[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5246 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5246

   To examine and improve the child welfare workforce, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 6, 2010

 Mr. Kennedy introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To examine and improve the child welfare workforce, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Child Welfare Workforce Study Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1)(A) Research indicates that child welfare staff face a 
        variety of obstacles that hinder their effective work with 
        children and families in the child welfare system. These 
        obstacles include barriers described in subparagraphs (B) 
        through (D).
            (B) High caseload and high workload levels prevent child 
        welfare staff from working intensively with children and 
        families and monitoring their progress carefully.
            (C) Child welfare staff report an absence of sufficient 
        access to supervision, mentoring, and professional advancement. 
        A lack of access to supervision, mentoring, and professional 
        advancement contributes to staff burnout and turnover.
            (D) States report difficulty hiring and retaining quality 
        child welfare staff. The average tenure of such a staff member 
        is less than 2 years. In addition to the increased cost of 
        hiring and training new child welfare staff, high turnover 
        rates among such staff are associated with multiple placements 
        of children in foster care, longer lengths of stays in foster 
        care, lower rates of permanency, and failed efforts at family 
        reunification. Lengthy periods of foster care increase costs 
        for child welfare agencies, as maintaining children in foster 
        care is more expensive than adoption, reunification, or other 
        permanency options.
            (2) Supervision, staff preparation and training, caseloads, 
        workloads, data and accountability, working conditions, 
        cultural competence, and leadership are key components of an 
        effective child welfare workforce.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Child welfare staff.--The term ``child welfare staff'' 
        means--
                    (A) employees of State, tribal, or local child 
                welfare agencies, who are working with children and 
                families that have contact with such a child welfare 
                agency, in order to promote safety, permanence, and 
                well-being for children and families; and
                    (B) employees of State-licensed or State-approved 
                nonprofit private agencies, who are working with 
                children and families that have contact with a State, 
                tribal, or local child welfare agency in order to 
                promote safety, permanence, and well-being for children 
                and families.
            (2) Related professionals.--The term ``related 
        professionals'', used with respect to child welfare staff, 
        means individuals employed by public or nonprofit private 
        agencies in child- and family-serving fields including 
        education, health, mental health, substance abuse prevention 
        and treatment, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and domestic 
        violence, who work with children and families that have contact 
        with a State, tribal, or local child welfare agency.
            (3) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of Health and Human Services.
            (4) State.--The term ``State'' has the meaning provided in 
        section 1101(a) of the Social Security Act for purposes of part 
        E of title IV of such Act.

SEC. 4. DATA COLLECTION AND RESEARCH TO INCREASE ACCOUNTABILITY FOR 
              OUTCOMES FOR CHILDREN.

    (a) National Child Welfare Staff Study.--
            (1) Study and report.--The Secretary shall enter into an 
        agreement with the National Academy of Sciences, under which 
        the National Academy of Sciences shall--
                    (A) conduct a national study of child welfare 
                staff, highlighting promising approaches, to--
                            (i) examine and provide findings related to 
                        the demographic and other characteristics of 
                        child welfare staff, including compensation, 
                        academic degrees held, education and training 
                        received, and turnover;
                            (ii) examine and provide findings regarding 
                        factors contributing to child welfare staff 
                        turnover and strategies that have been 
                        effective in reducing the turnover by type of 
                        child welfare services, including preventive, 
                        protective, foster care, independent living, 
                        adoption, and kinship care services;
                            (iii)(I) examine and provide findings 
                        regarding strengths and challenges present in 
                        the working relationship between child welfare 
                        staff, legal and court staff, and other related 
                        professionals; and
                            (II) make recommendations regarding how 
                        this working relationship may be improved;
                            (iv) examine and provide findings, and make 
                        recommendations, regarding appropriate overall 
                        workloads and caseloads for all child welfare 
                        staff, including appropriate workloads and 
                        caseloads for supervisors, analyzed by type of 
                        child welfare staff member supervised, 
                        including those providing child welfare 
                        services, including preventive, protective, 
                        foster care, independent living, adoption, and 
                        kinship care services, and appropriate 
                        measurement of such overall workloads and 
                        caseloads;
                            (v)(I) examine and provide findings related 
                        to policy and practice regarding education 
                        level and training requirements for child 
                        welfare staff by type of work, including 
                        providing preventive, protective, foster care, 
                        adoption, and kinship care services; and
                            (II) make recommendations regarding 
                        appropriate education levels and training to 
                        ensure competent child welfare staff; and
                            (vi)(I) examine and provide findings 
                        related to the kinds of data available to or 
                        collected by State or local child welfare 
                        agencies with regard to child welfare staff;
                            (II) examine the methods and kinds of data 
                        on child welfare staff that States report to 
                        the Secretary through the data collection 
                        systems authorized under section 103(c)(1)(C) 
                        of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act 
                        and sections 477(f) and 479 of the Social 
                        Security Act (42 U.S.C. 677(f) and 679);
                            (III) make recommendations on how States 
                        might collect data on child welfare staff, 
                        including data on the type of work staff are 
                        performing, and report the data to the 
                        Secretary, regularly and in a manner that 
                        enables the data to be linked to the outcomes 
                        achieved for individual children served by the 
                        State or local child welfare agency involved, 
                        which shall include--
                                    (aa) a means of incorporating the 
                                data into the data collection system 
                                authorized under section 479 of the 
                                Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 679); 
                                and
                                    (bb) as appropriate, a means of 
                                linking the data to the information 
                                collected through the data collection 
                                systems authorized under section 
                                103(c)(1)(C) of the Child Abuse 
                                Prevention and Treatment Act and under 
                                section 477(f) of the Social Security 
                                Act (42 U.S.C. 677(f)); and
                            (IV) examine and provide findings regarding 
                        the impact of data collection procedures and 
                        requirements on child welfare staff, and make 
                        recommendations for collecting data on child 
                        welfare staff in such a way that the attention 
                        and time of child welfare staff are not 
                        diverted from providing services to children 
                        and families in order to meet data collection 
                        requirements; and
                    (B) not later that 18 months after the date on 
                which the Secretary and the National Academy of 
                Sciences enter into the agreement, submit a report 
                containing the results of the study, including the 
                findings and recommendations described in subparagraph 
                (A), to the Secretary.
            (2) Consultation with indian tribes and tribal 
        organizations.--The agreement entered into by the Secretary and 
        the National Academy of Sciences under paragraph (1) shall 
        require that, in conducting the study described in that 
        paragraph, the National Academy of Sciences shall consult with 
        Indian tribes and tribal organizations (as defined in section 4 
        of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act 
        (25 U.S.C. 450b)) regarding any aspects of the study that will 
        address tribal-specific or unique issues, concerns, or special 
        circumstances with respect to Indian children and their 
        families.
            (3) Report to congress.--Not later than 3 months after 
        receiving the report submitted under paragraph (1)(B), the 
        Secretary shall transmit the report to the appropriate 
        committees of Congress, along with a description of how the 
        Secretary plans to consult with State administrators, Indian 
        tribes and tribal organizations, child welfare staff, and other 
        appropriate stakeholders to issue the proposed regulations 
        described in subsection (b)(1).
            (4) Authorization of appropriations.--There is authorized 
        to be appropriated to carry out paragraph (1) such sums as are 
        necessary for fiscal years 2011 and 2012.
    (b) Collection and Reporting of Data on Child Welfare Staff.--
            (1) Proposed regulations.--The Secretary shall consult with 
        State administrators, child welfare staff, and other 
        appropriate stakeholders and, not later than 12 months after 
        receiving the report described in subsection (a)(1)(B), shall 
        issue proposed regulations, which shall--
                    (A) be based on the recommendations in the report; 
                and
                    (B) require States to collect data on child welfare 
                staff, and report the data to the Secretary, regularly 
                and in a manner that enables the data to be linked to 
                the outcomes achieved for individual children served by 
                the State or local child welfare agency involved, which 
                shall include--
                            (i) a means of incorporating the data into 
                        the data collection system authorized under 
                        section 479 of the Social Security Act (42 
                        U.S.C. 679); and
                            (ii) as appropriate, a means of linking the 
                        data to the information collected through the 
                        data collection systems authorized under 
                        section 103(c)(1)(C) of the Child Abuse 
                        Prevention and Treatment Act and under section 
                        477(f) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
                        677(f)).
            (2) Final regulations.--Not later than 2 years after 
        receiving the report described in subsection (a)(1)(B), the 
        Secretary shall issue final regulations that meet the 
        requirements of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of paragraph (1).
                                 <all>