Program Description:

Title IV-B, subpart 2 of the Social Security Act sets aside funding for formula grants to help states improve the quality of caseworker visits with children in foster care, with an emphasis on improving caseworker decision-making on the safety, permanency, and well-being of children in foster children and caseworker recruitment, retention and training.

Budget Information

Standards for Caseworker Visits

The law also sets performance standards for caseworker visits and requires states to submit annual data on the percentage of children in foster care receiving monthly caseworker visits and the percentage of such visits occurring in the residence of the child.  Since FY 2015 states have been required to ensure the total number of monthly caseworker visits is not less than 95 percent of the total visits that would be made if each child in foster care were visited once per month.  In addition, at least 50 percent of the total number of monthly visits made by caseworkers to children in foster care must occur in the child’s residence.

States that do not meet the performance targets are subject to reductions in the rate of Federal Financial Participation (FFP) under the title IV-B, subpart 1 program (Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program).  Reductions in FFP may range from one to five percentage points for each performance measure, depending on the extent to which the expected level was not achieved.  States may continue to receive their full federal grant award but must provide a higher state match to receive the full funding.

Metadata-only record linking to the original dataset. Open original dataset below.