Child Welfare: An Analysis of Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews
Released: 2005-03-29T00:00:00

Summary:
Title IV-E of the Social Security Act authorizes states to seek federal reimbursement forcertain costs of providing foster care for children who can no longer safely remain in their homes. The statute permits states to make a claim for federal reimbursement of costs that are linked toproviding foster care to each federally eligible child. In FY2003, the most recent year for which dataare available, states sought federal reimbursement under this authority for approximately $4.5 billionin foster care costs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), periodicallyconducts Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviews to ensure that states are properly determiningthe eligibility of children for federal foster care support and are thus making correct claims forreimbursement.
Federal eligibility for foster care is defined in Section 472 of the Social Security Act and isalso described in regulations. A child is eligible for federal foster care if (1) a judge has madecertain determinations regarding the necessity of his/her removal from the home, regarding thetimely efforts of the state child welfare agency to prevent the child's removal, and regarding timelyefforts to find a new permanent home for the child; (2) if (except for the removal from his or herhome) the child would have met the state's program requirements for the Aid to Families withDependent Children (AFDC) program (as that program existed on July 16, 1996); (3) the child isplaced in a licensed foster family home that is determined to be safe or in an otherwise eligiblelicensed care facility; and (4) the child is the care and placement responsibility of the state.
Title IV-E eligibility reviews are designed primarily to improve program management in thefederal foster care program. A January 25, 2000 rule established the current form of the review andincludes certain checks that flow from the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act ( P.L. 105-89 ),which are intended to ensure both the safety of children in foster care and the timely actions of thestate child welfare agency to establish permanence for children. Since all aspects of the new rulebecame effective, HHS has conducted reviews in 43 states; of these, 16 were found not to besubstantially compliant with Title IV-E foster care eligibility rules. Requirements associated withjudicial determinations dominated as reasons for cases being found ineligible, making up 61% oferrors. Time limits for obtaining judicial determinations concerning permanency planning createda significant challenge for states. Safety and licensing disqualifications constituted 24% of errors. Problems were due mainly to lack of documentation to verify that state safety requirements weremet. Provisions related to AFDC eligibility made up 15% of all errors. About half of AFDC errorswere related to income rules, while the rest were linked to other program rules such as establishmentof "deprivation." Only 1% of errors were a result of the responsibility and care of the child not beingvested with the state.
This report provides an overview of the current Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Reviewprocess and a discussion of state performance on available reviews conducted after the January 25,2000 rule's effective date. This report will be updated as additional state performance reportsbecome available.

subsections: section_title: Appendix A
paragraphs:  A1. Review Dates and Outcomes Individually by State a
Source: Prepared by CRS based on analysis of state Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Review final reports.
a. Includes only those 43 state reviews with a six month period under review after Mar. 25, 2001, the date that all aspects of the final rule were effective.