Advocates and service providers working with families impacted by the child welfare system write to Governor Cuomo and Commissioner Poole and urge the following action steps:

• Enact a temporary moratorium on “aging out” of foster care
• Provide COVID-19 Emergency Response Pay for foster parents, frontline staff and reunified families
• Provide technology and support to ensure children and families remain connected:
• Restore funding support for local kinship caregiver programs:
• Ensure young people with current and previous foster care experience can access the benefits to which they are entitled
• Address delays in permanency by making hearings essential business for Family Court
• Ensuring kin and non-related foster families can be expeditiously approved as resource families:
• Ensure all families can access necessary supports to maintain stability in the home

Read full letter here.