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.
National Adoption Month
November is National Adoption Month. It is an important time to reflect on the progress we can make for children as a nation by promoting permanent families for children, who cannot return home from foster care, through adoption and/or permanent guardianship with grandparents and other relatives. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, enacted just over a year ago, helps promote family connections for children. In October, additional children in every state became eligible for federal adoption assistance payments, regardless of the income eligibility of the birth family from whom they were originally removed. Please check to see what your state has done to increase the number of children with special needs who are adopted with federal assistance each year. There are more than 120,000 children in foster care waiting for adoptive families—60 percent of whom are children of color. Help promote adoption as a permanent option for them. Recognizing the racial and ethnic diversity of children moving to adoption, the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute just released a major study, "Beyond Culture Camp: Promoting Positive Identity Formation in Adoption," that provides significant information on adoption and related issues, and offers insight on how to improve laws, policies and practices, and public understanding of adoption particularly across ethnic and racial lines.
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: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act establishes competitive grants, called Family Connection Grants, that will help programs connect children in or at risk of entering foster care to their families. One of the programs funded through Family Connection Grants are Kinship Navigator Programs. The Q&A, Help Children Being Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives and Their Relative Caregivers by Expanding and Establishing Kinship Navigators Programs, provides information about these programs and a brief overview of the programs already underway in some states.
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.
Analysis of the Obama Administration's Budget Request
The Obama Administration's budget request for the fiscal year 2010 signals a new national commitment to children, families and America's future. The policies and funding changes proposed make clear that the President understands that investing in children now will ensure a more stable economy and a healthier, more competitive workforce for the future.
The budget increases help for youths and families challenged by substance abuse and mental health problems, by making a $16.9 million increase in programs to support the development of comprehensive, community-based systems of care for children and adolescents with serious emotional disorders and their families. The budget also makes an effort to support children in the child welfare system by promoting funding for improved outcomes for children in long-term foster care.
To better understand what the budget proposals mean for children, CDF has provided an overview of the budget, broken down by issue area, and provides information on some areas where more attention is needed. Read more about CDF's analysis of the President's budget request.
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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