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CWLA 2008 Children's Legislative Agenda
Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act
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Action
- Reauthorize the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
(CAPTA), including its three main programs: state grants,
discretionary grants, and the Community-Based Child
Abuse Prevention grants.
- Strengthen funding for innovative approaches to address
child abuse and neglect such as alternate or differential
response and Family Group Decision Making (FGDM).
- Use CAPTA reauthorization to focus attention on the lack
of adequate front-end child abuse and neglect prevention
services and their role in the over-representation of
children of color in the system.
- Fully fund CAPTA and the Community-Based Child Abuse
Prevention grants at authorized levels so that child abuse and
neglect protection programs and services can be implemented.
- Strengthen funding for the implementation of research
and program evaluation efforts to help advance the field of
prevention of child abuse and neglect towards more evidenceinformed
and evidence-based programs and practices.
Background
Enacted in 1974 and reauthorized in 2003, CAPTA is a key
federal legislative vehicle that guides child protection throughout
the 50 states. Although funded well below its authorized
level, CAPTA provides grants to states to support their child
protection systems (CPS), innovations in protective services
and community-based preventive services, and research, training,
data collection, and program evaluation. The legislation is
also the vehicle for reauthorizing the Adoption Opportunities
Act and the Abandoned Infants Assistance Act.
CAPTA in the 110th Congress
- Reauthorizing CAPTA provides an opportunity to explore
issues involving child abuse and neglect. Some states, for
example, use the differential response method to address
reports of abuse and neglect. Differential response is a form of
practice in child protective services that allows for more than
one method of response to reports of child abuse and/or neglect.
Also called "dual track," "multiple track," or "alternative
response," this approach recognizes the variation in the
nature of reports and the value of responding differentially. 1
There is great variation in state and county implementation
of differential response, which generally involves low- and moderate-
risk cases that receive a non-investigation assessment
response without a formal determination or substantiation of
child abuse and neglect. 2 While states are attempting several
approaches in this area, the basic policy difference is in how
complaints of abuse and neglect are dealt with and screened
into or out of the CPS system. In some instances, responses to
reports of child abuse and neglect may result in greater family
support and services to address the underlying causes.
Another innovation to be examined under reauthorization
is FGDM, which offers a new approach to working with
families involved with the child welfare system. Families are
engaged and empowered by child welfare agencies to make
decisions and develop plans that protect and nurture their
children from enduring further abuse and neglect. The
FGDM approach recognizes that families are the experts of
their own situation and, therefore, able to make wellinformed
decisions about their circumstance. 3
The debate over CAPTA reauthorization provides a platform
to discuss how to regulate and oversee the use of certain
facilities that are sometimes referred to as boot camps,
wilderness camps, or boarding schools, and the abuses that
have sometimes taken place in such settings and facilities.
A recent investigation by the Government Accountability
Office (GAO) demonstrated that some facilities lack proper
monitoring and are left unregulated, resulting in abuse of
some youth patients and tragic loss of life.
CAPTA requires states establish mandatory reporter laws.
These laws require certain professions, including physicians,
teachers, and other professionals, to report suspected abuse
and neglect. In 2006, CWLA called on Congress to extend
mandatory reporting requirements to Congress so that any
potential abuse in congressional settings, such as child care
facilities or dormitories for congressional pages, will have a
procedure for reporting child abuse. 4
CAPTA reauthorization also offers policymakers the
opportunity to address the issue of disproportionality and
disparate outcomes in the child welfare population. The
GAO found that while African American children only make
up 15% of the national child population, African American
children represent 34% of the foster care population. Native
Americans represent 1% of the general population and 2%
of the foster care population, and a constituency identified
as "other" by the GAO only represents 2% of the child population,
while representing 5% of the foster care population.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the GAO
have determined several factors contribute to a disproportionate
number of African American children entering and
remaining in foster care, including bias or cultural misunderstandings
between child welfare decision makers and the
families they serve. The GAO noted in its study that "in all
of the states we visited," a lack of adequate support services
contributed to disproportionality and disparate outcomes.
The lack of adequate funding under CAPTA has become
more acute with the implementation of the President's Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) Program Assessment
Rating Tool (PART) and the increased focus on accountability
and ensuring funds are spent on programs and services that
can show evidence of achieving positive outcomes. The implementation
of evidence-informed and evidence-based programs
and practices have significant cost implications attached to
them that generally are not funded. The infrastructure costs for
evaluating programs, creating programs and services that are
evidence-informed with an evaluative component, and adapting
evidence-based programs and practices are often prohibitive. 5
State Grants
Title I of CAPTA authorizes discretionary grants to the states
to help improve their CPS systems. Funding for these grants
has grown only slightly over the past several years, and for
the current fiscal year, funding was cut by $500,000, for a
total of $26.5 million. These grants range in size from $3
million for California, to less than $200,000 for 15 states.
CAPTA imposes no income or other eligibility requirements
for people receiving assistance, and the program is intended
to keep children of any age safe from harm. States use these
grants to develop innovative approaches to improve CPS systems.
States must meet eligibility requirements, such as having
mandatory reporting laws, preserving victim confidentiality,
appointing guardians ad litem and providing them with
appropriate training, and establishing citizen review panels.
Discretionary Grants
CAPTA discretionary funds support state efforts to improve
their practices in preventing and treating child abuse and
neglect. Grants support program development, research,
training, technical assistance, and the collection and dissemination
of data to advance the prevention and treatment
of child abuse and neglect. FY 2008 funding for these discretionary
grants was $27.1 million, with an additional $10
million designated for home visitation programs.
These funds also support the National Child Abuse and
Neglect Data System, the only federal data collection effort
to determine the scope of child abuse and neglect. CAPTA
funds also support other national initiatives, such as the
National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, the
National Office of Child Abuse and Neglect (commonly known
as OCAN), the National Resource Center for Child Protective
Services, and the Child Welfare Information Gateway. Total
funding for state and discretionary grants was $63 million
in FY 2008, with authorization set at $200 million.
Community - Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP)
Grants for Preventiion of child Abuse and Neglect
CBCAP grants support states' efforts to develop, operate,
and expand a network of community-based, preventionfocused
family resource and support programs that coordinate
resources among a range of existing public and private
organizations. The FY 2008 funding level was cut $800,000
to a total of $41.6 million, which includes a 1% set aside
for tribal and minority work and for the National Resource
Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention.
Funding is allocated to states by a formula based on the
number of children in a state's population and on the amount
of funds directed through the grant recipient to prevention
and family resource activities. Governors designate their
state's funding recipient, which must be an existing entity,
with priority consideration for children's trust funds or other
entities that leverage a mix of funds for prevention activities.
Key Facts
- In 2005, an estimated 3.3 million children were reported and
referred for investigation to state and local child protection
service agencies because family members, professionals, or
other citizens were concerned about their safety and well-being. 6
- After follow-up assessments, officials substantiated
899,000 of these cases. 7
- An estimated 1,460 children died as a result of abuse and
neglect in 2005. 8
- Of the children who were victims of abuse and neglect in 2005,
62.8% were neglected, 16.6% were physically abused, 9.3%
were sexually abused, and 7.1% were emotionally maltreated. 9
- More than three-quarters of perpetrators of child maltreatment
(79.4%) were parents. 10
- Exposure to adverse childhood events (ACEs) is associated
with increased risk of depressive disorders for decades
after they occur. Early recognition of childhood abuse and
appropriate intervention may thus play an important role
in the prevention of depressive disorders throughout life. 11
Sources
- Merkel-Holguin, L. (2007). What is FGDM? Putting families back into the child protection partnership: Family Group Decision Making. Available online. Denver, CO: American Humane Association. back
- Schene, P. (2005). The emergence of differential response. Protecting Children, 20(2-3), 4-7. back
- Merkel-Holguin, L., Kaplan, C., & Kwak, A. (2006). National Study on Differential Response in Child Welfare. Denver, CO, and Washington, DC: American Humane Association and the Child Welfare League of America. back
- U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2007). African American children in foster care: Additional HHS assistance needed to help states reduce the proportion in care. [GAO-07-816.] Washington, DC: Author. back
- Family Resource Information, Education, and Network Development Service and Children's Bureau. (2007). Guidelines for CBCAP lead agencies on evidence-based and evidence-informed programs and practices: Learning along the way. Available online. Washington, DC: Authors. back
- U.S. Census Bureau. (2006). National population estimates - characteristics. National sex and age (NC-EST2006-02). Available online. Washington, DC: Author. back
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (HHS, ACYF). (2007). Child maltreatment 2005, summary. Available online. Washington, DC: Author. back
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (HHS, ACYF). (2007). Child maltreatment 2005, child fatalities. Available online. Washington, DC: Author. back
- HHS, ACYF, Child maltreatment 2005, summary. back
- Ibid. back
- Chapman, D.P., Whitfield, C.L., Felitti, V.J., Dube, S.R., Edwards, V.J, & Anda, R.F. (2004). Adverse childhood experiences and the risk of depressive disorders in adulthood. Journal of Affective Disorders, 82(2), 217-225. back
CWLA Contact
John Sciamanna
703/412-3161
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