NCJ Number
84950
Date Published
1982
Length
22 pages
Annotation
The Federal foster care program per se does not appear to promote placement of status offenders in out-of-home placement, as the program has been absorbed into existing State foster care programs.
Abstract
The primary purpose of Title IV-A of the Social Security Act is to provide Federal funds for the public assistance program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). One component of that program makes Federal funds available to reimburse States for part of the support costs for eligible children placed in foster care. Status offenders as well as dependent and neglected children often are served in foster care. Although the seven-State study did not find any hard data to suggest that the availability of various types of services for children and youth in foster care influenced placements for status offenders, officials indicated that the total Federal support package did on occasion affect placement decisions for some children. The opinion was expressed that children and youth who needed services but whose families could neither afford them nor qualify for publicly supported services were sometimes placed in foster care. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 was intended to make foster care placement a solution of last resort, and it pushes for permanency planning for youth placed in foster care. This act is scheduled to be implemented by September 30, 1982, and it cannot be anticipated whether or how these provisions will alter State foster care programs. Twenty-eight references are listed. (Author summary modified)