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Happy Holidays NACHSA Members! |
Last night, the House recessed until December 27, after House Speaker Boehner (R-Ohio) realized he did not have enough votes in the Republican caucus to adopt a measure to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire for households earning over $1 million annually. Before it recessed the House did adopt, 215-209, a bill to cut spending in a number of health and human services programs, including cuts of $33 billion over ten years to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the elimination of the Social Services and Prevention and Public Health Block Grants and cuts to health reform subsidies, among other reductions. That same package of cuts was adopted earlier in the year by the House. The bill was to be combined with the tax cut bill. Senate Majority Leader Reid said he wouldn't bring the measure to the Senate floor had it passed the House.
Whether Washington can now avoid the 'fiscal cliff' is very much in doubt. While it is still unlikely that the full across-the-board cuts and automatic tax increases on all Americans would become permanent, the federal government may enter the New Year without a clear path forward.
The House's rush to the doors also left unfinished a bipartisan bill that was slated to be considered today that would break down the barriers between local educational and child welfare agencies. The Uninterrupted Scholars Act (S. 3472) would give child welfare agencies the ability to access directly the educational records of children and youth in foster care and eliminates the duplicate notice to parents from the education agency when a court order authorizes the release of a child's education records. The Senate adopted its bill by unanimous consent early this week. It is hoped that the House will do so once it returns.
And, Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) funding is included in a measure to assist in the Hurrincane Sandy recovery. Under consideration in the Senate, the Obama Administration's disaster relief request includes $500 million for SSBG assistance to affected states to 'provide health services (including mental health services), and for repair, renovation, and construction of health care facilities (including mental health facilities), child care centers, and other social services facilities.' SSBG was used to help address the post-Hurricane Katrina and Rita recovery in 2005 and was again used in 2008 for general disaster relief. |
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| Health Reform Implementation Resources | |
Health Reform & Human Services Toolkit: Prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this toolkit is directed at states, but local agencies will learn from it as well. In some cases, individuals who apply for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will not have had previous contact with human services agencies. Many may be eligible for other benefits, such as SNAP, child care subsidies, or energy assistance. The ACA application process could also connect an individual and/or families to other benefits. Each module of this toolkit provides agencies with suggestions for a guided process that can be used to review the current eligibility and enrollment service delivery model and compare the current model to the desired future model. An executive summary may be found here. |
| Human Services Resources | |
The Recession's Ongoing Impact on Children, 2012: This report from the Urban Institute tracks the recession's impact on children, with state-by-state data through 2012 on children with an unemployed parent and individuals receiving SNAP benefits. There has not been much change in children's economic well-being over the past year, but there has been a sharp deterioration compared with conditions before the recession.
Challenges in Immigration Enforcement & Child Welfare: The Immigration Policy Center and First Focus have released a fact sheet entitled Falling Through the Cracks: The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Children Caught Up in the Child Welfare System, which outlines the unique challenges that federal and state immigration enforcement measures pose to child well-being and family unity, including the implications for children and families involved in the child welfare system.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, approximately 5.5 million children in the U.S., including 4.5 million U.S.-born citizens, live in mixed-legal status families with at least one unauthorized parent. These children are at risk of being separated from a parent at any time. Parents facing removal must frequently make the decision whether to take their children with them or leave their children in the U.S. in the care of another parent, relative, or friend. In many cases, a parent may determine that it is in their child's best interest to remain in the U.S. However, in some cases, a parent's ability to make such decisions is compromised when their child enters the child welfare system, which can prompt a series of events leading to the termination of parental rights.
The Adoption Tax Credit -- An Advocate's Guide: The State Policy Advocacy and Reform Center (SPARC) and the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) recently released a brief that provides an overview of the federal adoption tax credit and serves as a guide for advocates seeking to assist adoptive parents in accessing this credit, as well as informing administrators and policymakers about its importance.
Child Maltreatment 2011 Data Released: The number of maltreated children continues to decline, according to Child Maltreatment 2011, HHS's latest edition of their annual data report from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). NCANDS information is collected from states voluntarily and is gathered from child protective services cases and aggregated state data. The number of children who were maltreated continues to decline from an estimated 695,000 victims in 2010 to 681,000 children in 2011. An estimated 3.4 million referrals of possible abuse and neglect cases were made to state child protective services (CPS) agencies in the U.S., with 60.8% screened in for an investigation. Teachers, law enforcement and health and social services staff are most likely to report abuse or neglect. The majority of cases (78.5%) involved neglect. The youngest continue to be most at risk, with children under age 3 comprising 27.1% of the victims. The youngest children are also at the greatest risk of death, with more than two-fifths (81.6%) of the children who died from maltreatment in 2011 being age 4 or younger. |
| Human Services Jobs | |
The County of Santa Clara, Calif. is seeking a Director of Employment and Benefit Services.
The City and County of San Francisco has an opening for their Deputy Director of Family and Children's Services.
NACHSA members may post senior job openings free of charge. Contact Tom Joseph at tj@wafed.com for more information. |
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Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators
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