Breadcrumb
- Federal Resources
Federal Resources
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Human Services
The Office of Human Services in the Bureau of Indian Affairs promotes the safety, financial security and social health of Indian communities and individual Indian people.
Native American Traditional Justice Practices
“Expert Working Group Report: Native American Traditional Justice Practices” (PDF, 35 pages) summarizes discussions and recommendations from a meeting about federal efforts to support the use of traditional Native American justice interventions to respond to criminal and delinquent behavior. The meeting was held in April 2013 and included 14 experts from multidisciplinary communities.
Resource: Native One Stop Website
This website provides a one-stop shop for American Indians and Alaska Natives to access resources available from the federal government. Users can complete a prescreening questionnaire to determine their eligibility criteria for resources and programs and learn how to apply. Resource categories include youth, education, food, employment, loans, and environment.
Resource: Updated Model Indian Juvenile Code
This resource (PDF, 3 pages) serves as a framework to help tribes interested in creating or enhancing their own codes that focus on juvenile justice. This model code encourages the use of alternatives to detention and confinement while focusing on community-based, multi-disciplinary responses to juvenile delinquency, truancy, and child-in-need services.
ChooseMyPlate.gov
Choose my Plate offers personalized eating plans, interactive tools to help you plan and assess your food choices, and advice to help you make better choices.'
Stay Healthy at College With MyPlate On Campus
The MyPlate On Campus Initiative aims to spread healthy eating messages to college students to empower them to improve their eating and exercise habits and encourage their peers to do the same. MyPlate On Campus offers tools, such as a tracker that develops personalized nutrition and activity plans for users, and tip sheets on topics such as choosing healthy snacks and creative ways to exercise. Students interested in promoting wellness at their schools can become MyPlate On Campus Ambassadors and gain leadership experience while hosting fitness and healthy eating activities for their fellow students.
Resource: 2015 Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) Data
This resource includes 2015 BRFSS data and related information. The BRFSS is a state-based surveillance system that uses survey phone calls to collect information on risk behaviors, clinical preventive health practices, and health care access for adults 18 and older.
Report: Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015
This report presents the most recent estimates of expenditures by families on children annually across childhood and adolescence. The report indicates that a middle-income married-couple family will spend between $12,350 and $13,900 annually, or $233,610 from birth through age 17, on child-rearing expenses.
Children's Bureau
The Children's Bureau (CB) is one of two bureaus within the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Administration for Children and Families, of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Children's Bureau seeks to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with states, tribes, and communities. It has the primary responsibility for administering federal programs that support state child welfare services.
Upcoming Event: November is National Adoption Month
This observance aims to increase national awareness of the need for permanent families for children and youth in the foster care system. This year’s theme, “We Never Outgrow the Need for Family—Just Ask Us,” reflects a focus on the importance of identifying permanent families for the thousands of 15- to 18-year-olds in foster care who are currently less likely to be adopted or who may age out of the system without a stable home. A new tip sheet, Talking with Older Youth About Adoption (PDF, 2 pages) provides child welfare professionals with a framework for how to talk with older youth about permanency and includes suggestions for how to make these conversations more effective.
Report: Child Maltreatment 2015
This report from the Child Welfare Information Gateway provides state-level data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System on reports of abuse and neglect made to child protective services (CPS) agencies, the children involved, types of maltreatment, CPS responses, child and caregiver risk factors, services, and perpetrators.
Resource: Engaging Youth in Foster Care
This podcast shares the perspective of a youth formerly in foster care. It provides tips to caseworkers for engaging youth in developing their case plans and identifying supportive adults in their lives. This resource can help caseworkers as they work with youth who are in foster care or preparing to transition to adulthood.
Share with Youth: Being an Engaged and Involved Teen in Foster Care
This webpage provides information to teens in foster care about their permanency options, tools to help them transition to adulthood, and how to find support from other teens who have been in foster care.
Supporting Families Impacted by Incarceration — A Dialogue with Experts
This report, developed by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Technical Assistance and Strategic Dissemination Center, is the outcome of a meeting that convened national child welfare experts on families impacted by incarceration. It features key issues around this topic for practitioners and identifies needed resources and tools to support the workforce and families, along with a practical framework of intervention points from arrest to release.
John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (the Chafee program) provides funding to support youth/ young adults in or formerly in foster care in their transition to adulthood. The program is funded through formula grants awarded to child welfare agencies in States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and participating Tribes. Chafee funds are used to assist youth/ young adults in a wide variety of areas designed to support a successful transition to adulthood. Activities and programs include, but are not limited to, help with education, employment, financial management, housing, emotional support and assured connections to caring adults. Specific services and supports are determined by the child welfare agency, vary by State, locality and agency, and are often based on the individual needs of the young person. Many State or local agencies contract with private organizations to deliver services to young people.
Resource: Combatting Discrimination Against AANHPI and MASSA Students
This policy fact sheet (PDF, 1 page) supports educators and community leaders as they work to protect all students, including Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) and Muslim, Arab, Sikh, and South Asian (MASSA) students, from discrimination and to create safe and supportive learning environments.
Resource: Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) Guidance for Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS)-Accredited Schools
This resource informs colleges and universities that SEVP can no longer accept ACICS accreditation for certification purposes. Schools accredited by ACICS can use this information to take the appropriate steps to find a new accreditor or provide SEVP with additional evidence in lieu of accreditation.
Report: SEVIS by the Numbers
This biannual report (PDF, 17 pages) highlights key Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) data to illustrate trends, values, and information on international students studying in the U.S. The report provides information on students who come to the U.S. to study, SEVP-certified schools that enroll these students, and international student demographics within individual U.S. states.
Internet Safety: 2014 Resource Guide
This guide features short descriptions and links to multiple organizations, programs, publications, tools, and other resources related to internet safety, as well as subtopics like cyberbullying, sexting, self-harm, and suicide.
New State Fact Sheets on Drunk Driving and Restraint Use
The CDC’s Injury Center has released two new fact sheets that provide state-specific data on seat belt use and drunk driving. “Buckle Up: Restraint Use Fact Sheets” provides snapshots of motor vehicle occupant deaths and seat belt use and describes proven strategies to increase the use of appropriate restraints. “Sobering Facts: Drunk Driving State Fact Sheets” provides information on alcohol-involved traffic deaths as well as strategies that can reduce drunk driving. Access state-level data on a variety of topics related to driver safety on the Injury Center’s website.
Preventing Youth Violence: Opportunities for Action
This report describes the critical problem of youth violence and provides information and action steps that public health and community leaders, young people, families, caregivers, and other adults that work with youth can take to prevent it.
The Economic Burden of Child Maltreatment in the United States and Implications for Prevention
This report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the total lifetime estimated financial costs associated with just one year of confirmed cases of child maltreatment is approximately $124 billion.
The Relationship Between Bullying and Suicide: What We Know and What It Means for Schools
This resource from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention, provides school administrators, teachers and school staff with the most current research findings about the relationship between bullying and suicide among school-aged youth and action-oriented, evidence-based suggestions to prevent and control bullying and suicide-related behavior in schools.
Brief: the Needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Youth in Child Welfare Settings
A recent brief from the Permanency Innovations Initiative highlights how research is contributing to a better understanding of the needs of LGBTQ youth in child welfare settings. The brief presents findings from qualitative interviews conducted with youth participating in the Recognize, Intervene, Support, and Empower (RISE) project, funded through a grant from the Children’s Bureau to the Los Angeles LGBT Center.
Resource: Essentials for Childhood Framework: Steps to Create Safe, Stable, Nurturing Relationships and Environments for All Children
This framework proposes strategies communities can use to promote children and families’ positive development and to prevent child abuse and neglect. It includes four goal areas and suggested steps based on best available evidence to achieve each goal.