As part of the recently adopted federal budget, there are some notable changes in funding for juvenile justice that will impact Wisconsin.

The adopted amounts are significantly lower than proposed by the White  House and Senate  – including the elimination of Juvenile Accountability Block Grant funds (albeit some funds were moved to Title II – Formula grants) and funding Title II at about $25 million less than the White House proposal.

On the other hand, some new initiative are funded, including $75 million for a new Comprehensive School Safety Initiative and $1 million for programs addressing girls in the juvenile justice system.  It will be a while before we understand how these changes impact Wisconsin, but they do increase the challenge to promote system reforms.

The good news is that the budget includes substantive increases in funding to support access to quality early learning programs for particularly vulnerable children – too bad we can’t do both!!           by Jim Moeser