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Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the HOT issues in child welfare?
 Keeping children safe in foster care
- The Adoption and Safe Families Act: Key findings and implications
- Who abandons babies and why
- Challenges facing the child welfare workforce
- Treatment and prevention of mental health and substance abuse disorders
- Preventing child fatalities
- Financing the child welfare system
- What policies and practices does CWLA advocate for on Capitol Hill?
Our nation, much like out families, our cities, and our states, is facing ever greater challenges with more limited resources. Difficult choices continue to confront the President and Congress. Homeland and economic security continue to be vital objectives, but we know our homeland will never be truly secure if our children are not safe from abuse and neglect and if they are not adequately clothed, fed, housed, and educated. Nationwide, CWLA, its member agencies, child advocates, and child and family-serving members of Congress continue to push for a legislative agenda that will ensure the needs of our nation's children, youth, and families are met. CWLA's 2003 legislative priorities include:
- The Act to Leave No Child Behind
- The Child Protection/Alcohol and Drug Partnership Act
- The Younger Americans Act
- Child Care
- Head Start
- Social Services Block Grant (Title XX)
- Medicaid, State Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment Program
- The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program
- The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act
- Independent Living Training Vouchers
- Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
- Child Welfare Workforce Training
- The Adoption Opportunities Program
- Health Care Services and Teen Pregnancy Prevention
- Runaway and Homeless Youth
- What can be done to prevent child fatalities?
In 2002, three children died every day from maltreatment. Though this number is undoubtedly alarming, it does not even include the number of children and youth who die each day from gun violence, automobile accidents, accidental injuries, and preventable illnesses. Children's safety and security depend first and foremost on their parents' ability and willingness to protect them from exposure to violence and other harms. Yet protecting children in their homes, neighborhoods, and schools is also the shared responsibility of family members, neighbors, educators, public and private agencies, law enforcement, and community residents. Child fatalities can be prevented by providing workers with the tools they need to go into communities and work in-depth with families. Preventing child fatalities also requires a commitment on the part of lawmakers to ensure that workers are adequately compensated and that they have adequate training to deal with complex emotional, behavioral, and psychological issues.
- What issue has the greatest effect on the capacity of the child welfare system to serve at-risk and vulnerable children and families?
The shortage of a competent, stable child welfare workforce! This shortage affects agencies at every level, including children and youth care staff, social workers, and support and administration staff. A survey by CWLA and other organizations, as well as information from other sources, including the U.S. Department of Labor, confirms the workforce crisis in child welfare. High staff turnover in public and private agencies, the loss of direct service and supervisory staff, and the expected retirement of most experienced administrators over the next 10 years exacerbates this crisis. Between October 2000 and March 2001, average turnover rates in private agencies were 36% for direct staff and 38% for supervisors.
- What are some of the measures being considered to reform the child welfare system?
Newspaper headlines nationwide reveal that we, as a country, need to do more to protect our children from abuse and neglect and to care for the children who are in foster care. All children need protection and do best when they are living in permanent loving homes. There is also a compelling national interest in providing consistent levels of safety, protection, and care for America's children across each state in the nation. CWLA strongly opposes any measure that limits the federal responsibility to participate fully with the states in meeting our fundamental obligation to America's most vulnerable children and families. We believe a new, more complete approach to shared state and federal funding should be implemented. In the meantime, while recognizing the inadequacy of the current program, we believe that it is essential to maintain basic Title IV-E entitlements until a more effective financing method is proposed, tested, and proven effective as a viable national alternative. We advocate:
- preserving Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance entitlements to ensure a continued federal role in supporting abused and neglected children
- ensuring that all abused and neglected children are eligible for foster care and adoption assistance by eliminating the Title IV-E current financial eligibility requirements tied to outdated 1996 Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) standards;
- providing federal support for the full range of services necessary to prevent child abuse and neglect, increase services to promote safety and permanence for children, and assist families struggling with problems such as substance abuse;
- providing incentives to states to increase and support a well-trained workforce prepared to deliver quality services and achieve successful outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system, and providing student loan forgiveness for those who become child welfare workers;
- increasing funding for the Social Services Block Grant, which states use to provide services to children and youth, including adoption, foster care, child protection, independent living, and residential services;
- offering increased opportunities for Indian tribes to receive federal funds for foster care and adoption services by allowing tribes direct access to Title IV-E funding, strengthening the Indian Child Welfare Act by providing the necessary funding and resources for training and support, and increasing funding to tribes in other child well-being programs, such as Head Start, child care, and TANF.
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