As part of the Bipartisan Budget Act (HR. 1892), which was signed in to law in February 2018, the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) was enacted to turn the focus of the current child welfare system toward keeping children safely with their families to avoid the trauma that results when children are placed in out-of-home care. To increase the number of children who can remain safely at home with their families, the law provides families with greater access to mental health services, substance use treatment, and/or improved parenting skills. This law significantly shifts how the country provides services for families and youth. In particular, it changed the role of community service providers, how courts advocate and make decisions for families, and the types of placements that youth placed in out-of-home care experience. The law also created the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, which consists of a continuously updated comprehensive list of evaluated and tested prevention services and programs that States can use title IV-E funds toward to prevent disruption within families.
This page offers guidance on how FFPSA plays a role in primary prevention, its impact on the foster care system, a shifted focus on court involvement, and how it affects older youth who are currently in out-of-home care and will “age out” of foster care.
Creating Prevention-Oriented Child Welfare Systems: Maximizing the Opportunities Within the Family First Prevention Services Act, Part 1 [Webinar]
Capacity Building Center for States (2020)
Providers the first part of a webinar on how to move toward a prevention-oriented child welfare system by maximizing opportunities that exist under the Family First Prevention Services Act.
Creating Prevention-Oriented Child Welfare Systems: Maximizing the Opportunities Within the Family First Prevention Services Act, Part 2 [Webinar]
Capacity Building Center for States (2020)
Provides the second part of a webinar on how to move toward a prevention-oriented child welfare system by maximizing opportunities that exist under the Family First Prevention Services Act.
Family First Evidence-Based Practices Exploration and Cost Tool
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago (2021)
Offers a tool to better assist jurisdictions on the selection and cost of evidence-based programs or practices for their Family First Prevention Services Act prevention plan.
Family First Planning and Readiness Toolkit
Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago (2021)
Offers a systematic step-by-step guide for jurisdictions to collaboratively come to a consensus on their vision and activities related to the implementation of the first phase of the Family First Prevention Services Act, including how to best engage stakeholders and align family service plans with policy.
Implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act: A Technical Guide for Agencies, Policymakers and Other Stakeholders (PDF - 2,549 KB)
Children’s Defense Fund (2020)
Details a technical guide that agencies, policymakers, and other stakeholders can utilize when working toward implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act.
A Practitioners Guide to the Family First Prevention Services Act [Video]
Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare (2021)
Offers a 1-hour module from a practitioners perspective on the Family First Prevention Services Act, including maltreatment prevention research; overview of the act; and opportunities, challenges, and considerations on implementation.
Congregate Care in the Age of Family First: Overview (PDF - 400 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2021)
Provides an understanding of the congregate care requirements under the Family First Prevention Services Act.
Congregate Care in the Age of Family First: Family Engagement (PDF - 242 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2021)
Provides an understanding of and ways to incorporate family engagement in congregate care under the Family First Prevention Services Act.
Congregate Care in the Age of Family First: Trauma Informed Care (PDF - 223 KB)
Capacity Building Center for States (2021)
Provides an understanding of the trauma-informed care requirements under the Family First Prevention Services Act and steps that States and other child welfare agency leaders can take to achieve successful implementation.
Leveraging the Family First Prevention Services Act to Improve Use of Title IV-E GAP (PDF - 1,742 KB)
Grandfamilies.org (2019)
Shares pertinent information regarding how the Family First Prevention Services Act impacts the use of kinship families and how States and eligible Tribes are able to promote increased usage of guardianship for children in kinship foster care.
New Opportunities for Kinship Families: Action Steps to Implement the Family First Prevention Services Act in Your Community (PDF - 440 KB)
Grandfamilies.org (2019)
Offers a guide on how States, territories, and Tribes should be thinking about and implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act, including how the act benefits kinships families.
Putting Family First: Developing an Evidence-Based Child Welfare Preventative Practice Model
Annie E. Casey Foundation (2020)
Offers guidance on what State child welfare agencies should be considering when they are developing a preventative practice model that aligns with the Family First Prevention Services Act. This guide discusses evidence-based case management, targeted services to address risk and protective factors, and evidence-based programs that meet specific goals and needs of families.
Episode 61: Thriving Families, Safer Children - A National Commitment to Well-Being, Part 1 [Podcast]
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2021)
Shares information pertaining to a newly launched national effort in response to the Family First Prevention Services Act where communities are working together to shift their efforts to a more primary prevention-focused child and family-serving jurisdiction.
First-of-Its-Kind National Partnership Aims to Redesign Child Welfare Into Child- and Family Well-Being Systems
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (2020)
Details a first-of-its-kind partnership between Federal agencies; national organizations; local communities; and private, public, and philanthropic sectors to address intergenerational cycles of trauma and poverty that increase the risk of children being placed in out-of-home care.
Framework for Prevention of Child Maltreatment
Child Welfare Information Gateway (2021)
Details the three levels of prevention efforts and how an approach to be more focused on being preventative versus reactive results in a comprehensive service framework that improves outcomes for children and families.
Legal Professional Roles: Implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act (PDF - 828 KB)
American Bar Association, Center on Children and the Law
Details the roles and responsibilities that legal professionals have when implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act, including State and local policy change, direct practice implementation, and out-of-home care placements for children and youth.
The Role of the Court in Implementing the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 (PDF - 1,800 KB)
Tanner & Howze (2019)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Discusses the critical role courts play in the implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act, including an overview of the law, its impact on out-of-home placements for children and youth, and the role courts have in oversight of a child’s case plan.
Family First Prevention Services Act: Pregnant and Parenting Youth FAQs (PDF - 754 KB)
Center for the Study of Social Policy (2018)
Shares answers to a list of frequently asked questions regarding how implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act impacts pregnant and parenting youth, including how the law applies, eligibility of services, and changes in services that can be offered.
Leveraging the FFPSA for Older Youth: Improving Transitions
Pokempner (2019)
American Bar Association
Details how the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) brings about provisions to the Chafee Foster Care to Independence program and Education Training Voucher program to better equip young adults who age out of the foster care system with supports needed to achieve a successful transition to adulthood.
Leveraging the FFPSA for Older Youth: Prevention Provisions
Pokempner (2019)
American Bar Association
Presents how the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) impacts how States use title IV-E funds for prevention services, including how to equip families with resources to prevent unnecessary removals, reducing the use of congregate care for older youth in foster care, and how to better equip expecting and parenting older youth with necessary services and supports.
Leveraging the FFPSA for Older Youth: Reduction of Group Care Provisions
Pokempner (2019)
American Bar Association
Discusses how the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) plays a role in reducing the use of group care for older youth in foster care and the importance of placing youth and young adults in family-like settings.