Sioux City Times

Today, U.S. Representative Randy Feenstra announced the signing of his authored legislation, the Strengthening Evidence-Based Prevention Services Act, into law. This legislation was included in the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act on January 4th.

Rep. Feenstra expressed satisfaction with the enactment of this law, stating: “I’m glad that legislation that I led to help keep children out of the foster care system and with their families was signed into law as part of a larger family wellbeing package at the beginning of this year." He emphasized that this reform aims to support vulnerable children by funding evaluations of prevention services, ensuring these programs can be certified and utilized effectively in communities.

Prevention services are crucial programs designed to prevent children from entering foster care. In 2018, Congress passed the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) to aid states in implementing evidence-based programs aimed at maintaining family unity and reducing foster care admissions. However, a significant obstacle has been insufficient research funding for developing qualifying evidence-based services. Due to this "research gap," many prevention services have not received federal assistance as intended by FFPSA.

The newly signed bill authorizes a grant program through the Administration for Children and Families within the Department of Health and Human Services. This program will fund evaluations of prevention services to provide supporting evidence for their effectiveness, potentially establishing ratings such as “promising,” “supported,” or “well-supported.” Such ratings would enable these services to receive federal funding. The initiative seeks to bridge the existing "evidence gap" hindering funding for foster care prevention services while supplementing current child welfare funding.