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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The Family First Prevention Services Act was
3signed into law as part of the Bipartisan Budget act on
4February 9, 2018; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Young people involved in the child welfare system
6do best in families, in a safe and stable environment that
7supports their long-term well-being, according to research;
8the passage of Family First took a large step toward this
9vision by restructuring how the federal government spends money
10on child welfare to ensure that more children in foster care
11are placed with families; the law also provides more support
12for critical services, such as mental health and substance
13abuse treatment, in-home training, and family therapy that can
14help prevent the need for foster care in the first place; and
 
15    WHEREAS, The law provides an opportunity for positive
16change and supports ongoing efforts to transform our child
17welfare system by keeping children and teens safely with their
18own family and to avoid the often-traumatizing experience of
19unnecessary placement into the foster care system; its name
20reflects the elements of the legislation: a family first for
21children and teens with prevention services to keep kids safe
22and growing up in their family; prevention services, including
23in-home, skills-based training for parents, mental health

 

 

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1care, including family therapy, and substance abuse and
2treatment programs are important parts of Family First; when
3the courts determine that children need to enter foster care,
4Family First specifically calls for them to be placed in the
5least restrictive, most family-like setting to meet their
6individual needs; the law recognizes that treatment programs
7can provide short-term, customized therapeutic support while
8kids are living in families; this could be with birth parents,
9other relatives, close friends, or foster caregivers;
10residential treatment may be needed for short-term
11stabilization, usually less than 90 days, with follow-up
12services when children return to their family;
13federally-reimbursed services are meant to support and
14strengthen families, so children don't enter care; they are
15also meant to maintain child and family connections when
16children enter foster care or require short-term residential
17treatment, and they provide six months of aftercare when a
18child has transitioned home from either setting; the focus is
19on helping children and families live and grow together safely
20and successfully; and
 
21    WHEREAS, This Act reforms the federal child welfare
22financing streams, Title IV-E and Title IV-B of the Social
23Security Act, to provide services to families who are at risk
24of entering the child welfare system; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, This Act aims to prevent children from entering
2foster care by allowing federal reimbursement for mental health
3services, substance use treatment, and in-home parenting skill
4training; it also seeks to improve the well-being of children
5already in foster care by motivating states to reduce placement
6of children in congregate care; and
 
7    WHEREAS, With an approved Title IV-E plan, the State would
8have the option to use Title IV-E funds to prevent the
9placement of children and youth into the foster care system and
10to provide up to 12 months of mental health services, substance
11abuse treatment, and in-home parenting training to families at
12risk of entry into the child welfare system; additionally, the
13State could use Title IV-E reimbursement for up to 12 months
14for a child who has been placed with a parent in a licensed
15residential family-based treatment facility for substance
16abuse, regardless of whether the child meets the AFDC
17income-eligibility requirement for Title IV-E; and
 
18    WHEREAS, A competitive grant for recruitment and retention
19of high-quality foster families is provided and made available
20through 2022; parameters for states to expand funding
21eligibility for youth "aging out" of foster care are provided;
22and
 
23    WHEREAS, Decreasing the number of children newly enrolled

 

 

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1in the foster care system by providing federally-reimbursable
2services to families at risk of entering the child welfare
3system will benefit the State of Illinois; therefore, be it
 
4    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL
5ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the State to
6support the Family First Prevention Services Act to help
7decrease the number of children entered into foster care.