National Center for Child Welfare Excellence
NCCWE Weekly Update 10/15/2014


AFCARS 21
If you were like us and very busy over the summer months, you may have missed the latest version of AFCARS 21 - Preliminary ‘FY’ refers to the Federal Fiscal Year, October 1st through September 30th 2013 Estimates as of July 2014.  For a quick synopsis:

  • Children in Foster Care on September 30, 2013,  N=402,378
  • Children Entering Foster Care during FY 2013,  N=254,904
  • Children Exiting Foster Care during FY 2013,  N=238,280
  • Children reunified with Parent(s) or Primary Caretaker(s) in FY 2013, N= 121,334; 51% 
  • Children Waiting to be Adopted Waiting children are identified as children who have a goal of adoption and/or whose parents’ parental rights have been terminated. Children 16 years old and older whose parents’ parental rights have been terminated and who have a goal of emancipation have been excluded from the estimate on September 30, 2013, N=101,840
  • Children Adopted with Public Agency Involvement in FY 2013, N=50,608
For the full report see: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/cb/afcarsreport21.pdf

Building Blocks Toward Permanent Families
Watch Debi’s digital story, about her experiences as a foster parent,.  Digital Stories are produced by NCCWE and in this case in collaboration with Path Idaho.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_51rZs2lno

The Potential Trauma of Family Tree Projects
Many adopted persons particularly in closed adoptions, cringe at the thought of creating a family tree that most students will have assigned to them in high school or college. The fear and discomfort from adoptees creating a family tree stems from not having access to their original birth certificate and not knowing their biological family history. Feelings of grief, abandonment, and loss are a few emotions that an adoptee can experience while trying to complete a family tree project.
See more at: http://www.thenotsosecretlifeofanadoptee.com/2014/10/discover-how-family-tree-projects.html

Child Welfare: An Overview of Federal Programs and Their Current Funding -- Research Service 2014
This report begins with a review of federal appropriations activity in FY2014 as it relates to child welfare programs, including the effect of the automatic spending cuts, known as sequestration. The bulk of the report provides a short description of each federal child welfare program.
For the full report see: http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R43458.pdf

2014 KIDS COUNT Data Book
Annie E. Casey's 2014 KIDS COUNT Data Book is now available with national and State data on key indicators of child well-being. The 2014 Data Book is the 25th edition of the annual report and compares 2012 data with data from 2005 to provide a picture of the effect of the recession on the status of children across four domains: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. The report also looks at data from 1990, when the first Data Book was published, to gain a sense of how changes in technology, public policy, and population demographics have impacted families over the last quarter century.
http://www.aecf.org/resources/the-2014-kids-count-data-book/

National Adoption Month Website Launches
The Children's Bureau, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families, is pleased to announce the launch of the 2014 National Adoption Month website, created in partnership with AdoptUSKids.

National Adoption Month (NAM) draws attention to the urgent need for permanent families for the more than 102,000 children and youth waiting for adoption in foster care. This year's NAM theme, "Promoting and Supporting Sibling Connections," emphasizes the critical role sibling relationships play in helping to promote permanency for children in care. The NAM website offers a variety of audience-specific resources.

  • Professionals can find information to help them promote and support sibling connections, recruit adoptive families, and see examples of how other States are promoting permanency for siblings and youth.
  • Adoptive parents can find information on adopting siblings from foster care, learn what permanency means, and view powerful videos from youth and other adoptive families.
  • Adopted people can find information on openness in adoption and search and reunion.
  • Birth parents can find information on kinship adoption/adoption by relatives, openness in adoption, and search and reunion.
  • Youth can learn about how to get involved in their permanency plans, stay connected with adults and other teens through social media, find out about the benefits of being safe online, and more.

Bookmark the NAM website today.
For more information and other adoption resources, contact Child Welfare Information Gateway at 800.394.3366 or info@childwelfare.gov.

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Gerald P. Mallon, DSW, LCSW
Julia Lathrop Professor of Child Welfare
Executive Director
National Center for Child Welfare Excellence
Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College
A Service of the Children's Bureau
2180 Third Avenue. 7th Floor
New York, NY 10035
http://www.nccwe.org
mallong@aol.com