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Statement of DePelchin Children's Center, Houston, TX 77007
DePelchin
Children’s Center, founded in 1892, is Houston’s oldest charity. It is
accredited by the Council on Accreditation, and serves the Houston Gulf Coast region. Our mission centers on enhancing the mental health and physical well
being of children, focusing on 2 major areas: (1) prevention & mental
health services, & (2) serving children in the Child Protective Services
(CPS) system.
Currently,
we have nearly 600 foster children in about 400 therapeutic, habilitative, and
basic foster care homes and 60 CPS children in 2 residential treatment centers
(RTCs). In 2007, we provided foster care to a total of 1063 children, facilitated
adoption of 100 CPS children, and supplied post adoption support services to
families who have adopted children from the CPS system. We provide a continuum
of care focusing on the mental health and safety of children. Our programs
include:
- Prevention
& early intervention (PEI) services, most of them pursuant to contracts
with the state and federal governments; they focus on preventing teen
pregnancy, truancy, juvenile crime, child abuse, and bullying, and several
are home-visitation based;
- Therapeutic,
habilitative, and basic foster care & residential treatment for CPS
children;
- Adoption
services for CPS children and post-adoption support services;
- Transitional
living for homeless young mothers to help them become self supporting.
- Children’s
mental health treatment, including psychiatric & psychological care
& school-based and office-based counseling,;
- Child
psychiatry residency training with the Baylor College of Medicine
Menninger Department of Psychiatry, and Baylor psychology post-doctoral
training;
DePelchin
also has a research and development department. In recent years, we have been
part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), a program of the
federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA),
which is developing trauma informed therapies for children who have suffered
complex trauma, like those we serve. Some of our prevention programs are partially
funded by research and development grants from the Administration for Children
and Families (ACF).
Comments on HR 5466:
OVERVIEW
DePelchin
Children’s Center supports HR 5466. Two provisions relating to the financing
provisions are key to DePelchin as a service provider in Texas and to improving
outcomes for children and families who need child welfare services. Those are:
- changing
the method of determining the federal match for foster care from the 1996
AFDC “look-back:” provision to instead using a measure based upon the State’s
Medicaid participation;
- encouraging
the use of federal child welfare funds for prevention, early intervention,
and temporary and permanent kinship placements;
- Allowing
youth to stay in care until age 21.
DePelchin
strongly supports the provisions of the bill targeting the following outcomes:
- Safely
reducing the number of children in care, especially through prevention and
early intervention;
- Safely
reducing the lengths of stay in care;
- Increasing
the use of kinship care and kinship guardianship;
- Authorizing
states to retain children in care up to age 21;
- Providing
post-permanency supports; and
- Improving
the medical care and educational outcomes of foster youth.
As
in many other states, over 80% of Texas’ children and youth in foster care are
in the care of community-based and faith-based charities such as us. Although DePelchin
is a large foster care provider, we strongly support policies that reduce the
need for foster care, other out-of-home placements, and institutional care. Research
supports the intuitive belief that children are best off with their families
where those families can be safe and stable. Children need safety, stability,
and adult mentoring and encouragement if they are to become productive adults.
DISCUSSION
Use
of federal funds for prevention and family preservation: DePelchin is currently adapting to cultural groups
in Texas a successful family preservation program developed at the University of Maryland called Family Connections. The development work is largely funded
with a replication grant from the federal Administration for Children and
Families (ACF). DePelchin has also developed trauma-informed mental health
treatments which we utilize in caring for the children in our foster homes and
residential treatment facilities. Our development of this expertise came from
our participation in the SAMHSA-funded NCTSN. By enacting the policies in HR
5466, Congress can encourage the use of federal child welfare funds in a way
that utilizes and expands upon the knowledge developed in federally funded
research such as these grant programs.
Expanded
federal support for kinship placements:
Experience, especially in Illinois, demonstrates that kinship placements are
generally more stable and successful than foster care with strangers, so long
as the kin can meet certain minimum standards. The reasons are apparent. The
child has continuity of relationships and receives a message of caring and
connection from relatives that is often lacking in foster care. Relatives also
often can make sure that the parents are taking the necessary steps to achieve
a successful reunification. They are also more likely to keep the children in
their care if reunification is not feasible, and to receive them back if reunification
is unsuccessful.
Research
verifies this evidence. Studies vary, but all show that relative care is at
least as safe as foster care. Studies also show that relative placements are
more stable, have much higher rates of siblings staying together and children
return to their parents more quickly.
Texas has been pursuing expanded use of kinship care for
several years. From 2004 to 2007, Texas nearly doubled the number of
children in relative care, from 4516 to 8775, while increasing the number
of children in foster care by 1260 children. However, financial and casework
supports of kin caregivers is minimal, and with federal support as proposed in
HR 5466, more kin with limited and fixed incomes could provide care for these
children. In 2007, the Texas legislature emphasized its support for kinship
placements when it unanimously enacted SB 723, which requires the state Department
of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to monitor and annually report to the
legislature on the number of kinship placements that could not be made solely
because the family did not have the financial resources to take the children,
and the amount of monetary assistance that would be needed to enable those
placements. HR 5466’s provisions that kin can receive financial assistance equal
to foster care if they pass criminal background checks and meet basic safety
standards should help Texas expand the number of children who can be cared for
by relatives.
Subsidized
guardianship: For the same reasons that
we, and the State of Texas, support temporary kin placement, we support the
policy of providing for subsidized guardianship. The Texas legislature in its
current budget adopted budget control language (DFPS Rider 31) directing DFPS
to apply for a federal waiver allowing Texas to use Title IV-E or other federal
funds to help fund subsidized guardianship.
However,
we concur with the National Council for Adoption that 2 changes should be made
in HR 5466’s subsidized guardianship provisions: (a) clarify that the
decision that reunification or adoption are not feasible should be made by the
judge, not caseworkers; & (b) to avoid creating a financial incentive to
choose subsidized guardianship over adoption, provide that the subsidy is to be
equal to, rather than “at least equal to” the State’s foster care or adoption
subsidy payments.
Family
connection grants: The grant program
provided for in Section 445 to develop kinship navigator, family finding, and
family group decision-making programs has the potential to produce new ways to
safely and effectively expand kinship placements. Implementation of Family
Group Decision Making in Texas is a primary reason our state has recently been
able to expand kinship placements.
Federal
funding for post permanency supports:
DePelchin Children’s Center has been providing post-adoption support services
for adopted CPS children and their adoptive families for decades. We provide
these services under contract with the State, funded largely by state funds. The
funding has not increased in nearly 2 decades, despite cost of living increases
and significant increases in adoptions. Post-adoption support services include
support groups, therapy, residential treatment, and respite care, among others.
They are provided to families to preserve the adoptions of special needs
children, so the child and family do not become overwhelmed and relinquish the
child. These programs yield a major benefit for a very small investment. We
encourage the sponsor and subcommittee to clarify this bill to authorize use of
Title IV-E funds for these services. We suggest this funding also be available
for services to children in subsidized guardianship, since these children are
likely to have many of the same problems.
Services
up to age 21: Texas currently
provides Medicaid eligibility for aging out foster youth up to age 21, and in
limited cases up to age 23. It also provides youth the opportunity to re-enter
care for certain purposes related to pursuing education. As Congressman Danny
Davis pointed out in his testimony, a recent comprehensive study by the Chapin Hall Center for Children found that youth who remain in care up to age 21 are more
likely to enter college, complete college, and delay pregnancy. * We are
encouraged that this bill would recognize that in today’s society, few persons
are able to be independent prior to age 21. If our own children are not, how
can the children who do not have a permanent family be?
Improving
health care and education: In
addition to increased kinship care, the State of Texas has been pursuing a
number of other policies that HR 5466 would help the State to expand. Effective
April 1, 2008, the State is implementing a medical home, electronic medical
passports and managed health care for foster children and youth. It is also
pursuing educational passports. The provisions of the bill requiring
educational stability and funding of education related transportation costs can
be critical to children having educational stability, especially in a large state
like Texas.
Training
funds: HR 5466 provides that federal
training funds may be used to train employees of both public and private
agencies that care for children. We commend this policy, especially since over
80% of the children in foster care in Texas are in the care of private
charities. Currently, our employees cannot attend trainings for CPS employees
that are funded with federal monies, even though they are serving the same
children. Allowing the use of these funds for all the public and private
agencies caring for CPS children is efficient and likely to result in improved
continuity and quality of care.
CONCLUSION
HR
5466 makes major strides in improving federal financial participation in the
child welfare system. The bill reflects the growth in knowledge and best
practices that have occurred in the last several decades. We strongly
encourage this subcommittee and the full Ways and Means Committee to approve
this legislation, with minor changes suggested by us and the other witnesses. The
bill should help produce much better results for children and families with the
same investment. Thank you for considering our input.
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