Title IV-E of the Social Security Act authorizes the federal-state Foster Care, Prevention, and Permanency program. Under this program states are entitled to federal reimbursement for a part of the cost of providing foster care to children who, typically, due to abuse or neglect in their own homes, are removed from that home and placed in foster care. Separately, Title IV-E assistance is also available for eligible children leaving foster care for new permanent homes via adoption and, in states electing to provide this kind of IV-E support, legal guardianship. Further, the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA, Div. E, Title VII of P.L. 115-123), amended the Title IV-E program to authorize support for certain evidence-based services to prevent the need for children to enter foster care. Eligibility rules for each of these IV-E components varies: The income test effectively applies in all Title IV-E kinship guardianship cases and also to a limited number of Title IV-E adoption assistance cases However, no income test will apply with regard to receipt of the newly authorized Title IV-E prevention services.
