Quality, affordable child care holds the key to improved lives for all – better futures for children, greater economic opportunity for families, and increased workforce capacity for local and state economies. Unfortunately, today in the U.S., many struggle with the far-reaching impacts of a looming child care crisis. Despite recent job market growth, research shows [...]
There are numerous challenges facing the child care industry today. Many of these challenges—such as limited staffing, lengthy licensing process, convoluted administrative processes, and outdated technology solutions—are not new. Despite this reality, we continue to tackle the challenges with traditional approaches that do not meet the needs of the modern, evolving family, providers, or agencies. [...]
The recent passing of new rules by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Child Care (OCC), signals a transformative shift that aims to streamline the child care application process and reduce bureaucratic hurdles making the process easier on families. Through my work as both a licensed clinical social worker and Director of [...]
In the wake of the pandemic, states administering unemployment insurance (UI) faced a rapid and overwhelming workload due to the wave of customers seeking UI benefits. While the pandemic served as a stress test for agencies to meet demand, it also put a spotlight on their technology systems and identified significant weaknesses. States recognized these [...]
An unplanned and underfunded strain on unemployment insurance agency systems will inevitably happen again; the question is not if, but when. So how can you ensure you are maximizing the capacity of your existing trained staff and serving as many customers as possible with the resources you have every day?
Fueled by increasing demands to improve federal measures and strengthen parental engagement activities and at a time when programs are experiencing significant staff attrition, decreasing budgets, and stagnant collections, child support programs are under extreme pressure to rethink how they serve children and families.
Our child welfare systems can feel like we are in a game of Jenga. We are attempting to grow and expand our systems by moving pieces one by one - while stretching our limited capacity. But with each move, the entire system risks collapse, particularly with worker shortages.
When the public health emergency (PHE) and pandemic waivers come to an end, agencies must renew all existing Medicaid recipients. For many agencies already struggling with staff capacity to meet existing demand, they will no doubt be overwhelmed. To help agencies prepare for and tackle the wave of renewal workload, we offer specific steps that agencies can take to meet this increased demand.
How the Indiana Department of Child Services used the pandemic to transform their work to help children and families.
Human Service Agencies across the country are grappling with a new wave of customers seeking support—many for the first time—due to the COVID-19 health crisis and subsequent economic downturn.
