About Child Welfare
Almost 900,000 children each year in America are abused or neglected, one every 40 seconds. The annual total direct and indirect costs of child maltreatment are estimated to be nearly $104 billion. Keeping children safe must be everybody's business.
Related Campaigns
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Cradle to Prison Pipeline® Campaign
The Cradle to Prison Pipeline campaign is a national and community crusade to engage families, youth, community leaders and institutions and those in power in every sector in the development of healthy, educated children. The Campaign advances policies that put children on track to productive adulthood and opposes those that criminalize children at younger and younger ages.
Action Alert
Secure the Future - Invest in Every Child
In the richest nation on earth, 9 million children are without health coverage and more than 13 million live in poverty. We must demand that our leaders commit to helping children as a condition of our vote.
Related Staff
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MaryLee AllenDirector of Child Welfare & Mental Health |
Child Welfare
CDF works to give every child a Safe Start in a permanent nurturing family and community. We work in collaboration with other national, state and local advocates and organizations to promote policies and promising systemic and programmatic approaches that strengthen and support children and families, prevent crises from occurring, and help ensure children safe, permanent families.
State Factsheets on Child Welfare Funding 2010
The Children’s Defense Fund and CLASP collaborated to update state by state factsheets that provide data on child welfare and child welfare spending. These factsheets provide recent data reported by the federal government on children who are abused and neglected, in foster care, exiting from foster care, and living with kin. They also provide information on how states fund the child welfare system through federal, state and local sources. As the recession continues to put stress on children and families and as we continue to move forward with implementing the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act it is important to examine and understand child welfare funding and push for increased funding in prevention, specialized treatment, workforce improvements and other areas.
Resources for the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, signed into law by President Bush on October 7, 2008, represents the most significant federal reforms for abused and neglected children in foster care in more than a decade. The act’s numerous improvements are all intended to achieve better outcomes for children who are at risk of entering or have spent time in foster care. These reforms represented significant first steps, but there is additional work to be done. These reforms will mean little to children unless and until they are effectively implemented so as to truly benefit children.
The New Help for Children Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives: Questions and Answers About the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, is intended to help ensure full and prompt implementation of the improvements in the act. Learn more about the act and download the report.
NEW: CDF has recently been asked to serve as the National Kinship/Guardianship Partner for the newly established Family Connections Resource Center, which will provide information, training and tools related to furthering the implementation of the Fostering Connections law. The Resource Center aims to connect implementers with the latest information and the best experts and advocates working on these issues.
New Data on Child Welfare
In December 2008, CDF released its State of America's Children 2008® report that includes a compilation of the most recent and reliable national and state-by-state data on various issues including a "Child Welfare" section. This section includes data on on child abuse and neglect, foster care, kinship care, and adoptions.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Child Welfare Resources Available in Your State and Community
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama helps alleviate the stress on families and communities by investing in improvements for a range of needed services and supports, including services for foster care, adoption assistance and guardianship assistance. Learn what is available in your state and community and how to use these funds to invest in child welfare by visiting the Foster Care, Adoption Assistance and Guardianship Assistance section of our guide, The New Economic Recovery Law: Resources to Help Children and the Economy.
GrandRally 2008
On May 7, 2008 hundreds of grandparents and other relatives raising children gathered at the U.S. Capitol to highlight their important role in raising children and the help they need from family, friends, their communities, states, national organizations and agencies and elected officials. The GrandRally is an historic gathering of grandparents and other relative caregivers from across the country that brings attention to the needs of children and kinship care families. Learn more about this event and view photos from past GrandRallys.
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