ARNOLD CALLING FOR FOSTER FUNDS.

Byline: TROY ANDERSON Staff Writer

With a new federal funding waiver and a renewed focus on improving the child protective system, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday he will call for spending $50 million more for child welfare services.

The money would be in addition to a $142 million boost that Schwarzenegger has included in his proposed budget and would boost child welfare spending to $4.6 billion annually.

The federal government in March approved a funding waiver that allows Los Angeles and other Califonria counties to use large chunks of their budgets on services to help keep families together. A similar waiver was approved for Florida.

``I'm ready to expand this nationwide,'' said Wade Horn, U.S. Health & Human Services assistant secretary for children and families. ``I think the federal foster care funding mechanism is broken. A little tinkering here and a little tinkering there won't help much. It needs to be fundamentally changed.''

Horn said he hopes the waivers will be successful in California and Florida and prompt Congress to pass legislation allowing it nationwide.

In a letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, Schwarzenegger wrote that some of the money would be spent to track how reforms are working to improve children's lives.

The governor's proposal would provide $46 million for the project, which mandates quarterly reporting of outcome data and specific plans for improvement. The project funding is flexible and could be spent to reduce social workers' caseloads or provide substance abuse treatment, mental health or other services to families.

About $9 million would be used to help foster youths' transition to adulthood.

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com

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