The federal Children’s Bureau (CB) recently released best practice guidance about how child welfare agencies can prioritize youth wellbeing when planning for permanency. In addition, the CB provided two Information Memoranda about allowable tribal adaptations and Title IV-E programs for kinship families. The Information Memoranduma are summarized below and attached in full at the bottom of this post.
ACYF-CB-IM-21-01 – Achieving permanency for the well-being of children and youth
The Information Memorandum (IM) on Achieving Permanency for the Well-being of Children and Youth is attached. The purpose of the IM is to provide information on best practices, resources, and recommendations for achieving permanency for children and youth in a way that prioritizes the child’s or youth’s well-being. Using an analysis of child welfare data, the IM also outlines typical patterns in exit outcomes for children and youth in foster care. The IM reviews the permanency goals of reunification, adoption, and guardianship and emphasizes the importance of state and tribal child welfare agencies and courts focusing on each child’s unique needs, attachments, and connections when making permanency decisions. With this IM, we urge all state, local and tribal child welfare agencies and the courts to ensure that all children in foster care achieve timely and appropriate permanency in their lives. We encourage particular attention to permanency for those older youth at risk of leaving foster care without the stability and belongingness that a family and critical lifelong connections can provide.
ACYF-CB-IM-21-04 – Clarification on FFPSA services and cultural adaptation for tribes
The purpose of the attached Information Memorandum is to clarify how allowable adaptations to evidence-based programs and services that have been rated by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse can be used to provide flexibility for tribal communities under state title IV-E prevention programs, and to encourage state IV-E agencies to identify with tribes which services will be most helpful and to work with tribes to make allowable adaptations to services that will be responsive to tribal culture.
ACYF-CB-IM-08 – Flexible use of Title IV-E funds for kin families
The Children’s Bureau (CB) is pleased to share Information Memorandum ACYF-CB-IM-08 on Use of Title IV-E Programmatic Options to Improve Support to Relative Caregivers and the Children in Their Care. This Information Memorandum (IM) encourages title IV-E agencies to make use of flexibilities and options within the title IV-E program to improve support for relatives and kin caring for children in foster care. These options include making use of waivers of non-safety related foster care licensing standards for relative foster care providers and participating in the title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP).
Questions about the IMs may be directed to CB Regional Program Managers.
