RL31746
Child Welfare Issues in the 108th Congress
September 17, 2004

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Summary:

Child welfare services seek to protect children who have been abused or neglected or who are at risk of maltreatment. These services take many forms, ranging from counseling and other supports for parents -- intended to prevent child abuse and neglect and improve child well-being -- to removal of the children from the home. At the most extreme, these services include termination of parental rights and placement of the children for adoption. States have the primary responsibility for designing and administering child welfare services. However, the federal government supports the services with significant funds and requires states to comply with federal standards. An estimated 896,000 children were the victims of child abuse or neglect in the year 2002. Some children who experience maltreatment are removed from their homes with protective custody given to the state. On the last day of FY2002, an estimated 532,000 children were living in foster care (foster family, group, residential or other kind of home or placement setting). In December, President Bush signed the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-145), which reauthorized and amended adoption incentives payments for states that increase the number of adoptions out of the public child welfare system. The Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36), which reauthorized the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and several related programs, was signed into law in June 2003. In June 2004, P.L. 108-262 extended, through September 30, 2004, the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to approve new child welfare waivers. In May 2004 the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care released its recommendations for revamping the way federal child welfare funds are distributed. Among its suggestions, the Commission would end the current income eligibility requirements for federal adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payments; it also recommends keeping the current open-ended funding of these programs while reducing the federal matching rate for eligible claims. Introduced in July, H.R. 4856, would follow the Pew Commission's proposal by removing most income eligibility criteria for federal adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payments and by lowering federal matching rates for eligible adoption assistance and foster care maintenance payment claims. H.R. 4856, however, proposes to end open-ended federal funding for foster care maintenance payments (while retaining it for adoption assistance). A number of generally less broad legislative proposals related to child welfare financing have been introduced in the 108th Congress. Additional childwelfare-related proposals designed to improve services, promote timely placement of children across state lines, and for other purposes, are described in this report. On September 9, the House passed H.R. 5006, which would provide FY2005 funding for child welfare programs. The full Senate has not yet considered FY2005 appropriations for child welfare programs. However, on September 15, the Senate Committee on Appropriations approved a bill (S. 2810) with child welfare program funding levels similar, in many cases, to those passed by the House and requested by the President. (See Table 1 inside.) This report will be updated as needed.