New Report Shows 35,000 Fewer Abused and Neglected Children Eligible for Federal Foster Care Support
Decrease due in part to an antiquated law known as the "lookback" which determines eligibility based on a 1996 income standard
Press Release
Gina Russo
A new report by the Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now campaign found that between 1998 and 2005 the number of foster children eligible for federal support fell by 35,000. Further, that "number is projected to continue to decline by approximately 5,000 children each year." The effect of this decrease "in the number of children eligible for federal foster care has translated into an estimated $1.9 billion loss in federal foster care support to the states between 1998 and 2004."
Some factors Ms. Russo mentions as contributing to the decline of eligible children include: "changes in state policies and the demographics of a state's foster care population." She also states that "experts agree that part of the decline is the result of the lookback policy which ties eligibility for foster care to the income standard for a welfare program dismantled more than 10 years ago." This "lookback provision" makes a child's eligbility for federal foster care funds "dependent on whether the family from which he or she was removed would have qualified for support in 1996."
