APHSA Annual Report 2017

The Center for Child and Family Well-Being (CCFWB) connects APHSA members and partners who share responsibility for healthy child development, preserving and supporting families and empowering communities. Through multi-generational, whole family approaches and an understanding of the social determinants of health, this Collaborative Center promotes innovative practice models as well as modern funding structures and policies that best enable children to be healthy and be well in healthy families and communities. The APHSA Affinity Groups under the CCFWB umbrella – National Association of Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA), National Association of State Child Care Administrators (NASCCA), ISM, AAHHSA and NSDTA – play an integral role in the policies, practices, guidelines and positions that the CCFWB promotes. Ø Ø Federal Partner Engagement: NAPCWA convened a workgroup comprised of state child welfare directors to review the new data elements included in the new Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations. This workgroup reviewed the new data and identified items that are unclear or need further explanation. The workgroup compiled these questions and submitted a letter to the Children’s Bureau in October 2017 to improve AFCARS regulations and to make state compliance more efficient and less burdensome. Ø Ø Member Engagement on Federal Policy: NAPCWA staff monitored child welfare finance reform, and the increasing interest in identifying a means for extending child welfare waivers if finance reform does not progress. NAPCWA staff remains active in these discussions with members and federal agency staff. Ø Ø Partner Engagement: NAPCWA staff joined the National Indian Child Welfare Association INFLUENCE WORKING WITH AND THROUGH OUR MEMBERS

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