The clearinghouse that greenlights foster care prevention services approved three new programs that states can finance by drawing down federal funds aimed at lessening the use of foster care, and rejected nine others.
The clearinghouse was established in relation to the Family First Prevention Services Act, passed in February of 2018. The law enables states to use the Title IV-E entitlement — previously reserved for foster care and adoption support — to fund services aimed at working with parents to help avoid the need for a family separation.
Those services must be evidence-based and apply to three areas: parenting, substance abuse treatment and mental health interventions. The clearinghouse also reviews kinship navigator programs, which serve as one-stop contact points for a variety of services and support for relatives caring for loved ones.
The models approved by the clearinghouse are:
Family Foundations: A parenting education program delivered by two facilitators, one male and one female, for couples expecting their first child.
Rating: Well-Supported
Maternal Early Childhood Sustained Home-visiting: Description: A home visiting program with core components built around a nurse working with families who have children younger than 2, with flexibility to build in local elements.
Rating: Supported
Parent-Child Care: Description: A six-session brief intervention aimed at helping parents learn new child behavior management strategies after an initial “pretreatment” play period with the parents and children.
Rating: Promising
The following programs and models also did not meet the criteria for inclusion on the clearinghouse:
Autism Parent Navigators
Description: A peer mentoring program for parents who have a child that has been recently diagnosed with autism.
Celebrating Families!
Celebrating Families! 0 Thru 3 Years
Wellbriety & Celebrating Families!
Description: Three programs aimed at breaking the cycle of addiction in families where a parent is deemed to be at risk of committing domestic or child abuse. The Wellbriety version is an adaptation for Indigenous families.
e-Family Foundations
FF@Home
Strong Foundations
Description: Three adaptations of Family Foundations — one self-directed, one home visiting, one for parenting teens.
Parent-Child Assistance Program
Description: A home visiting program for pregnant women and mothers with substance use disorders.
Washington State Kinship Navigator Program
Description: A navigator program that helps kin on three tiers of service, determined by an intake and screening process.
The clearinghouse has reviewed 160 individual models and programs, and 79 have received a rating of “Promising” or higher; 18 have received the highest rate of “Well-Supported.”
Another 15 programs are currently under review.
Thus far, 42 states and Washington, D.C., have received the required federal approval to use these services with federal funds. Another four states have submitted a plan for approval, and are awaiting word from the Administration for Children and Families. Four Native American tribes have received direct approval for prevention plans — Cherokee Nation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee and Salt River Pima, and Port Gamble S’Klallam.
Only four states have yet to even submit a prevention plan to the feds, which is required to access the funds: Alabama, Alaska, South Dakota and Texas.
