Family First Prevention Services Act: Policy Analysis and Reform
This paper examines the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), enacted under Public Law 115–123 as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. The paper identifies a central tension in U.S. child welfare policy: the FFPSA redirects funds toward family preservation services while simultaneously limiting resources available to foster group homes. Drawing on historical precedents such as the orphan trains, as well as social, economic, and political analyses, the paper argues that family preservation programs, while well-intentioned, cannot address every at-risk household. The paper evaluates the policy's limitations and proposes that funding for foster group care must not be reduced to finance family preservation initiatives, calling instead for legislators to identify alternative budget sources that protect both policy goals.
- Introduction: FFPSA overview and paper scope
- Problem Overview: Resource diversion from foster homes to family preservation
- Historical Analysis: Orphan trains to modern foster group care history
- Social and Economic Analysis: Social gaps and economic pressures on child welfare
- Political Analysis: Political optics versus child welfare realities
- Policy Evaluation: FFPSA fails real-world foster care needs
- Proposals for Reform and Conclusion: Alternative funding to protect foster group homes
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper organizes its critique systematically across historical, social, economic, and political lenses, giving the argument structural coherence and demonstrating multi-disciplinary policy analysis.
- The use of a historical parallel — the orphan trains — grounds the contemporary policy critique in a longer arc of U.S. child welfare history, making the argument more persuasive and contextualized.
- The conclusion translates analysis into a concrete reform proposal (finding alternative budget sources rather than cutting foster group home funding), giving the paper a clear policy-relevant takeaway.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates policy evaluation through a multi-perspective framework. Rather than simply critiquing or defending the FFPSA, it methodically applies historical, social, economic, and political lenses before arriving at a reform recommendation. This approach — moving from problem identification through contextual analysis to evaluative judgment — is a standard structure in public policy analysis courses and is well executed here.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a concise problem statement introducing the FFPSA, then provides a focused problem overview explaining the resource-diversion concern. Four analytical sections (historical, social, economic, political) follow in sequence. The paper then shifts to policy description, evaluation, and reform proposals before a brief conclusion. Each section builds logically on the last, and the conclusion circles back to the paper's central risk-mitigation argument.
Introduction
Child welfare services have a complicated history in America and still today face a continual crisis. On the one hand, foster care requires resources from the state and breaks up families; on the other hand, implementing family preservation plans carries its own risks. This policy reform paper examines the problem presented by the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), enacted as part of Public Law 115–123, also known as the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018. It then provides analysis of the problem from historical, social, economic, and political perspectives, before examining the policy, evaluating it, and discussing current proposals for reform.
Problem Overview
It is recognized that removing children from their families and placing them in foster group home services can be psychologically and emotionally damaging for the child (Ringel et al., 2018). However, leaving children in families where abuse is occurring or where parents are suffering from addiction can also lead to serious problems. The issue presented by the FFPSA is that it diverts funds away from foster group home services toward family preservation services. On the surface this looks like a positive idea: if families can stay together and work out their issues, there will be less need for foster group home care. However, even twelve months of care in a family preservation program might not be enough to give parents the support, counseling, and assistance they need to provide a safe and secure environment for their children (Patwardhan, Hurley, Thompson, Mason, & Ringle, 2017). This means that funds diverted to family preservation programs will have been used without the desired effect, as the child may still need to be removed for his or her own protection — and now fewer funds remain available for foster group home services where the child will ultimately be placed.
Family preservation policy might preserve the family unit, but it does not necessarily preserve the safety of the child. By allocating finite resources to such a policy initiative as seen in the FFPSA, it becomes harder for social workers and the foster care system to address pre-existing challenges, regardless of the good intentions behind the legislation. That is the central problem with the policy. How to balance the needs of families that can potentially be preserved with the needs of foster group home services that will still continue to operate is the ultimate issue.
Historical Analysis
Child protective services have always had a controversial history, going back to the 19th century in the United States. Beginning with the orphan trains organized by Reverend Charles Loring Brace, children who were in danger of being lost to the streets were taken up and sent westward, ostensibly to be placed with families where they could learn a trade and develop the skills needed for adult life (O'Connor, 2001). The orphan trains largely sent city children from New York into surrounding suburbs, but some ended up in the Midwest, working for people who exploited them for labor (O'Connor, 2001). Thus, in some cases the cure was as bad as — if not worse than — the disease. The orphan trains continued for decades until the 1930s.
After that period, foster group homes and orphanages became the norm in the United States, typically run by religious organizations. However, as state regulations became more standardized in the latter half of the 20th century, these institutions began to change. Foster group homes operated by the state and dependent upon state funds became the last refuge for children without anywhere else to go. Because most adoptive parents wish to adopt infants or very young children, older children placed in foster group homes often spend their entire childhoods in foster group care if they are unable to return to their own families. These children age out of foster group care and essentially enter adulthood to fend for themselves, many having never learned basic life skills and a significant number dealing with their own addiction issues (Mallon & McHartt-Hess, 2013). Foster group care is obviously not the ideal solution to the problem of child welfare, but it is often the only solution available. Diverting funds away from foster group services can therefore turn a difficult situation into an even worse one.
References
Behrmann, S. (2019). Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says she left post because 'saying no' wasn't enough. USA Today. Retrieved from
Definitive Contract. (2016). Retrieved from
Mallon, G., & McHartt-Hess, P. (2013). Child welfare in the 21st century (2nd ed.). Columbia University Press.
O'Connor, S. (2001). Orphan trains: The story of Charles Loring Brace and the children he saved and failed. University of Chicago Press.
Patwardhan, I., Hurley, K. D., Thompson, R. W., Mason, W. A., & Ringle, J. L. (2017). Child maltreatment as a function of cumulative family risk: Findings from the intensive family preservation program. Child Abuse & Neglect, 70, 92–99.
Reid, P. (2019). DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen speaks for first time since resignation announcement. CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kirstjen-nielsen-resigning-dhs-secretary-expected-to-offer-resignation-today-live-updates-2019-04-07/
Ringel, J. S., Schultz, D., Mendelsohn, J., Holliday, S. B., Sieck, K., Edochie, I., & Davis, L. (2018). Improving child welfare outcomes: Balancing investments in prevention and treatment. RAND Health Quarterly, 7(4).
Wiltz, T. (2018). This new federal law will change foster care as we know it. Pew Trusts. Retrieved from https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/05/02/this-new-federal-law-will-change-foster-care-as-we-know-it
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