals, increase access to the program, and improve the evaluation of program effectiveness.
Caseworker Visits with Children in Out-of-Home Care: This document provides a summary of state efforts to date to comply with the provisions of Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, which required states to develop plans by June 20, 2008 that would ensure that at least 90% of children in foster care will be visited by their caseworkers on a monthly basis and that the majority of those visits will take place in the child's residence. It is based on information provided directly by states to the National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice and Permanency Planning, as well as Internet searches of state policy and legislation. It is not, however, a comprehensive list of all policies and practices.
The 12th Anniversary of Welfare Reform: What Do We Know About Time Limits?: Last month marked the 12th anniversary of the enactment of TANF. One of the most controversial features of the reforms was the imposition of time limits on benefit receipt. The landmark 1996 welfare law prohibited states from using federal TANF funds to assist most families for more than 60 months. MDRC released a report earlier this year on the status of time limits. Among the findings:
· Nationally, a large proportion of TANF households are not subject to time limits, but time limits play a key role in some states. About 44 percent of TANF households are not subject to federal or state time limits because they are "child-only cases'. Additionally, about half of TANF families live in states that rarely or never close families' cases because of time limits. On the other hand, a quarter of TANF families live in states that usually terminate benefits after 60 months, and nearly as many are in states with shorter limits.
· Nationally, at least a quarter million TANF cases have been closed due to reaching a time limit since 1996, although about one-third of these closures have occurred in New York, which routinely transfers cases to a state and locally funded program that provides the same amount of benefits as TANF. Most other states do not routinely provide such post-time-limit assistance. It is important to note that time-limit closures account for only 2 to 3 percent of all closures in a typical month. Recipients whose cases are closed due to time limits differ from other welfare leavers in key ways; for example, they are less likely to have a high school diploma and are more likely to live in subsidized housing.
· Many of the families whose TANF cases were closed due to time limits are struggling financially and report being worse off than they were while on welfare. Several state surveys have found that many families whose cases were closed due to time limits are experiencing material hardships and are still relying heavily on other forms of public assistance, such as food stamps. However, it is not clear that families who left TANF because of time limits are struggling more than other welfare leavers, most of whom remain poor as well.
Click here to access both a summary and the full report.
California Issues Foster Care Report:Capping a two-year inquiry into the courts' role in foster care, the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care issued last month a sweeping set of recommendations to reform the state's juvenile dependency court system and improve outcomes for nearly 80,000 children in foster care and their families. Here is the executive summary of the report. More information about the Commission and the full report may be found here.
