ACS Commissioner Details Title IV-E Funding Gap and Immigration Legal Services
ACS Commissioner Rebecca Jones Gaston explains the $97.5 million city funding addition to address the federal Title IV-E reimbursement gap and details $1.6 million allocated for immigration legal services for youth in foster care.
There will be no impact on providers or youth.
Providers will continue to receive the $3,500 for each youth aged 14 to 21.
The executive budget also includes 233,000 CTL, 1.1 million gross reduction for adoption recruitment contracts, which ACS no longer maintains and has not since 2015.
Adoption and foster parent recruitment is now managed by our foster care providers, and their current contracts include recruitment funding.
Thus, there is no interruption in service and we do not anticipate any impact on providers or families.
The executive budget includes $97.5 million in CTL funding to address the Title IVE budget gap the ACS has been carrying due to the way the federal government reimburses for foster care.
Specifically, while federal Title IVE funding for foster care is a federal entitlement, it is only an entitlement for those children and youth who are federally eligible.
While there are a number of eligibility requirements, family income is the one that causes most children to be ineligible for federal reimbursement.
To be eligible, current income of the child's family must be such that they would have been eligible for AFDC, which was the predecessor of TANF in 1996.
This has never been adjusted to inflation, nor the current public assistance program.
There was a period of time where the gap was being filled by federal government funds through the 4E waiver, but that ended in 2018.
This addition additional federal funding, excuse me.
This additional funding fills the baselines the gap ACS has been carrying.
The executive budget also includes $1.6 million for immigration legal services and fees for children and youth in foster care.
Since at least 2006, ACS has been working with legal service providers to assist youth in care by obtaining special immigrant juvenile status.
ACS is extremely grateful to these providers who have helped countless youth in care get green cards all pro bono.
Given the increasing demands for immigration legal assistance, ACS will now be able to provide attorneys handling these matters with $2,000 per child.
In addition, the Trump administration recently created new fees and increased existing fees for various immigration relief applications, and this additional funding will provide reimbursement for those fees.