Children’s Bureau/ACYF/ACF
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Remarks by Martin Gould, Ed.D.
Senior Research Specialist
National Council on Disability

NCANDS State Technical Asisstance Meeting

December 15, 2004

Good morning. Thank you for inviting the National Council on Disability (NCD) to be here today. NCD is an independent federal agency making recommendations to the President and Congress on issues affecting 54 million Americans with disabilities. It is composed of 15 members appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. NCD is the only federal agency charged with addressing, analyzing, and making recommendations on issues of public policy that affect people with disabilities regardless of age, disability type, perceived employment potential, economic need, functional ability, veteran status, or other individual circumstance.

NCD’s funding is included in the appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies (see, House Report 108-636). NCD’s statutory mandate is derived from Title IV of the Rehabilitation Act, Section 451, and involves a number of duties including, but not limited to:

• Reviewing and evaluating all statutes and regulations pertaining to federal programs that assist people with disabilities, to assess their effectiveness in meeting the needs of these people.
• Reviewing and evaluating emerging federal, state, local, and private sector policy issues that affect people with disabilities.
• Making recommendations to the President, Congress, and other officials of federal agencies regarding ways to promote equal opportunity, economic self-sufficiency, independent living, and inclusion and integration into all aspects of society for Americans with disabilities.
• Providing Congress with advice, recommendations, legislative proposals, and other information that NCD or Congress deems appropriate. and
• Preparing and submitting to the President and Congress an annual report, National Disability Policy: A Progress Report.

NCD’s annual progress report to the President and Congress is prepared pursuant to our statutory responsibility to make a full report of its activities, findings, and recommendations in key areas to the leaders of our nation. The report covers subjects on which we must report according to the law. This report also addresses several additional subjects that NCD believes to be of importance to Americans with disabilities and to the nation.

This report's 13 chapters address disability statistics and research, civil rights, education, health care, long-term services and supports, youth, employment and the workforce development system, welfare reform, housing, transportation, assistive technology and telecommunications, international affairs, and homeland security. Each chapter recounts developments of importance from the previous year, describes the key issues likely to emerge or open for discussion in the reporting year, and addresses long-term trends and interconnections between subject areas that NCD believes must inform our analysis. Each chapter also contains detailed recommendations, addressed to specific agencies or decision makers. The chapters call for actions that NCD has concluded would contribute to improvement of the opportunities available in society for people with disabilities.

Our most recent annual report was released December 9, 2004 . We are hard at work on the next edition, which will likely include a focus on the issue of child abuse and neglect. We are repeatedly reminded of the prevalence and consequences of child abuse or neglect and its impact on children with disabilities, such as the: (a) December 2, 2004 report by the Rhode Island Office of the Child Advocate and the death of a toddler in the custody of the state, and (b) December 9, 2004 report of the New Jersey Office of the Child Advocate about its independent review of the cases of 12 N.J children – some of whom had disabilities - who died of suspected child abuse,

It is our belief that the NCANDS can support our work in providing advice to the White House and Congress by incorporating (CAPTA) disability data tables - based on state reported data - in the Administration on Child and Families’ annual report to Congress on Child Maltreatment. In addition, we presume, this state reported data will compliment and fulfill the requirements of other important and related federal legislation that NCD is following including the:

- IDEA Improvement Act of 2004 which includes provisions for referrals for evaluation for early intervention of children who experience substantiated cases of trauma due to family violence; as well as requiring State assurances that require referrals for early intervention services for children under the age of 3 who are involved in a substantiated case of child abuse or neglect. and

- Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act of 2004 which includes provisions for reporting and reduction of child abuse and family violence incidences on Indian reservations.

It’s our understanding that about two-thirds of States are submitting the required CAPTA data. NCD also hopes more States will report disability risk factors in their regular submissions to ACF for NCANDS, and that a more complete picture can be presented to Congress in future Child Maltreatment reports to Congress. Without such reporting, the Federal Government will continue to experience difficulty in its efforts to construct and conduct: safety net monitoring regarding some of its most vulnerable children; violence prevention programs in conjunction with its state partners; technical assistance and staff training programs for outreach to state and local communities demonstrating disproportionate maltreatment recurrence rates; and, reliable federal data collection and research efforts for use in collaboration with state and local governments.

Thank you for the opportunity to share these views today.