Senator DeWine, Members of the Committee,
I am pleased to appear before the Committee today to discuss the very important issue of
assuring the safety and well being of children who have been abused or neglected. Perhaps no
issue is more important to the future of our country than assuring that children -- all children --
grow up in families where they are safe, healthy, nurtured and loved.
I commend you for holding today's hearing and for the commitment and determination with
which you have pursued the safety of our children. Many of us share your concerns about the
ability of our often overburdened child welfare programs to protect the safety and well-being of
our nation's most vulnerable children. This Administration, in close consultation with state and
community leaders, has taken numerous steps to strengthen these systems over the past several
years as we have strived to ensure that:
-
Every decision made is in the child's best interest; and
- The focus of child welfare services is on securing a safe and permanent home environment
for the child.
Much remains to be accomplished, however, and we hope to work with you and your colleagues
in the 105th Congress to take further steps to better protect the safety of our nation's most
vulnerable children.
An overview of the Children in the Child Welfare System
Child abuse and neglect is a tragedy of growing proportions. The States report that in 1994
investigations by child protective services (CPS) agencies confirmed that over 1 million children
were victims of neglect or abuse, an increase of 27 percent over the number of children who were
found to be victims in 1990. Nearly half of the children abused or neglected were 6 years old or
younger, while more than a quarter were 3 years old or younger. In recent years, the number of
children in foster care has also increased to more than 450,000 children. And, although
approximately 20,000 foster care children are adopted each year, the number has failed to keep
pace with the increasing need.
Furthermore, there is evidence that the number of abused and neglected children may be even
higher than what is reported through official CPS statistics. A study released by the Department
of Health and Human Services in September estimated that the total number of abused and
neglected children (including children who were not investigated by CPS agencies) grew from
1.4 million in 1986 to over 2.8 million in 1993. During the same period, the study estimated that
the number of children who were seriously injured quadrupled from about 143,000 to nearly
570,000.
While there is no one single effective response to child abuse and neglect, ensuring the
subsequent safety of these children must be our priority. To do so requires a continuum of
effective services, including:
-
Community-based prevention and family resource programs that support adults in their
roles as parents and that help resolve problems before they can lead to children being abused or
neglected;
- Foster care services that provide a temporary safe home for children, as well as services
to their families, while parents work to resolve crises in their lives and agencies and the courts
decide whether the parents can care for their children safely;
- Adoption and guardianship opportunities for children for whom reunification is not
possible and/or whose parents' rights to custody have been terminated and who need permanent
homes to begin again to establish strong family bonds; and
- Family preservation services for families that have problems, but that can be safely
strengthened and kept together or reunified through the provision of sometimes intensive, but
time-limited services.
It must be emphasized again that while a continuum of services is needed to meet the varying
needs of children and families, not every family can be preserved. In our implementation of the
Family Preservation and Family Support program, for which final regulations have just been
issued, we have emphasized that these services are clearly not appropriate when children cannot
be safe in their own homes. For these children alternative paths to permanency must be found.
Responding to the Needs of Children and Families
There is a growing consensus that to reform the child welfare system we need to:
- Promote community-based prevention and early intervention efforts;
- Increase the focus on permanence and timely decision-making; and
- Ensure real accountability by focusing on the goals of safety, permanence and well-being.
In the past several years we have made significant strides in each of these areas.
Community-Based Prevention and Early Intervention
The Clinton Administration has made significant progress in developing community-based
networks of support for families. We are working to bring whole communities together to
support children and families. In our implementation of the Family Preservation and Family
Support Program, foveloping both
physically and emotionally, every day and every month count. For that reason, when a child
must be removed from his own home because of abuse or neglect, it is critical that at every point
decisions about the child's future be made promptly and in a way that helps the child move
towards a safe, nurturing, permanent home.
The courts, working in conjunction with State child welfare agencies, play a critical role in
decision-making for abused and neglected children. Through the State Court Improvement
Program, authorized along with the Family Preservation and Family Support Program, State
courts are receiving $10 million annually to work with State agencies and others to assess
existing laws, policies and practices and identify areas in need of reform. The goal of this work
is to establish an agenda for improving the quality and timeliness of decisions regarding the
placement of children, termination of parental rights and other decisions that greatly affect
children's safety ands under the
program, States are better able to make reasonable efforts to prevent the unnecessary removal of
children and to enable children to safely return home from placement when possible. However,
it is important to note that the Federal law regarding reasonable efforts does not require States to
provide family preservation or family reunification services for all children.
Permanency and Timely Decision-Making
Every child needs a permanent, loving home. For children who are constantly developing both
physically and emotionally, every day and every month count. For that reason, when a child
must be removed from his own home because of abuse or neglect, it is critical that at every point
decisions about the child's future be made promptly and in a way that helps the child move
towards a safe, nurturing, permanent home.
The courts, working in conjunction with State child welfare agencies, play a critical role in
decision-making for abused and neglected children. Through the State Court Improvement
Program, authorized along with the Family Preservation and Family Support Program, State
courts are receiving $10 million annually to work with State agencies and others to assess
existing laws, policies and practices and identify areas in need of reform. The goal of this work
is to establish an agenda for improving the quality and timeliness of decisions regarding the
placement of children, termination of parental rights and other decisions that greatly affect
children's safety and permanency. Most States have completed their assessments and are now
moving forward to implement needed changes. To support this work, we have brought together
foster care and adoption managers with court personnel in order to develop strategies to improve
permanency for children.
In addition, the recent reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
(CAPTA) helps make the connection between child abuse and neglect intervention and
permanency. The law adds new provisions that require States to certify that:
-
They do not require the reunification of surviving children with a parent who has been
convicted of a felony assault on a child or the murder or voluntary manslaughter of another child
in the family; and
- They have laws making a conviction for any of the above-mentioned crimes grounds for
terminating parental rights.
The CAPTA reauthorization bill also requires that States provide for expedited termination of
parental rights for abandoned infants. We thank this committee for its leadership in sponsoring
the reauthorization of CAPTA with its important emphasis on child abuse prevention and
intervention. We will be working with the States to implement the new provisions expeditiously.
Another area in which we have been working to ensure permanency is adoption. As you know,
the President signed into law the Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996 which provides a tax
credit to families adopting children, as well as the Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows
parents to take time off upon the adoption of a child.
We are also working with States to ensure that they make full and effective use of the Adoption
Assistance program, which provides critical economic support to families who adopt children
with special needs. This program promotes adoption of children who often wait longer to find
homes and whose disabilities or other needs cause them to require large medical or other
expenses. Since the beginning of the Clinton Administration, the number of children
for whom Federal adoption subsidies are provided has increased by 60 percent.
Focusing on Safety, Permanence and Well-Being
Underlying all our work in child welfare is a significant focus on the outcomes of child welfare
services. It is critical that attention be focused on what really happens to children, not only on
whether public agencies adhered to procedures and completed paperwork. We have been
consulting with States and other experts in the field to revise our approach to reviewing State
child welfare programs to reflect this focus on results. Through our innovative monitoring
strategy, we are working with States to improve their performance in keeping children safe,
securing permanent families and promoting children's development. By combining a meaningful
monitoring process with the provision of focused technical assistance, there is great potential to
improve the operation of child welfare services.
We are also working to ensure that at both the State and the national levels we have the
infrastructure needed to support a focus on results. Through the Statewide Automated Child
Welfare Information System (SACWIS) initiative, we are providing much needed leadership and
financial support to encourage the development of modern, integrated systems that can both
provide data needed to track outcomes for children and support frontline workers. At the
national level we are moving forward in the implementation of the Adoption and Foster Care
Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data
System (NCANDS). These efforts already are yielding more extensive and reliable data on
children in the child welfare system than we have ever had in the past.
Conclusion
There is much work to be done to improve the well-being of children. By continuing to work
together I believe that we can build on the important work we have begun and move forward to
ensure the well-being of America's most vulnerable children.
