The Cost of Protecting Vulnerable Children V

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Executive Summary

Child welfare agencies provide a safety net for abused and neglected children and children at risk of abuse and neglect. Federal, state, and local government funding supports all services provided by the state child welfare agencies. However, the amount of funding from federal, state, or local sources varies greatly by state and can be affected by both national and state-specific events. Our findings document the amount states spent on child welfare activities in state fiscal year (SFY) 2004, the funding sources they used, how child welfare spending changed since SFY 2002, and why we see such state variation in child welfare spending.

This survey was the fifth in a series analyzing states' financing of child welfare activities. The methodology was the same as previous rounds of the survey. In April 2005, we mailed the survey to each state child welfare director. Urban Institute staff conducted extensive phone, facsimile, and e-mail follow-up with each state to ensure data were properly interpreted. We received survey responses from 48 states and the District of Columbia. For the purposes of this paper, the District of Columbia is treated as a state.

In addition to the survey, this round also contained an intensive interviewing component of several stakeholders in a purposive sample of 15 states to help us understand and explore the reasons for state variation in child welfare spending. We sought interviews with child welfare agency directors and administrators, state legislators or legislative staff, and key informants (e.g., advocates, researchers). Interview questions focused primarily on the state's use of title IV-E and factors that may affect IV-E spending; however, other topic areas explored included basic background information on child welfare activities within the state, TANF and Medicaid spending, local spending, and the decisionmaking process around funding child welfare activities. Thirty-two interviews within 10 states were completed between April 2005 and October 2005.

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