The so-called Family First Prevention
Services Act has been hailed as a radical change in how
child welfare is paid for by the federal government. It’s not.The changes will barely make a dent in a system that lavishes
billions of federal dollars on foster care, and far less on efforts to keep
children safely in their own homes.
But the Trump administration’s
proposed budget, a document that is, in most ways, as dreadful as one might expect, appears to revive a much more far-reaching, and much
better, approach to changing the way the federal government reimburses states
and localities for child welfare