Fact Sheets and Issue Brief publication type
While Title IV-B makes up only 4% of federal child welfare funding, it remains a very important funding source given its flexible structure and focus on prevention. There are no federal eligibility rules for recipients of Title IV-B, so states and tribes have greater flexibility in reaching more children and families and with a wider array of services.
En el 2019, más de 1 en cada 4 niños en EEUU (26 por ciento o aproximadamente 18 millones) vivían con al menos un padre inmigrante. Se estima que más de 5 millones de niños menores de 17 años tienen al menos un padre indocumentado. Cada niño y niña merece un paso seguro a la edad adulta con el apoyo de familias y comunidades amorosas.
More than 1 in 4 (26 percent), or approximately 18 million, U.S. children lived with at least one immigrant parent in 2019. And more than 5 million children ages 17 and under are estimated to have at least one undocumented parent. Every child deserves a successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.
In early September, the House Ways and Means Committee approved their portion of the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), which includes and extension of the American Rescue Plan Act’s Child Tax Credit (CTC) through 2025. While this proposal falls short of making the program permanent, the plan includes many substantial and important improvements to the CTC. Unfortunately, these improvements are at risk of being weakened as Congress negotiates the Build Back Better package. Congress must not weaken this plan, as these critical changes are necessary to ensure families are able to rely on and benefit from this program for years to come.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a key economic support program to help families with children who have very low incomes through a variety of services. TANF marks 25 years in August 2021, a landmark which invites both reflection and reckoning.
The American Rescue Plan includes a significant, one-year expansion to the Child Tax Credit (CTC). Millions of newly eligible children and their families will benefit from this major expansion, and successful implementation is now key to realizing a significant reduction in child poverty, building racial equity, and creating a public investment for the good of all children. Here’s what you need to know about the expanded CTC.
Federal rental assistance is a set of several programs—mostly administered through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Agriculture with support from tax credits— that help families with little or no income cover their housing costs. These programs help in many different ways, but the basic concept is that families with low incomes contribute a certain, sustainable amount of their income to their monthly rent payments and the government covers the rest. In total, these programs help more than 9 million people in 4.6 million households, more than a third of which were households with children.
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is a federal block grant program for states, tribes, and territories designed to help families with a variety of services. States receive the block grant funding and use it to administer programs that provide cash assistance, child care, work supports and activities, child welfare, and more. States also use the funding to help families with children experiencing poverty pay for groceries, rent, diapers, clothing, and other basic necessities. In Fiscal Year 2020, which spans from October 2019 – September 2020, more than 1 million families—including more than 2 million children—received TANF assistance.
To ensure that no child is excluded from the CTC because of their family structure, frequency of moving, or their involvement in other systems, Congress must make critical changes to the definition of “qualifying child” for the purpose of the CTC. To expand eligibility, the CTC should be accessible to all children regardless of their relationship to their caregiver and the bene t should continue to support children and their families as their living arrangements change.
Over the past several decades, the United States has built a system that favors billionaires over babies and perpetuates economic inequality and racial disparities that harm America’s children. But it doesn't have to be this way: Here are eight ways Congress could fight inequality through the tax code and invest in children instead of billionaires.