Lincoln (Neb.) - Oct. 19, 2000 - The Center for Children, Families and the Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has received two grants from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
The grants from HHS Administration for Children and Families are part of a total $10 million awarded in discretionary grants and contracts for child care research. According to HHS, the fiscal year 2000 funding is for research to develop critically needed information on child care and its effects on child development and family well-being.
"Increasing our knowledge of what child care systems work best and disseminating that knowledge throughout the country are important steps in improving the quality of child care," said Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services.
One grant establishes the Midwest Child Care Policy Research Partnership. The project will be based at the Center on Children, Families and the Law. Grant funds will enable a four-state study examining the impact of policy changes on the quality of child care services stemming from welfare reform. The states are Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. The partnership includes UNL (faculty involved are Brian Wilcox, principal investigator; Helen Raikes, co-principal investigator; Carolyn Pope Edwards; and Julia Torquati), the University of Missouri, the University of Kansas, Iowa State University and Gallup Organization.
First-year funding for the partnership is $300,000. Additional funding is $200,000 for each of the following two years, assuming congressional approval. The second grant is for the Adoption Opportunities Demonstration Project. The project's goal is to shorten the time that children who are not going to be reunified with their parents remain in foster care. The project will use the combined efforts of the Center for Children, Families and the Law's Nebraska Court Improvement Project, the Nebraska Separate Juvenile Court, and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Vicky Weisz of the Center for Children, Families and the Law is the principal investigator for the grant.
The project will focus on Douglas, Lancaster and Sarpy counties in Nebraska because those counties have more than 80 percent of the children in the state who have been out of their homes for more than 15 of the previous 22 months.
Interventions performed through the project are expected to produce
measurable improvements in state compliance with the mandates of the
Adoption and Safe Families Act as well as getting children into permanent
placements more quickly. Funding for the project is $174,582 in the first
year and a total of $572,942 over three years.
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