Great place to search for existing statutes, laws, and rules. Also provides links to search for current bills in the House and Senate. Find out who represents you!

• MyBills – Personalized bill tracking
• RSS Feeds & Podcasts – Representatives have their own RSS feeds
• Email Updates – If you don’t use a feed reader
• House Session & Committee Schedule Upcoming Meetings– To see when bills are being heard and in which committees
• House Committee Information – Provides links to each committee’s home page, as well as the chair of the committee, member roster, and schedule
• Archived Committee Hearings via YouTube

• MyBills – Personalized bill tracking (same URL as the House)
• RSS Feeds – For individual Senators’ Press Release RSS Feeds
• Email Updates – If you don’t use a feed reader
• Senate Upcoming Meetings– To see when bills are being heard and in which committees
• Senate Committee Information – Provides links to committee descriptions & rosters, as well as an option to see legislative activity and subscribe to the email list

The MN DHS website has policy information in its Children section, which includes child welfare. In addition, it provides “Related Pages” and “Related Links” to the right of each section, and these tend to include excellent resources and research. Finally, you can also check out the Publications tab, which has a way to subscribe to News from DHS as well as view and subscribe to Bulletins; to see bulletins specific to children and child welfare, just click on the year at the top of the left column.

Includes links for Active Legislation (sorted alphabetically), the floor schedule, and Calendars & Schedules in general. Committees relevant to child welfare issues include:

• Indian Affairs,
• Judiciary,
• Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs,
• Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, with its Subcommittee on Children & Families
• Finance, with its Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy
• Budget, and
• Appropriations, with its Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies

The schedule for legislative activity is here. Committees relevant to child welfare issues include:

• Ways and Means, with its Subcommittee on Human Resources
• Budget,
Judiciary, and
• Education & Workforce.

Includes pending legislation (President may sign soon), signed legislation (now law), and vetoed legislation (not law).

The official bill tracking/search website.

Great place to track bills in the federal legislature. You can set up feeds and email alerts on specific topics, as well as subscribe to feeds for introduced and enacted bills.

Make sure to follow the category MN Legislature. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of all entries, or customize it to track specific tags/categories.

Although CDF-MN focuses on children as a whole, they do have a specific policy priority for child welfare.

One of their public policy statements is concerning child welfare policy and finance. Their 2011 Public Policy Agenda is very informative and includes specific policy solutions, as well as research to back up their arguments and the financial costs for their solutions.

Make sure to follow the category U.S. Legislature. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of all entries, or customize it to track specific tags/categories.

After carefully researching the Twitterverse, CASCW (handle: @CASCW_MN - follow us!) has created a list that tracks the tweets of individuals and organizations that regularly tweet about child welfare policy.

Published by the Child Welfare League of America, this blog tracks bills and actions in the federal government as they pertain to child welfare policy.

Generally focuses on youth aging out of care. Their Policy page includes policy and practice goals.

Provides resources on enacted legislation, as well as news related to child welfare policy and public policy priority areas.

Has a bill tracker on bills related to children, as well as other advocacy tools such as a vote tracker and a “take action” tab.

NICWA has a government affairs and advocacy webpage that includes action alerts, information on existing laws that pertain to Indian children, and pending legislative bills that have implications for Indian children.

A website developed by CSSP, Policy for Results has a policy blog that is regularly updated on public policy issues, and policy resource pages for preventing child abuse and neglect, increasing exits from foster care to permanency, supporting youth transitioning from foster care, and strategies for tough fiscal times.

Great information on research and information related to child welfare; this is necessary in order to support child welfare policy goals because research must inform policy changes.

This organization provides grants to organizations which help to ensure the wellbeing of children in all communities.

Bipartisan, works to ensure that children and families are a priority in federal policy & budget decisions. Has a special section on Child Welfare, Rights and Safety.

Provides implementation information for the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.

Lots of resources and information on child welfare topics.

Works to improve the lives of the most vulnerable children and families through research and policy work. Has Policy Briefs, including one on child welfare, and a section called Policy Matters.

Chapin Hall provides policy research on child welfare and foster care systems.