Federal funding currently encourages an over-reliance on foster care at the expense of other services to keep families safely together and to move children swiftly and safely from foster care to permanent families.
The Pew Commission's recommendations for increased flexibility and opportunities to reinvest savings would address significant drawbacks in the current funding system. Through flexibility and reinvestment, financing can be aligned with the goals that are to be achieved for each child served by child welfare systems: safety, permanence, and well-being.