Alex Adams, who was recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the Administration for Children and Families, invited state child welfare leaders to work with him on a number of priorities laid out in a recent email message.
He also indicated one area where he planned to challenge many of them.
In the late October message, a copy of which was obtained by Youth Services Insider, Adams told states they would not find him as “a willing partner” on the “diversion of earned Social Security and other survivors benefits from foster children to offset state costs.”
Adams continued, saying, “I will actively and expeditiously work to curb this abusive practice to ensure vulnerable youth have the resources they need to succeed.”
Adams is referring to the widespread practice of child welfare agencies establishing themselves as the payee for certain disability and survivor benefits owed to some youth in foster care and paid by the Social Security Administration. Critics of the practice say that, too often, those benefits are not used for special services or support for the beneficiaries, nor saved for them to have as adults; instead, the money simply offsets the cost of them being in foster care.
Ian Marx, who as a youth in foster care never saw or even knew about survivor benefits owed to him after the death of his mother, explained this issue well in a 2022 op-ed for The Imprint:
“Almost every state screens children in care for benefits, some even contracting for-profit companies to advance a ‘revenue maximization’ framework for their system. Once they identify an eligible youth, the agency applies for their benefits. This would all be fine if they used or saved the child’s money in the child’s best interest as they are supposed to do. But after benefits are awarded, the agencies appoint themselves to receive the checks, and keep the money. In 2018, states netted at least $165 million by taking benefits from over 25,000 foster children who were counting on them to prioritize their well-being.”
Several states, along with some counties and cities, have changed their laws and policies to better protect those benefits. Included in that group is Idaho, the state whose child welfare system was led by Alex Adams before he joined the Trump administration.
Many advocates for youth in foster care were hopeful that the Biden administration would take action on the use of federal disability and survivor benefits owed to kids in the system. While policy change did not materialize, Biden’s Children’s Bureau did ask the public last November for input on how the U.S. government could “support broader State and local efforts to improve the outcomes of children in the child welfare system who are eligible for Federal benefits.” Adams surely has access to the feedback that request produced.
It is not totally clear to Youth Services Insider whether Adams’ missive refers to both disability and survivor benefits. In Idaho, the policy change directed by him was limited only to those foster youth who had lost one or both of their parents.
Either way, the attention to the topic in his first communication to the field is huge, said Amy Harfeld, national policy director at the Children’s Advocacy Institute.
“Assistant Secretary Adams demonstrated tremendous leadership in Idaho when he directed his agency to begin dismantling this practice,” said Harfeld. “We are thrilled to see him bring his unequivocal moral stance on this topic to his new role at ACF. We look forward to partnering with him to, once and for all, end this insidious practice that has needlessly harmed so many disabled and orphaned foster children.”
So that’s a subject that Adams might push against some states on. His message also tipped at some child welfare priorities that he hoped states would support.
For starters, Adams said he aimed to “reduce the regulatory burden” on states, tribes and territories when it came to federal funding, giving them “as much discretion as allowable.”
On the issues, he cited six:
-Accelerating evidence-based prevention services, referring presumably to the menu of options cleared for use under the Family First Prevention Services Act
-Recruitment and retention of foster families
-Speeding up the time to permanency for kids who are eligible for adoption
-Improving outcomes for youth who age out of foster care
-Increased access to high-quality, affordable child care, as well as improving Head Start
-Breaking generational cycles of poverty by promoting upward mobility
Adams, and before him the former acting leader of ACF Andrew Gradison, sent letters to several states instructing them to “review and, where necessary, amend” policies that require foster parents to affirm the gender identity of foster youth. These policies, in the Trump administration’s view, are inconsistent with federal requirements that states conduct “diligent recruitment” of foster parents.
Adams concluded this message sent to all state child welfare leaders: “I am grateful to lead an organization that impacts millions of Americans and am confident that together, we can make a meaningful difference for America’s children and families.”