Integration of TANF and Child Welfare Systems in El Paso

El Paso County, Colorado implemented a common system for child welfare and TANF. There are three components to the approach. First, the program supports families for healthy child development. Because many of the target families lack economic support and opportunities, the county reengineered its TANF and other assistance payment programs to ensure this goal. Second, the program aims to assist families experiencing problems before they become acute, by bringing together TANF, child support and community programs involving more than 60 organizations to address the needs of families and children with a wide range of services such as fatherhood initiatives, youth development and kinship care support. Third, because of the first two approaches, the county has a much more narrowly targeted child welfare system that specifically protects abused and neglected children in the most severe cases which truly require a formal response to keep kids safe and provide permanency, rather than using the child welfare system to address broader conditions of poverty.

The goals of this program are to support healthy child development, to provide economic assistance and social services to families, and to protect abused and neglected children.

This approach has resulted in one third fewer foster care placements, a drop of 40 percent in institutional placements, a 50 percent reduction in abuse and neglect court filings and, due in part to the provision of Medicaid as a post adoption mental health services, quadrupled the number of adoptions.