Tribes face hurdles, cultural concerns, with federal foster care

WASHINGTON - When the federal government opened foster care assistance to Native American tribes in 2008, more than 80 expressed interest in the program.

By 2014, however, just 27 tribes had applied and only five had been approved for the federal program, their efforts hobbled by a lack of resources, inflexibility by federal bureaucrats and cultural insensitivity, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The February GAO report said that many tribes, as a result, have struggled to win approval for plans that would let them more easily access the Title IV-E program, which gave $7 billion in 2014 to states for their foster care programs.

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