‘Financing Public Child Welfare

‘C HILD welfare services furnished by the States and localities are financed from Federal, State, and local funds. A study of expenditures made by State and local public welfare agencies for child welfare services in the year ended June 30, 1956, shows that, although the States vary in the amounts expended, some patterns become apparent when they are grouped according to region, urban-rural character, and income level. The following pages show not only the expenditures of 1955-56 but also trends for selected earlier years. The expenditures reported do not represent a complete account of outlays for all child welfare programs under public auspices. The data exclude expenditures for public institutions, whether or not they are administered by public welfare departments; expenditures for services that are made directly and not through the public welfare agencies (for example, amounts spent for services provided by juvenile courts and youth authorities and appropriations made directly by a State legislature to voluntary organizations) ; and public assistance payments. Payments for foster care of children made from State public assistance funds are, however, included. Because these limitations affect individual States differently, they should be taken into account in any comparison of State expenditures.