DC KinCare Alliance signs onto this Petition with more than 200 other signatories asking the DC Council to fund the Ombudsperson for Children.

The Letter asks the DC Council to stop Mayor Bowser from terminating DC residents from the rapid re-housing program for hitting an arbitrary time limit. This year, as many as 913 families are facing time limit terminations.

Among other things, Kincare highlights high barriers to access benefits for kinship caregivers, and the agency’s failure to reduce those barriers.

Mayor Bowser defunded the FY 2022 funding allocated to the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children, and did not include any funding for the Office in FY 2023.  Accordingly, we implore the DC Council to identify and reallocate funds to ensure this critical protection for DC children is retained.

Marla Spindel testified about the unnecessary and discriminatory barriers for non-parent caregivers to access the DC Child Care Subsidy for the children in their care.

Deputy Director Stephanie McClellan testified on how the DC Housing Authority discriminates against relative caregivers who seek to add the children in their care to their public housing vouchers.

Deputy Director Stephanie McClellan testified about the unnecessary and burdensome documentation requirements for relative caregivers to obtain TANF benefits, which create discriminatory barriers to access.

Marla Spindel testifies before the DC Council Human Services Committee on the the performance of the DC Child and Family Services Agency regarding: (1) processing time for the caregiver subsidies; (2) the independent Ombudsperson for Children; (3) kinship diversion; and (4) child fatalities and near fatalities.

Along with other advocates, DC KinCare Alliance requests that DC explicitly include in loco parentis as one of the legal relationships eligible for the DC Child Care Subsidy. Doing so is consistent with the overarching purposes of the program, as well as with existing federal and DC child care and school enrollment regulations.

Along with other DC advocates, DC KinCare Alliance urges the DC Housing Authority to remove barriers for non-parent caregivers to add children to their public housing lease or vouchers.  These barriers are not only burdensome and unnecessary, but also violate federal and DC law.

The DC KinCare Alliance Relative Caregiver Community Board submitted this Statement today requesting that the DC Council hold a vote of all Councilmembers on the appointment of the new CFSA Director, rather than letting his nomination be passively approved without a vote.