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Policy Alternative Review

Tenea Lewis

SOCW 6361

Social Policy and Analysis

July 19,2026

Policy Alternative

The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) of 2018 is an appropriate policy option, rather than the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), since it requires that child welfare should no longer be an issue of a reactionary model, but rather a prevention-focused approach. Whereas CAPTA mainly deals with identifying, investigating, and responding to child maltreatment, FFPSA enables the states to utilize Title IV-E funds towards evidence-based mental health services, substance use treatment, parenting programs, and kinship care supports to prevent children from entering foster care (Waid & Choy-Brown, 2021). The rule also restricts unneeded admission to congregate care and promotes the use of family-based care in cases when it is possible and safe (Zetley, 2024). By resolving the problematic factors that cause child maltreatment prior to premature separation of the family, FFPSA is in a better position to meet the purpose of ensuring child safety, permanency, and well-being.

Necessary Policy Changes

FFPSIA is a tremendous advancement, but some alteration is required at the state level, where it is implemented. States must offer greater evidence-based prevention services, enhance kinship caregiver support, boost behavioral health financing, and create more community-based resources to minimize dependence on congregate care. More funds are also required to invest in the recruitment, training, and retention of the workforce since the issue of shortages of staff is still a challenge to effective implementation (Heaton et al., 2025). Secondly, states need to enhance the collaboration between child welfare, healthcare, education, and community organizations to make sure that parents obtain combined preventive services before the crisis goes out of control.

Congruence With Social Work Values

FFPSA is very compatible with the NASW Code of Ethics since it focuses on service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, and the significance of human relationships. Instead of using investigations and child removal mainly to strengthen families, the policy aims to achieve this by enhancing families with early intervention and evidence-based services (Waid & Choy-Brown, 2021). The emphasis it places on ensuring that families are maintained, ensuring that families are supported through kinship care, and its provision of mental health care to parents and its provision of substance use services indicate social work's dedication to empowering vulnerable groups. Additionally, prevention-focused strategies can be used to eliminate disparities faced by low-income and minority families that are over-represented in the child welfare system.

Feasibility of the Policy

This policy is politically, economically, and administratively viable since it is already in the form of federal laws, and most states have embraced it. Bipartisan support to reduce unnecessary foster care placements and to strengthen families is very high politically. Economically, in terms of finances, prevention services can save money in the long-term by replacing financial spending on foster care, residential treatment, and poor health outcomes with costly investments. On the administrative side, it is a costly undertaking due to the lack of infrastructure, trained staff, and evidence-based service providers in many states to provide FFPSA with all the necessary resources (Heaton et al., 2025). States can boost service delivery and enhance outcomes with the assistance of continuous quality improvement and implementation science.

Achievement of Policy Goals

FFPSA addresses key social policy objectives to a very large extent by fostering social equality, enhancing family resilience, and redirecting resources to prevention instead of crisis intervention. The policy guides federal funding to service enhancement that enhances family operation, mental health and parenting ability, and substance treatment prior to children going to foster care (Waid & Choy-Brown, 2021). Such investments will deal with social determinants linked to child maltreatment and enable a fair allocation of the available services to vulnerable families. Combined programs incorporating financial aid, parenting education, and family coaching have proved to have high potential to enhance resilience and lower involvement in child protective services (Johnson-Motoyama et al., 2022). As a result, FFPSA demonstrates social work ethics as it is focused on prevention, the well-being of families, and children.

Forces Supporting and Opposing the Policy

FFPSA has a number of supporters, such as social workers, pediatricians, child welfare agencies, mental health professionals, kinship caregivers, advocacy organizations, and many policymakers, since the policy focuses on prevention and family-centered practice (Zetley, 2024). Reforms to strengthen communities, enhance preventive services, and ensure structural factors leading to child maltreatment are also supported by research (McTavish et al., 2022). Nevertheless, resistance can be posed by states that fear the implementation costs, a shortage of workforce, a short supply of providers, and a greater administrative burden. It is not all agencies that manage to achieve evidence-based services requirements, especially in rural communities, where resources involved in prevention are still scarce (Heaton et al., 2025).

Policy Advocacy Skills

Professional social work skills are needed to be able to advocate effectively for FFPSA. Policy analysis may help find the implementation opportunities and grant priorities, and coalition building may bring together child welfare agencies, health services, educators, community organizations, and families who have life experience. Policy briefs, testifying in the legislature, educating policymakers with research evidence, organizing grassroots advocacy campaigns, and measuring program outcomes are some of the prepare, testify, educate, organize, and evaluate aspects that social workers may engage in policy. Advocacy is enhanced using evidence at hand to show the efficacy of prevention-focused services and helps sustain policy enhancement (McTavish et al., 2022).

Effect on Clinical Social Work Practice

FFPSA has a positive clinical social work implication as it causes practice to be focused on prevention and early intervention, as opposed to responding to a crisis. The first is the growing presence of clinical social workers offering trauma-informed counseling, parenting, substance abuse treatment, family counseling, and mental health services aimed at stabilizing families prior to having to be removed (Waid & Choy-Brown, 2021). Besides, better identification in healthcare and Medicaid data of children at risk can assist in earlier intervention, yet screening tools will always need to be supplemented with a thorough clinical evaluation to prevent related unwarranted child welfare intervention (Pac et al., 2025). All in all, FFPSA will increase the possibility of clinicians working in communities in collaboration with families.

Additional Policy Improvements

FFPSA needs to increase its investments in community mental health services, trauma-informed care, family preservation services, and culturally responsive services to benefit more clients who require clinical services. States should also give greater support to kinship caregivers, transportation aid, and housing stability, as well as childcare services, which solve the impediments that stand in the way of raising families in treatment. More funds in post-discharge supports and community-based behavioral health services would result in fewer long stays in Qualified Residential Treatment Programs and better family stability in the long term (Zetley, 2024). Lastly, the policies must persist in their efforts towards poverty and other social determinants of health in the form of integrated prevention efforts that can build family resilience and decrease the risk of child maltreatment (Johnson-Motoyama et al., 2022).

References

Heaton, L., Creavey, K., Green-Rogers, Y., O’Brien, J., Small, L., Harison, A., ... & Thomas, K. (2025). Family first policy to practice: Using implementation science and CQI to advance prevention-focused practice.  Children and Youth Services Review,  176, 108403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2025.108403

Johnson-Motoyama, M., Moon, D., Rolock, N., Crampton, D., Nichols, C. B., Haran, H., ... & Sillaman, N. (2022). Social determinants of health and child maltreatment prevention: The family success network pilot.  International journal of environmental research and public health,  19(22), 15386. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192215386

McTavish, J. R., McKee, C., Tanaka, M., & MacMillan, H. L. (2022). Child welfare reform: A scoping review.  International journal of environmental research and public health,  19(21), 14071. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114071

Pac, J., Glied, S., Howland, R., & Waldfogel, J. (2025). Medicaid claims alone have high sensitivity but low specificity in identifying child abuse and neglect.  Frontiers in Pediatrics,  13, 1698582. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2025.1698582

Waid, J., & Choy-Brown, M. (2021). Moving upstream: The Family First Prevention Services Act and re-imagining opportunities for prevention in child welfare practice.  Children and Youth Services Review,  127, 106098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106098

Zetley, L. W. (2024). Has Family First Congregate Care Reform Made a Difference?.  Pediatrics,  154(1), e2024065733. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2024-065733