Foster Care

Federal Policy on Title IV-E Share of Training Costs Gao ID: HRD-94-7 November 3, 1993

State and local governments need qualified child welfare workers to meet a rising caseload of abused and neglected children needing foster care. The total number of children in foster care rose from 273,500 in 1986 to 429,000 in 1991. Federal funds for foster care and foster care training are made available to the states under title IV-E of the Social Security Act. This report provides information on (1) the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policy that foster care training costs be allocated proportionately between the IV-E foster care program and other programs, (2) adherence to this cost-sharing policy, and (3) the effect of cost sharing on states' training programs. GAO also provides data on changes in funding for title IV-B, section 426 of the Social Security Act, which provides child welfare grants to institutions of higher learning. GAO further discusses the number and qualifications of HHS' Children's Bureau staff who run child welfare programs.

GAO found that: (1) under HHS policy, states allocate foster care training costs between the IV-E foster care program and other programs so that each program is charged its proportionate share of training costs based on the benefits received; (2) some states charge the full costs of foster care training to the IV-E program, because they believe they are not required to allocate foster care training costs on a proportionate basis between IV-E and other programs; (3) some state officials oppose the HHS cost-sharing policy because it limits IV-E reimbursement and the amount of foster care training they can provide; (4) the dispute between the states and HHS exists in part because title IV-E language is vague concerning the allocation of training costs; and (5) Congress needs to clarify the extent of the federal obligation for training child welfare workers.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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