Background
The landmark Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First) was signed into law (P.L. 115-123) as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act on February 9, 2018. Family First includes historic federal Title IV-E finance reforms to help keep children and youth safely with their families and avoid out-of-home placement, emphasizes the importance of children and youth growing up in families, and helps ensure they are placed in the least restrictive, most family-like setting appropriate when foster care is needed. The law creates an expanded entitlement/50% reimbursement stream of federal funds to provide services to keep children and youth safely with their families. When out-of-home placement is needed, Family First allows federal reimbursement for care in family-based settings and certain congregate care programs for children and youth.
Implementation Deadline
October 1, 2021 was the federal implementation deadline for all states to comply with congregate care provisions of the law. The expanded entitlement for prevention services is voluntary and conditional upon approval of a state’s Title IV-E Prevention Program Plan. The Family First Implementation Dashboard reflects Colorado’s progress toward short-term federal compliance goals, medium-term state goals, and long-term system transformation goals.
Purpose of the implementation guide
The goal of this guide is to support county directors in the implementation of Family First by providing high-level information for directors and balancing detail when appropriate for major system changes. Each section of the guide is formatted to include: (1) an introduction, (2) “what county directors need to know,” on the topic and (3) suggested “action steps” that are designed to be practical and easily digestible.
Child Welfare Placement Continuum
