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December 20, 2013

NACHSA e-Alert

 

Happy Holidays NACHSA Members!

NACHSA 2014 Dues are due, please click here to access the invoice. Thank you for your support!  

 

Federal Update: The House and Senate have adjourned for the year and will return to Washington the week of January 6. Before they left town, the House and Senate adopted a bipartisan budget blueprint for the remainder of this year and FFY 2015 which lessens the impact of sequestration cuts during that time. The budget now gives the appropriations committees the authority to begin to allocate overall pots of funding to the 12 subcommittees so that they may apportion the funds among the federal discretionary programs. Those decisions must be made by January 15 when the current continuing resolution expires. While there is no chance of another government shutdown, there is little time remaining to enact separate bills. A more likely scenario, especially for HHS spending, is a number of bills will be combined into an omnibus measure. There is little likelihood of significant cuts or increases, but funding levels will not be known until the new year.

  

Unfortunately, the budget agreement continues the across-the-board cuts to a whole host of 'mandatory' programs not otherwise subject to the appropriations process. The Social Services Block Grant falls into that category, so, at this stage, the cuts that were triggered earlier in the year will remain. NACHSA will work with other organizations to urge that the provision be modified to exempt SSBG, but such a reversal will be an uphill battle, given that the bill assumes savings from mandatory programs to lessen or remove the impact of sequestration on many other domestic discretionary programs which must be appropriated each year. 

 

Congress also left without completing action on the farm bill. House and Senate leaders indicate that a compromise bill is nearly complete and the details may be released in early January. Cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program appear to be in the range of $8 billion over ten years by accepting the House cut to the Heat and Eat option 16 states have used to provide a nominal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance grant to trigger a standard utility allowance which expands eligibility or increases SNAP benefits. The only SNAP cut the Senate bill contained was a smaller Heat and Eat cut. The overall House bill would have cut SNAP by $40 billion.  

 

An extension of emergency unemployment insurance was also left undone. Beginning December 27, 1.3 million individuals will lose their benefits. There may be action early in January to restore the UI cut, but such a bill would require finding or otherwise recognizing that an extension costs $25 billion over the next year. Click here to see how the cut affects your state. 

  

And, last week, the Senate Finance Committee marked up a discussion draft  of the Supporting At-Risk Children Act. The measure contains three sections: a reauthorization of the adoption incentives program, similar to what the House passed earlier in the year; changes to child welfare policies, including responses  to youth sex trafficking which have not yet been addressed in the House; and, changes to the child support program, some of which were adopted by the full House earlier in the year. The Senate bill is likely to be separated and acted upon in three separate bills. The actual legislative language is not yet available.

In This Issue
Health Reform Resources
Human Services Resources
Human Services Jobs
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Health Reform Resources
The ACA and Jail Populations: Medicaid and Financing Health Care for Individuals Involved in the Criminal Justice System outlines opportunities for states and counties to improve public health and reduce corrections health expenditures by maximizing Medicaid coverage for people in the criminal justice system. The Council of State Governments and the Legal Action Center prepared the paper.

 

ACA Enrollment Edges Up: Two charts from NPR captures state-by-state numbers released by the Obama administration showing that enrollment in health exchanges moved up in November, but the uptake remains far short of the administration's initial targets. Roughly 264,000 people signed up for private insurance coverage last month through the federal and state exchanges, according to HHS data. That brings the total to about 364,000 for October and November.

 

Who's Left Out in Non-Medicaid Expansion States: Twenty-three states are currently not planning to expand ACA Medicaid. The population they leave behind is mostly young, minority, single adults, according to two new data briefs from the Kaiser Family Foundation. 

 

Young Invincibles: This infographic and report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that 5.4 million uninsured young adults ages 19-34 are currently eligible for Medicaid or will be in January. Forty-two percent of these uninsured young adults who will eligible for Medicaid are working and 18 percent are unemployed.   

Human Services Resources
Differential ResponseThis issue brief explores ways in which a differential response-organized Child Protection System (CPS) might help to mitigate disparate outcomes in child welfare while highlighting current gaps in knowledge and indicating areas for further research. It  highlights Franklin County, Ohio; a consortium of Colorado counties; and the State of Missouri.

 

Child Poverty Remains High: Over 2007-2012, poverty among school-aged kids rose in 964 counties. It fell in 17. Analyzing recent Census data, this Washington Post story notes that the recovery from the Great Recession has been weak. The data also show high concentrations of child poverty. Poverty rates among school-age children were higher than 1 in 4 in more than a third of all the nation's counties. But the situation was less dire when Americans of all ages were taken into account. Rates are above 1 in 4 among just over one tenth of all counties. Poverty declined in 32 counties from 2007 to 2012 and rose in 1,029. Click here to learn more from the Census. 

 

Child Welfare Outcomes Data: This HHS webpage  provides users with the latest data from the Child Welfare Outcomes Reports. The site includes national statistics that are calculated using the State-level data. The Report Builder allows users to select the specific State(s), data, and data years that they would like to view. Data may be compared across states. An Executive Summary of these data may be found here. 

 

Child Maltreatment 2012: The 23rd annual report on child abuse and neglect data collected via the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) is now available. 3.4 million referrals were made to Child Protective Services, involving 6.3 million children. 678,810 were victims of child abuse and neglect. An estimated 1,640 children died due to maltreatment. 70 percent of child deaths were children under 3 years. Birth to 1 year had the highest rate of victimization at 21.9 per 1,000 children nationally.

 

Social Media: Tips for Foster Care Workers: This Tip Sheet describes the advantages and challenges workers may encounter when using social media with foster parents and youth in foster care. Issues that should be considered and tips for handling issues are also offered. Click here for a similar Tip Sheet for foster youth on using social media safely and here for foster parents on how to guide youth.

 
Model Home Visiting Programs: From the National Conference of State Legislatures, this two page brief describes initiatives such as Child FIRST, Early Head Start, Public Health Nurse (PHN) Early Intervention Program (EIP) for Adolescent Mothers, Family Check-Up, Healthy Families America, Healthy Steps for Young Children, Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers.
 
NACo Webinar on Human Trafficking: Join your colleagues on January 16 from 2 pm - 3:15 pm ET for a NACo webinar on human trafficking. It occurs in counties large and small, rural and urban, but the signs of it are often missed due to lack of knowledge. Learn about the Department of Homeland Security's Blue Campaign, which educates communities on indicators of human trafficking, how to use a victim-centered approach to combat trafficking and how to bring together law enforcement, social service agencies and other organizations in your county to address this issue. Register here.
Human Services Jobs
Orange County, California invites applications for the position of Director, Social Services Agency.

 

The County Welfare Directors Association of California is searching to an Information Technology Associate. Please apply by January 15.

Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators