While child welfare programs are a primary responsibility of state and local governments, the federal government appropriates close to $7 billion annually to support these programs (primarily for foster care and adoption assistance) and states are required to meet certain federal policies in order to receive this funding. Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) gauge state efforts and ability to achieve the primary goals of safety and permanence for children, and well-being for children and their families. The review is intended both to measure state compliance with federal child welfare policy and to strengthen and improve state child welfare programs. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) conducted the initial round of onsite reviews between March 2001 and March 2004. No state was found to be in substantial conformity with all of the outcomes and systems assessed. Some critics of the CFSR argue that while the outcomes reviewed are on target, the criteria established to determine state achievement of those outcomes may give misleading information about a state's performance. Although much attention has focused on states' uniform inability to meet all of the federal criteria, the reviews also showed certain relative strengths. States showed the greatest ability to ensure that children were not exposed to child abuse and neglect and remained safely in their homes whenever appropriate and possible, and in preserving their family relationships and connections. They had the most difficulty in achieving permanent and stable living arrangements for children, enhancing the capacity of families to meet the needs of their children and in seeing that appropriate mental and physical health services were available to children served. Information regarding ensuring provision of educational services to children was more mixed. In addition to reviewing outcomes, the CFSR assesses state compliance with federal child welfare policy by examining certain federally required systems. States were most likely to be found successful at operating a statewide information system; maintaining foster and adoptive parent licensing, training, recruitment and retention; and responding to community concerns. They were least likely to have a strong service array or case review system in place. Ratings of state quality assurance and training systems were more mixed. To avoid immediate assessment of penalties for failure to comply with federal policy, each state was required to develop a Program Improvement Plan (PIP). A PIP must address each one of the outcomes or systems with which a state was found to be out of substantial conformity and must describe the state's specific plan for moving toward full conformity with federal policy. A few states have successfully completed their PIPS but most are still in the process of implementing them. The Children's Bureau has begun planning for a second round of CFSRs and onsite reviews will likely begin in FY2006. This book describes the origins and design of CFSRs before turning to its primary discussion: state performance in the initial round of CFSRs.

Under the Adoption Incentives program states earn federal bonuses when they increase adoptions of children who are in need of new permanent families. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have earned a part of the $375 million in Adoption Incentive funds that have been awarded since the program was established as part of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Funding authorized for this program has been extended twice since it was established, most recently in 2008, but is currently set to expire on September 30, 2013. Since ASFA's enactment in 1997, the annual number of children leaving foster care for adoption has risen from roughly 30,000 to more than 50,000 and the average length of time it took states to complete the adoption of a child from foster care declined by close to one year (from about four years to less than three). Over the same time period, and in significant measure due to the greater number of children leaving foster care for adoption and at a faster pace, the overall number of children who remain in foster care declined by 29%. Despite these successes, however, the number of children "waiting for adoption" remains more than double the number of children who are adopted during a given year. Under the current Adoption Incentive bonus structure, states earn $4,000 for each adoption of a foster child that is above the number of foster child adoptions finalized by the state in FY2007 and $8,000 for each adoption of an older child (9 years or older) above the number of older child adoptions it finalized in FY2007. If a state has earned an award in either of those categories-or if it improves its adoption rate-it earns $4,000 for each adoption of a special needs child (under age 9) that is above the number of such adoptions it finalized in FY2007. For improving its rate of adoption, a state is eligible for additional incentive funds of $1,000 multiplied by the increased number of adoptions that are calculated to have resulted from the improved adoption rate. However, increases in incentive amounts states earn due to improved adoption rates are only paid to those states if sufficient program appropriations are available after all awards for increases in the number of adoptions have been made. States are permitted to use Adoption Incentive bonuses to support a broad range of child welfare services to children and families. Many states report spending incentive funds on adoption-related child welfare purposes, including post-adoption support services, recruitment of adoptive homes, and training or conferences to improve adoption casework. A smaller number of states report using these funds for adoption assistance payments, improved adoption homes studies, child protection casework, foster care maintenance payments, or other child welfare purposes. Funding for the Adoption Incentives program is provided on a discretionary basis as part of the annual appropriations process. The program is authorized to receive $43 million annually (through FY2013), but in recent years actual appropriations have been around $39 million. Final FY2013 appropriations for the Adoption Incentives program were included in the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 at this same level. However, those appropriations are subject to a 5% reduction (under the March 1 sequestration order).

During World War II, American women entered the workforce in unprecedented numbers, and many of them relied on federally funded child care programs. At the end of the war, working mothers vigorously protested the termination of child care subsidies. In Citizen, Mother, Worker , Emilie Stoltzfus traces grassroots activism and national and local policy debates concerning public funding of children's day care in the two decades after the end of World War II. Using events in Cleveland, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; and the state of California, Stoltzfus identifies a prevailing belief among postwar policymakers that women could best serve the nation as homemakers. Although federal funding was briefly extended after the end of the war, grassroots campaigns for subsidized day care in Cleveland and Washington met with only limited success. In California, however, mothers asserted their importance to the state's economy as ""productive citizens"" and won a permanent, state-funded child care program. In addition, by the 1960s, federal child care funding gained new life as an alternative to cash aid for poor single mothers. These debates about the public's stake in what many viewed as a private matter help illuminate America's changing social, political, and fiscal priorities, as well as the meaning of female citizenship in the postwar period. |Stoltzfus traces grassroots activism and national and local policy debates surrounding public funding of childcare services for working parents in the two decades after the end of World War II. Using case studies from Cleveland, Washington, D.C., and the state of California, she explains why we still don't have adequate child care in America. The book helps illuminate America's changing social, political, and fiscal priorities, as well as the meaning of female citizenship in the postwar period.