December 31, 2024
Title-IV B of the Social Security Act is Reauthorized
Last week, the U.S. Senate passed the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act (HR 9076) preventing the expiration of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act. The bill, passed by the House in September, reauthorizes Title IV-B of the Social Security Act for five years, boosts annual funding for the program, and initiates several policy shifts and improvements to modernize the program for the first time since 2008.
CLM, along with approx. 270 other organizations, advocated for the passage of this comprehensive bill. We thank Congress for reauthorizing Title IV-B of the Social Security Act with additional investments and reforms to enhance the wellbeing of children and families.
Significance of Title IV-B
Title IV-B of the Social Security Act is a critical child welfare law comprised of substantial formula federal grants supporting states' child welfare systems. These grants provide flexible funding for states to invest in maltreatment prevention, child protection, family preservation, child welfare workforce training, reunification services, and support for kinship, foster, and adoptive caregivers.
Title IV-B is made up of two programs: the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services program and the MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable Families program. The funds from both parts can be used in a similar fashion and most years total up to between $500 million and $600 million.
Final Bill Highlights
The Supporting America’s Children and Families Act (HR 9076) folded together 16 different legislative efforts highlighted comprehensively as follows:
- Family Preservation & Poverty Prevention
- Increases funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program by $75M per year beginning in 2026.
- Permits IV-B funds to be spent on concrete support such as housing, transportation or nutrition assistance.
- Clarifies in federal law that poverty is not neglect, by underscoring the role of family preservation services for families experiencing a crisis related to a lack of resources and ensuring children are not separated from parents solely due to poverty-related neglect.
- Expands by $10M per year the Regional Partnership Grants to address the intersection of parental substance use and child welfare involvement.
- Expands by $10M per year the Court Improvement Program for state and tribal courts to manage nearly 600,000 children’s cases in court each year.
- Provides $5M for evaluation of services approved by the Family First Prevention Services Clearinghouse.
- Lived Experience
- Adds caregivers and individuals with experience in the child welfare system into who states must consult with during periodic child welfare plan updating.
- Adds peer-to-peer mentoring led by lived experience experts to the list of accepted family preservation services.
- Kinship
- Strengthens support systems for the 2.5 million grandparents and relatives providing kinship care for children who would otherwise enter foster care.
- Strengthens support systems for the 2.5 million grandparents and relatives providing kinship care for children who would otherwise enter foster care.
- Workforce
- Reduces administrative burdens by requiring HHS reduce paperwork and data reporting for state agencies and caseworkers by at least 15%.
- Ensures caseworkers have access to training and support to improve retention and recruitment.
- Transition Age Youth
- Improves outcomes for youth transitioning from foster care by including individuals with lived experience (formerly in foster care) in state service planning and ensuring youth have access to mental health services.
- Improves outcomes for youth transitioning from foster care by including individuals with lived experience (formerly in foster care) in state service planning and ensuring youth have access to mental health services.
- Post-Adoption
- Requires the Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to review post-adoption supports provided under Title IV-B and identify opportunities for strengthening them.
- Requires the Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to review post-adoption supports provided under Title IV-B and identify opportunities for strengthening them.
- Residential Care
- Adds a residential care provision requiring that DHHS develop guidance around how states should collect data on well-being and alleged maltreatment in residential care and best practices on improving oversight of such programs. (This compliments the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act championed by celebrity Paris Hilton).
- Adds a residential care provision requiring that DHHS develop guidance around how states should collect data on well-being and alleged maltreatment in residential care and best practices on improving oversight of such programs. (This compliments the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act championed by celebrity Paris Hilton).
- Tribal Support
- Allocates more IV-B funding for tribes, reduces barriers to tribal participation in IV-B, and supports oversight of implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act.