View Research by Author - Rob Geen

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/RobGeen

This study, commissioned by the National Adoption Day Coalition, provides a first look at legislation specifically related to the adoption of children from foster care introduced in the 50 state legislatures and the District of Columbia between 2002 and 2006. Using data from various legislative databases, the study found that state legislatures are active in the area of foster care adoption, but that legislation may not adequately address known barriers to adoption. The study also looked at several bills to understand the legislative process surrounding adoption and considered how legislation supports families after they adopt children from foster care.

This report marks the fifth time the Urban Institute has collected data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia regarding child welfare spending. States spent at least $23.3 billion on child welfare activities in state fiscal year (SFY) 2004, with the increase in total spending between SFYs 2002 and 2004 driven by increases in state and local spending. Our findings highlight why we see such variation in states' financing strategies. Reasons include the availability and use of various nondedicated funding sources, how states use various funding sources, legal or political factors, and how the child welfare agency budget fits into the "big picture" of states' overall financing strategies.

This exploratory study considered how local jurisdictions in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area address the issue of children caring for themselves in a "self care" child care arrangement and whether some of these situations overlap with child protective services cases. Researchers conducted focus groups and interviews with child welfare staff and law enforcement officials. Reports of suspected child neglect, specifically reports involving inadequate supervision, were also analyzed. Deciding to leave children home alone is a universal decision that all parents must make. Study findings indicate that how localities respond to reports of inadequate supervision vary by the type of cases accepted, response to these cases, factors considered during the investigation, and how the agency serves the families.

Most foster children are not living with their fathers at the time they are removed from their homes. While in foster care these children may experience even less contact with their nonresident fathers. This study examined child welfare practices with respect to identifying, locating, and involving fathers of children in foster care including whether child support resources were used. Local agency caseworkers were interviewed by phone about nearly 2,000 foster children in four study states. The study found that nonresident fathers are not often involved in case planning and nearly half were never contacted by the child welfare agency.

The standard of living for children in kinship care improved significantly between 1997 and 2002, according to analyses of the National Survey of America's Families. The portion of children in kinship care living in poverty steadily declined. Similarly, findings reveal a downward trend in the portion of children in kinship care who did not have health insurance. Both of these trends were more pronounced for children in kinship arrangements that involved a child welfare agency than those that did not, though both groups' improvements were more dramatic than the gains made by children living with their parents.

Commissioned by the National Adoption Day Coalition, this report provides a first-time look at foster care adoption recruitment in the United States. Using data from the 1995 and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth and the state Child and Family Services Reviews, the report describes women's interest in adoption and strategies to find adoptive families for foster children. Findings indicate an overall increase in women interested in adoption, perhaps due to extensive recruitment efforts in recent years. At the same time, women interested in adopting were less likely to take steps to adopt in 2002 than they were in 1995.

This policy brief presents the first national analysis of Medicaid health care spending on children in foster care and children adopted from foster care. Data from the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS) document that states expended approximately $3.8 billion of Medicaid on 869,087 foster and adopted children in Federal Fiscal Year 2001. The brief documents the types of services most commonly received by foster children and the amount states expended on these services. The brief also highlights variation in spending across states; among children of different genders, ages, and races; and among children receiving and not receiving capitated health care services.

In this brief we examine levels of receipt for government payments that children in kinship care are eligible to receive. We find that children's receipt of financial assistance is still low given their eligibility. Many, if not most, families that could be eligible for the most generous payment, a foster payment, do not receive it. Children whose living situations make them ineligible for foster care payments have surprisingly low levels of receipt for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) child-only benefits, often their only source for financial assistance.

This report marks the fourth time the Urban Institute has collected data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia regarding child welfare spending. Our findings highlight the differences in states' spending patterns and the interaction between federal, state, and local dollars in financing child welfare activities--issues that should be considered during policy and budget debates at the state and national levels. States spent at least $22 billion on child welfare activities in state fiscal year (SFY) 2002, with increases between SFY 2000 and SFY 2002 coming from all levels of government. A rise in TANF and Medicaid spending accounted for nearly all the federal growth. [View the corresponding press release]

This report, commissioned by The National Adoption Day Coalition, provides a national analysis of adoption information collected from the congressionally mandated Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report offers a national compilation, as well state-by-state assessments, of barriers and promising approaches states report at different stages in the adoption process. The stages where most states report barriers include terminating parental rights, recruiting adoptive homes, court case management, child welfare case management, and establishing and changing permanency goals.

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