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Federal Budget Fails America's Most Vulnerable Children
December 8, 2003, Washington, DC-- Despite repeated promises and assurances from the President and the Congress, Washington is failing the children of this country who are abused and neglected by cutting total discretionary spending for child welfare services in 2004. At a time of public outrage at the newspaper headlines graphically depicting the breakdown in protecting our children from abuse and neglect, now is clearly not the time to have Washington neglect their federal responsibility to ensuring the safety of every child. Even though the federal budget has increased overall, the commitment to children who have been abused or neglected is woefully inadequate. Within days, Congress is expected to vote to approve this budget.
This federal budget fails to deliver for our most vulnerable children. The result is alarming. For example, the Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) program that helps keep families together has been frozen at the same funding level for the past two years. This is despite the President's commitment for the past three years to increase funding for this program by $1 billion over five years. In 2004, PSSF will fall far short of its promised funding level, resulting in less support for adoptive families, fewer efforts to keep families together, and reduced assistance for many children reunited with their families.
At a time when states are struggling to provide services, critical funding for needed prevention, training, and family support services have all been funded at last year's level or less: the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act state grants, discretionary funds, and community resource centers; the Adoption Opportunities program; the Title IV-B Child Welfare Training and Child Welfare Services; and the Adoption Incentive Bonus. With the high level of need of children who are abused and neglected and their families as demonstrated daily in news reports, these cuts may cause irreparable harm.
We are, however, extremely appreciative that the Congress did not act on the President's plan to cap or block grant the federal foster care program funding. The only significant increase in the 2004 budget for children in the child welfare system is to Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance, entitlements that are protected by law from the spending decisions made each year by Congress. Under current law, the Title IV-E entitlements will increase by $255 million more over earlier projections. If the Congress had allowed the cap on entitlements to be enacted, millions of dollars to states for children in foster care and those awaiting adoption would be cut permanently. Clearly, this is a failure to correlate the needs of children with adequate funding.
The Child Welfare League of America fully recognizes the need to improve the national system of care for abused and neglected children, and wants to work with the President and the Congress on real reform. Real reform means reliable, responsive, and predictable guaranteed funding for a full range of essential services, as well as placement and treatment services. It includes a consistent focus on safety, permanency, and well-being as outcomes for children; rigorous standards with strong federal and state accountability; and recruitment and support of trained child welfare professionals, foster and adoptive parents, mentors, and community volunteers. Resources must be available to provide direct access to child welfare funding for tribal governments, as well as enable parents to provide adequate protection and care for their own children.
To cut expenditures across programs for children who have been abused and neglected at a time of increasing need will only serve to create a larger chasm of children who are abused or neglected. Only through significant new resources and strategies for federal, state, and local communities can we effectively promote safety and permanence for children and prevent child abuse and neglect in America.
Established in 1920, the Child Welfare League of America is the nation's oldest and largest membership-based child welfare organization. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CWLA strives to advance sound public policy on behalf of the more than three million abused, neglected and vulnerable children served by its more than 1,100 public and private member agencies. To further its mission of preserving, protecting, and promoting the well-being of all children and families, CWLA conducts research, develops standards of best practice, hosts regional and national conferences, provides comprehensive, field-based consultation and professional development services, and is the largest publisher of child welfare materials in North America.
For additional information, please contact the CWLA Press Office at 202/942-0244 or e-mail pressoffice@cwla.org.
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