How will child welfare finance reform affect the relationship between states and the federal government?
With the offer of more state flexibility, the federal government is transferring a greater share of responsibility and risk for the child welfare population to the states. The partnership between the federal government and states in providing services to abused and neglected children must be maintained and states should be discouraged from diminishing their investment in the child welfare system once receiving federal dollars. Additionally, Congress should create appropriate and minimum standards in areas such as size of caseloads, to give guidance to participating states to ensure the progress of child welfare reforms. The Childrens Defense Fund recommends that states must carefully weigh the decision to forgo entitlement programs with state match requirements that may help them leverage additional resources within their own state legislatures. How will this affect states who have not made a concerted effort to maximize IV-E funds? States who have not been actively pursuing Title IV-E
