The 2025-26 Budget: CWS-CARES

Mar 5, 2025 - (Four of the six milestones are now expected to be tested in EUST 2, and the remaining two milestones are expected to be tested in EUST 3.) During the four-week EUST session, participants identified a significant amount of required rework prior to implementation of the three (and several other related) milestones.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5006

The 2026-27 Budget: Child Welfare

Mar 3, 2026 - Continuum of Care Reform (CCR) is a series of state legislation enacted over the past decade making fundamental changes to the way the state cares for youth in the foster care system. As part of implementing CCR, the state developed a new foster care maintenance payment rate structure to replace the previous age-based and group home rate structure.
https://lao.ca.gov/publications/report/5147

Trends in CalWORKs: Participant Characteristics

Jun 16, 2025 - Each part of the series focuses on an area of the program, beginning with this report on participant characteristics, followed by reports on participant experiences and program funding. The series provides an overview of the major changes to CalWORKs in recent decades and highlights key issues for the Legislature to consider when making CalWORKs policy and budget decisions.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5057

The 2025-26 Budget: Overview of the Federal CalWORKs Pilot

Feb 21, 2025 - California was recently selected as one of five states to participate in a federal, six-year pilot to test new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program performance metrics focused on long-term employment and family well-being.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4978

The 2025-26 Budget: Child Welfare

Feb 13, 2025 - Major project milestones for 2025-26 are expected to include the design, build, and testing of numerous system modules related to case plans, aftercare, adoptions, hearin gs, facilities, tracking costs and claiming, and tracking service delivery.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4962

The 2024-25 Budget: Child Support

Feb 27, 2024 - Unintended consequences could include, for example, the recipient family becoming ineligible for CalFresh or other means-tested programs due to the additio nal income received from the child support payment.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4861

The 2023-24 California Spending Plan: Human Services

Nov 6, 2023 - (Other CalSAWS-related funding, such as funding for the interface between CalSAWS and the Child Welfare Services - California Automated Response and Engagement System , is covered in other sections of our spendi ng plan series.)
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4812/5

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions

Oct 16, 2025 - This post discusses features of the state's spending plan that were not covered elsewhere in the 2025-26 Spending Plan series.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5081

The 2025-26 California Spending Plan: Other Provisions [Publication Details]

Oct 16, 2025 - This post discusses features of the state's spending plan that were not covered elsewhere in the 2025-26 Spending Plan series.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Detail/5081

Implementing California’s Child Welfare Prevention Services Program

Jan 28, 2026 - In the State Prevention Plan, DSS describes a three ‑tiered training approach to ensure child welfare staff and community providers are prepared to implement prevention services: Tier 1 focuses on prevention principles and consists of a series of webinars for county staff, community ‑based organization staff, and tribal staff at all levels.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5106