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Greetings NACHSA Members!
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Federal Update: Last week saw little action, at least publicly, on the farm bill. Conferees have only met once on October 30 for opening statements. There was one press report that indicated that there was some agreement forming on finding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) savings through restricting the ability of states of giving a nominal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance benefit to families as a proxy to use the Standard Utility Allowance (SUA) in determining eligibility and benefit levels. Use of the SUA has the effect of boosting SNAP benefit levels for applicants who qualify. This 'Heat and Eat' state option is currently administered in 15 states. The savings from limiting the option would be about $8.7 billion in the House bill and is the only cut to SNAP contained in the Senate counterpart.
And, on the broader budget negotiations front, there also was little action. Conferees met last week but made no progress. It remains to be seen whether the conferees will be able to agree upon a big budget blueprint by December 13. That blueprint would be used by the appropriations committees to allocate funding for each federal discretionary program. If the House and Senate cannot agree on individual appropriations bills and/or a combination of them by January 15, there would be another federal shutdown, but both Democrats and the GOP have indicated that they want to avoid that scenario. In the event of another shutdown, federal law passed to re-open the government in mid-October contains a provision (Section 116) that states and counties would be reimbursed when the federal government is reopened for federal expenses they incur during any shutdowns in FY 2014. The law may be read here.
Additionally, there is agreement on both sides that there is no time left this year to craft a budget bill containing large revenue increases or entitlement savings.
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| Health Reform Resources | |
ACA Enrollment Tracker: Yesterday, The Kaiser Family Foundation launched a resource to track ACA enrollment reports for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The new data table highlights key data across states, including each state's total number of completed marketplace applications, the number of people in those applications determined eligible to enroll in a marketplace plan or in the state's Medicaid or Children's Health Insurance Program, and the number who selected a marketplace plan.
Medicaid Enrollment Soars: Setting aside the multiple problems with online applications for the Affordable Care Act, States report far higher enrollment in Medicaid than in private insurance since the ACA exchanges opened Oct. 1. In Maryland, for example, the number of newly eligible Medicaid enrollees is more than 25 times the number of people signed up for private coverage. This Stateline story from Pew reports some state-by-state figures and a few of the reasons supporting the data.
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| Human Services Resources |
Too Much of Too Little: This Washington Post article appeared on the front page. It describes how a diet supported by SNAP among families struggling with poverty is making South Texans obese but leaving them hungry. To stretch their food stamp allotment, families buy quantity over quality. The article is the fifth in a series on the SNAP program.
SNAP Cuts Increase Pressure on Healthy Food Choices: Governing Daily posted this article describing how the recent cut in SNAP benefits due to the expiration of the Recovery Act increase will likely force more people to make less healthy food choices, given that the benefit cut has the effect of reducing the number of meals supported by SNAP by 21 a month. The article also highlights some of the healthy foods initiatives within the farm bill, including investments and incentives for farmers markets. The New York Times also published a similar article which may be read here.
Facebook 101 for Child Welfare Professionals: This resource defines social media and describes how Facebook differs from other social media networks. It provides examples of how child welfare agencies can use Facebook to support outreach, recruitment, retention, and efforts to communicate with prospective and current foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
State Adoptions of Children With Public Child Welfare Agency Involvement: This state-by-state chart for FY 2003-FY 2012 shows adoptions of children with public child welfare agency involvement.
Paper Highlights Need for Federal Support for Families after Reunification: SPARC and First Focus have released a new paper, about the need to provide better support to children reunified with their parents. The paper highlights the fact that reunification with parents or primary caregivers is the most common placement outcome, with a full 51 percent of children exiting foster care to reunification with a parent, as compared to 27 percent exiting to adoption and 7 percent existing to guardianship.
The First Eight Years: Giving Kids a Foundation for Lifetime Success: The Annie E. Casey Foundation's latest KIDS COUNT® policy report, The First Eight Years: Giving Kids a Foundation for Lifetime Success, makes a case for investing in the early years of a child's life. Decades of brain and child development research show that kids who enter kindergarten with below-average language and cognitive skills can catch up - but only if they are physically healthy and have strong social and emotional skills. The report sets forth three broad policy recommendations: 1) support parents so they can effectively care and provide for their children, 2) increase access to high-quality birth-through-age-8 programs, and 3) develop comprehensive, integrated programs and data systems to address all aspects of children's development and support their transition to elementary school and related programs for school-age children.
Behavioral Health United States 2012: SAMHSA's newly-released publication, Behavioral Health, United States, 2012, provides in-depth information regarding the current status of the mental health and substance abuse field. It includes behavioral health statistics at the national and State levels from 40 different data sources.
Webinar: State Child Welfare Policies and Practices that Support Infants and Toddlers: On Monday, November 18 from 2-3:15pm ET, ZERO TO THREE Policy Center and Child Trends are hosting a webinar on state child welfare policies that support infants and toddlers. The webinar will feature findings from their recently released joint report, Changing the Course for Infants and Toddlers: A Survey of State Child Welfare Policies and Initiatives, and will share how three states' (CO, HI and WA) policies and practices reflect a developmental approach to child welfare services for young children. For more information and to register for the webinar, click here.
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Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators
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