HHS Releases Q&A on TANF EBT: Last year, a law was enacted requiring states receiving TANF grants to maintain or establish policies to prevent the access of TANF funds via EBT transactions in adult entertainment venues. Each state is required to report to the Secretary by February 22, 2014 on its implementation of policies and practices required by the law. The HHS Q&A may be accessed here.  

TANF and Homeless Families:This HHS Information Memorandum discusses the importance of addressing family homelessness with allowable uses of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds for families experiencing and at risk of experiencing homelessness. It also provides additional resources on serving homeless families. 

Uninterrupted Scholars Act Resources: This HHS link describes the Uninterrupted Scholars Act law, which enables child welfare professionals to access a foster youth's education records in order to transfer credits to new schools in a timely manner - cutting down on bureaucracy and improving the chances for graduation. Additionally,  the Legal Center on Foster Care and Education has published a fact sheet on the Uninterrupted Scholars Act, which amends the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to improve coordination with the child welfare system. The fact sheet explains that the law creates a new exception under FERPA that makes it easier for schools to release a child's education records to child welfare agencies without the prior written consent of the parents. It also eliminates the need for education agencies to notify parents before education records are released, when the parent is a party to the case in which a court  order was issued.

Locating Emancipated Youth: This brief prepared by the Urban Institute discusses the challenges of locating youth who have aged out of foster care and highlights strategies that were used to locate youth by the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs, an evaluation of four programs funded under the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (FCIA). This brief uses the sample of youths studied in the evaluation of Los Angeles's Life Skills Training (LST) program. The LST sample includes 467 youth who were age 17 when interviewed at baseline in 2003-2004. Two annual follow-up interviews captured information from these youth at ages 18 and 19. This brief contains information on the 411 youths interviewed at the second follow-up, when approximately 82% had left care.

Child Welfare Expenditure Report Released: HHS released their latest annual report on child welfare expenditures. The report shows that states planned most of their FY 2012 IV-B Part 1, Child Welfare Services (CWS), expenditures for protective services and family preservation. As required by statute, states planned to distribute FY 2012 IV-B Part 2, Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF), funds fairly evenly among the four service categories of family support, family preservation, time-limited family reunification, and adoption promotion. In FY 2009, actual PSSF expenditures were similar with some variation at the state level. The report concludes that IV-B provides important flexible funding for critical services with a small percent of administrative costs. State-by-state data are found at the end of the report. (24 pp.)