The Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First), enacted in February 2018, created a federal entitlement with the stated purpose of reducing and preventing entry into foster care. Family First allows states and tribes to use federal Title IV-E funds for prevention services that support children living safely with their families. Family First has provided an unprecedented opportunity to reorient child welfare and advance transformation in terms of the types of services offered (evidence-based prevention programs rather than family separation and placement in foster care), which families receive services (candidates for foster care and their parents and kin rather than only children in foster care), and how and where they access them (through community-based organizations rather than the child protection agency).
View the brief here.