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Child Well-being

Expand Funding for the Infant-Toddler Court Program. 

The stakes could not be higher for babies entering the child welfare system. Because of their rapid brain development, young children who experience maltreatment – and too often the instability of life in foster care – are likely to experience significant, detrimental impacts on their emotional and cognitive development, with life-long effects. For these babies and their caretakers, targeted supports can make all the difference.

Take Action

Contact your policymakers to urge them to fund Infant-Toddler Court Teams and other programs that support babies at risk of entering the child welfare system, like Medicaid and TANF.

Count Me In

The Infant-Toddler Court Program offers a prevention-focused public health response for families with infants and toddlers involved in the child welfare system. The program brings together judges and local child welfare professionals as part of a cross-sector team committed to addressing the unique, age-appropriate needs of children at risk of abuse or neglect. This model program works. National evaluation studies have demonstrated wide-ranging benefits, including reduced time in foster care, quicker paths to permanency, prevention of repeat maltreatment, stronger connections to community services, and higher reunification rates. Learn more

Babies need Congress to

Fully fund the Infant-Toddler Court Program to both prevent young children from entering the child welfare system when possible and prioritize their path to safe, permanent homes; and oppose cuts to essential funding for babies in, or at risk of entering, the child welfare system, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), Medicaid, and Early Head Start.

What it means for babies:

With expanded and sustained funding, babies and families will receive the supports they need to prevent maltreatment and help ensure more babies are raised in safe, permanent homes.

One-third of children entering foster care are under the age of three.

In the United States, every seven minutes a baby or toddler is removed from their parents and placed in out-of-home care.

93 percent of infants and toddlers in the Infant-Toddler Court Team program achieved permanency within a year which is double the national standard.

Every year in the United States, nearly 200,000 infants and toddlers experience maltreatment or neglect.

Advocacy Tools & Resources

Building Strong Foundations: Learn more about the research behind home visiting and the federal programs that support parent support services and resources.