    [House Hearing, 113 Congress]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]

                             LETTING KIDS BE KIDS:
                             BALANCING SAFETY WITH
                          OPPORTUNITY FOR FOSTER YOUTH

    =======================================================================

                                    HEARING

                                   before the

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

                                     of the

                          COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS
                         U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                        ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS

                                 FIRST SESSION

                                   __________

                                  MAY 9, 2013

                                   __________

                              Serial No. 113-HR04

                                   __________

             Printed for the use of the Committee on Ways and Means

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                          COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS

                         DAVE CAMP, Michigan, Chairman

    SAM JOHNSON, Texas                   SANDER M. LEVIN, Michigan
    KEVIN BRADY, Texas                   CHARLES B. RANGEL, New York
    PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin                 JIM MCDERMOTT, Washington
    DEVIN NUNES, California              JOHN LEWIS, Georgia
    PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio              RICHARD E. NEAL, Massachusetts
    DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington        XAVIER BECERRA, California
    CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, JR., Louisiana  LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas
    PETER J. ROSKAM, Illinois            MIKE THOMPSON, California
    JIM GERLACH, Pennsylvania            JOHN B. LARSON, Connecticut
    TOM PRICE, Georgia                   EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
    VERN BUCHANAN, Florida               RON KIND, Wisconsin
    ADRIAN SMITH, Nebraska               BILL PASCRELL, JR., New Jersey
    AARON SCHOCK, Illinois               JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
    LYNN JENKINS, Kansas                 ALLYSON Y. SCHWARTZ, Pennsylvania
    ERIK PAULSEN, Minnesota              DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
    KENNY MARCHANT, Texas                LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California
    DIANE BLACK, Tennessee
    TOM REED, New York
    TODD C. YOUNG, Indiana
    MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania
    TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas
    JAMES B. RENACCI, Ohio

            Jennifer M. Safavian, Staff Director and General Counsel

                      Janice Mays, Minority Chief Counsel

                                     ______

                        SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES

                    DAVID G. REICHERT, Washington, Chairman

    TODD C. YOUNG, Indiana               LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas
    MIKE KELLY, Pennsylvania             JOHN LEWIS, Georgia
    TIM GRIFFIN, Arkansas                JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
    JAMES B. RENACCI, Ohio               DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
    TOM REED, New York
    CHARLES W. BOUSTANY, JR., Louisiana

                                C O N T E N T S

                                   __________
                                                                       Page

    Advisory of May 9, 2013 announcing the hearing...................     2

                                   WITNESSES

    The Honorable Nancy Detert, Florida Senate Senator, District 28..     8
    Talitha James, Foster Youth Fellow, Kidsave......................    18
    Irene Clements, President, National Foster Parent Association....    22
    David Wilkins, Secretary, Florida Department of Children and
      Families and Tanya Wilkins, Advocate for Foster Care and
      Adoption, Governor's Office of Adoption and Child Protection...    34
    Lynn Tiede, Senior Associate Director for Policy, Jim Casey Youth
      Opportunities Initiative.......................................    48

                           SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD

    CCAI, statement..................................................    78
    Generations United Outside Submission............................    73
    Linda Young, statement...........................................    88
    Mandy Urwiler, letter............................................    89
    Will Lightbourne and Frank Mecca, statement......................    90

                            QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD

    Florida Department of Children and Families......................    71

                             LETTING KIDS BE KIDS:
                       BALANCING SAFETY WITH OPPORTUNITY
                                FOR FOSTER YOUTH

                                  ----------

                             THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2013

                 U.S. House of Representatives,
                           Committee on Ways and Means,
                               Subcommittee on Human Resources,
                                                        Washington, DC.
        The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:32 a.m. in
    Room 1100, Longworth House Office Building, the Honorable David
    Reichert [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
        [The advisory of the hearing follows:]

    HEARING ADVISORY

    FROM THE
    COMMITTEE
     ON WAYS
    AND
    MEANS

    Chairman Reichert Announces Hearing on Letting Kids Be Kids: Balancing
                    Safety With Opportunity for Foster Youth

    Washington, May 2013

        Congressman Dave Reichert (R-WA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on
    Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced
    that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing titled, ``Letting Kids Be
    Kids: Balancing Safety with Opportunity for Foster Youth.'' The hearing
    will review recent State efforts to improve the lives of foster youth
    by eliminating barriers that unnecessarily limit the activities of
    children in foster care. The hearing will take place at 9:30 a.m. on
    Thursday, May 9, 2013, in Room 1100 of the Longworth House Office
    Building.

        In view of the limited time available to hear from witnesses, oral
    testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only.
    Witnesses will include experts from Florida, which has recently enacted
    legislation to improve opportunities for foster youth, as well as other
    experts in foster care and child welfare. However, any individual or
    organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written
    statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the
    printed record of the hearing.

    BACKGROUND:

        In 2011, over 250,000 children entered foster care across the
    country. For these children, entering foster care is a traumatic
    experience resulting in dramatic changes in their lives. For example,
    children who enter foster care often move to a new school where they
    must make new friends, try to fit in, and begin new efforts to
    participate in sports and other activities in their new community.
    These and other changes make it even harder for foster youth to
    successfully grow and develop.
        In recent years, Congress has enacted a series of reforms designed
    to reduce the number of children in foster care, as well as increase
    the stability of the lives of youth in care. These recent Federal and
    State reforms have resulted in more children staying safely in their
    own homes and more children being adopted instead of languishing in
    foster care. For children who do enter foster care, several Federal
    laws have been designed to promote school stability to improve the
    lives of foster youth. The Fostering Connections to Success and
    Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 sought to ensure that States keep
    foster youth in the same school whenever possible. The 2013
    Uninterrupted Scholars Act allows child welfare workers access to
    educational records of foster youth so children that have to change
    schools are less likely to fall behind.
        Some foster care policies and practices unnecessarily complicate
    the lives of foster youth. For example, when asked about their
    experiences in foster care, many current and former foster youth often
    cite rules that made it hard for them to participate in sports, stay
    over at a friend's house, get a driver's license, or hold down a part-
    time job. While these policies and practices are often intended to
    ensure the youth's safety, such policies can also further isolate
    foster youth when they are seeking to integrate into a new family,
    school, and community.
        A number of States have taken steps to eliminate overly burdensome
    requirements and improve the lives of children in foster care. For
    example, California enacted a law in 2004 giving foster youth the right
    to participate in age-appropriate activities, while also making changes
    to State policy to eliminate overly restrictive rules for foster youth
    and foster parents. In April 2013, Florida enacted a law to reduce
    rules and regulations that currently limit the activity of children in
    foster care. Other States have taken similar actions to examine State
    policies and make reforms to allow foster youth to be treated more like
    other kids--including participating in age-appropriate activities like
    sports, staying over with friends, and getting a driver's license.
        In announcing the hearing, Chairman Reichert stated, ``Children in
    foster care deserve our protection. But they also deserve the same
    opportunities as other kids. Unfortunately, in the name of safety,
    foster youth are sometimes kept from participating in everyday
    activities like playing sports, spending time with friends, and getting
    a driver's license. A number of States have listened to the concerns of
    foster youth and made changes to better balance safety with
    opportunity. As May is National Foster Care Month, now is the perfect
    time to review this issue, highlight what some States have been doing
    about it, and determine what else we can do to help foster kids be
    kids.''

    FOCUS OF THE HEARING:

        The hearing will review policies and practices that limit
    opportunities for foster youth, as well as review recent State efforts
    to allow foster parents and foster youth to make reasonable decisions
    about the youth's participation in everyday events and activities.

    DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:

        Please Note: Any person(s) and/or organization(s) wishing to submit
    for the hearing record must follow the appropriate link on the hearing
    page of the Committee website and complete the informational forms.
    From the Committee homepage, http://waysandmeans.house.gov, select
    ``Hearings.'' Select the hearing for which you would like to submit,
    and click on the link entitled, ``Please click here to submit a
    statement or letter for the record.'' Once you have followed the online
    instructions, submit all requested information. Attach your submission
    as a Word document, in compliance with the formatting requirements
    listed below, by Thursday, May 23, 2013. Finally, please note that due
    to the change in House mail policy, the U.S. Capitol Police will refuse
    sealed-package deliveries to all House Office Buildings. For questions,
    or if you encounter technical problems, please call (202) 225-1721 or
    (202) 225-3625.

    FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:

        The Committee relies on electronic submissions for printing the
    official hearing record. As always, submissions will be included in the
    record according to the discretion of the Committee. The Committee will
    not alter the content of your submission, but we reserve the right to
    format it according to our guidelines. Any submission provided to the
    Committee by a witness, any supplementary materials submitted for the
    printed record, and any written comments in response to a request for
    written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any
    submission or supplementary item not in compliance with these
    guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee
    files for review and use by the Committee.

        1. All submissions and supplementary materials must be provided in
    Word format and MUST NOT exceed a total of 10 pages, including
    attachments. Witnesses and submitters are advised that the Committee
    relies on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing
    record.

        2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not
    be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be
    referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting
    these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for
    review and use by the Committee.

        3. All submissions must include a list of all clients, persons,
    and/or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears. A
    supplemental sheet must accompany each submission listing the name,
    company, address, telephone, and fax numbers of each witness.

        The Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons
    with disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
    call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event (four
    business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to special
    accommodation needs in general (including availability of Committee
    materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the Committee as
    noted above.
        Note: All Committee advisories and news releases are available
    online at
    http://www.waysandmeans.house.gov/.

        Chairman REICHERT. I will call this Subcommittee hearing to
    order, please. Welcome to today's hearing.
        Entering foster care is a life changing experience for
    children. Foster children are faced with a dizzying array of
    changes that are anything but normal, as all you know.
        They are separated from their parents. They are often sent
    to live with a family they have never met. They may start
    attending a new school, have to make new friends, and make new
    efforts to participate in sports and other activities they
    previously took for granted.
        On top of all this change, we know some child welfare
    policies have the unintended effect of making life even harder
    for our children.
        Rules may keep them from spending time with friends,
    participating in sports and even getting a driver's license or
    finding a summer job. For example, Ryan Cummings from my home
    State of Washington was not able to get a driver's license
    while in foster care. He missed going on vacation with his
    foster family because the rules did not allow him to travel.
        Georgiana Rodriguez from Florida could not play in the high
    school marching band. John Paul Horn from California needed to
    save money before his 18th birthday when he would be on his
    own, but his group foster home rules initially blocked him from
    being able to obtain a job.
        Such foster youth often speak of living in a separate world
    where they are isolated from the community around them, making
    it that much harder for them to succeed.
        While we clearly need to make sure children are safe while
    in foster care, these are examples that highlight how in some
    areas policy makers have gone too far in creating that separate
    world for these kids.
        Now the tide seems to be turning in some areas of the
    country. In recent years, Federal and state reforms have tried
    to allow more children to stay safely in their own homes or be
    adopted instead of spending year after year in foster care.
        For children who must enter foster care, Federal reforms
    have stressed helping children stay in their own school
    whenever possible. Some states have also taken on this issue
    directly. In 2004, California amended their laws to eliminate
    unnecessary restrictions on the activities of foster youth, and
    provide foster parents more flexibility to make responsible
    decisions.
        In 2011, foster youth in Washington State, working with the
    Mockingbird Society, highlighted this issue. Now my state has a
    working group to develop ways to make improvements.
        As we will hear today, Florida enacted a law just this year
    that is designed to ensure foster youth are treated more like
    every other child. This law will allow foster youth more
    freedom to participate in age-appropriate activities like
    sports, sleepovers with friends, and getting a driver's
    license.
        We are going to review those efforts today.
        In the process, we have learned what is being done to
    improve the lives of foster youth and how we can work together
    to better ensure that foster kids can successfully grow and
    develop like other children.
        That is our responsibility, and we welcome all of today's
    witnesses to help us achieve that goal.
        Some of you on the panel may not know my background, but I
    want to share this very quickly. I was in law enforcement for
    33 years before I ended up here in Congress. I look like I have
    been here for 40 years, but it has only been nine, a little
    over eight, really.
        Thirty-three years with the Sheriff's Office in Seattle,
    and part of my time working in the Sheriff's Office, I worked
    on the Green River serial murder case. You might imagine the
    number of young people that the task force members came in
    contact with, children who ran away from home for all kinds of
    reasons, unimaginable treatment sometimes in the homes that
    they ran from, ending up on the street, ending up in foster
    homes, from one foster family to another foster family, running
    away again, out on the street.
        One of the things I like would like to make clear for the
    record, back in the 1980s when we were working this case, the
    detectives cared so much that they gave their home phone
    numbers to these children on the streets. You probably know
    some police officers in your own community who care that much
    and accept those phone calls.
        In the middle of the night, I can remember driving out to
    meet a child who said I do not want to be out here, but I just
    ran away from my foster home. I have nowhere to go. I cannot be
    who I want to be.
        They could not get adopted, they were 14, 15, 16. It was a
    sad experience. We were able to help some of those young
    people. I get calls today still from some of those, mostly
    young women, who I met during that time, who have grown to be
    educated, successful, and have a family.
        There are always good stories to share with folks.
        Thank you all for what you do. I now yield to Mr. Davis for
    his opening statement.
        Mr. DAVIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Either
    fortunately or unfortunately, Mr. Doggett cannot be here today,
    the Ranking Member for this Subcommittee, and he asked if I
    would read his opening statement.
        Children in foster care have the same needs, desires and
    dreams of all children. They need a safe and loving home, and
    they want and deserve the opportunity to learn, to grow, and to
    fully experience life.
        Our foster care system is rightly focused on trying to keep
    kids safe, but safety cannot be the only goal we pursue.
    Children in foster care deserve the opportunity to join in the
    activities that help young people gain confidence and maturity,
    but too many foster youth encounter a ``No Entry'' sign when it
    comes to competing in a sport or going on a field trip or
    working at a part time job.
        Some foster youth cannot even spend the night at a friend's
    house unless they ask their friend's parents to first undergo a
    criminal background check.
        These barriers further isolate kids who already feel
    isolated. Hopefully, this hearing will allow us to examine the
    policies and practices that unduly prevent foster youth from
    joining in the activities that other children take for granted.
        Helping foster youth experience the same things other kids
    do sometimes requires more than just granting them permission.
    Starting a savings account, applying to college, and getting a
    driver's license often requires some guidance and our financial
    assistance.
        Additionally, if we want to empower foster parents to make
    more decisions for the children in their care, we should review
    the supports we give to foster parents as well as our efforts
    to improve the recruitment and retention of caring parents.
        No policy will ever affect a child as much as a committed,
    caring and informed parent.
        Finally, to promote more normalcy for older foster youth,
    we encourage every state to extend foster care to the age of
    21. I have never met a parent who sends their child out the
    door without any support when they turn 18. That was the policy
    of our foster care system for far too long.
        About 20 states have now taken advantage of a change in the
    Federal law to extend foster care, and it is past time for the
    rest of the states to catch up.
        Investing in the success of our foster children is not only
    good for them but it will also reduce unemployment,
    homelessness, teenage pregnancy, incarceration, and other
    negative outcomes that cost society much, much more.
        Mr. Chairman, with this Committee taking the lead, Congress
    has made some progress in recent years in ensuring that a
    child's well being is a central goal of the foster care system.
        I look forward to working with you to continue that trend
    so that every foster child has an opportunity to succeed.
        I thank you for this hearing. I thank all the witnesses for
    coming to participate, and I yield back my time.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Thank you for
    standing in for Mr. Doggett. Mr. Doggett had a choice between
    being with the President of the United States or Mr. Davis and
    myself.
        [Laughter.]
        Chairman REICHERT. I know Mr. Doggett really cares about
    this issue and you can tell from the words that Mr. Davis read
    on his behalf that he is passionate about this, and I
    appreciate his work and Mr. Davis'. This Committee really has a
    close working relationship. Hopefully, we can find a way to
    help our children across this country.
        Without objection, each member will have the opportunity to
    submit a written statement and have it included in the record
    at this point.
        Chairman REICHERT. I want to remind our witnesses to please
    limit your oral statements to five minutes. However, without
    objection, all of the written testimony will be made a part of
    the permanent record today.
        On our panel this morning, we will be hearing from The
    Honorable Nancy Detert, Florida Senate. Talitha James, Foster
    Youth Fellow, Kidsave. Irene Clements, President, National
    Foster Parent Association.
        David Wilkins, Secretary, Florida Department of Children
    and Families, and Tanya Wilkins, Advocate for Foster Care and
    Adoption, Governor's Office of Adoption and Child Protection.
    Lynn Tiede, Senior Associate Director for Policy, Jim Casey
    Youth Opportunities Initiative.
        We are also pleased to be joined by another Ways and Means
    member this morning, Representative Buchanan from Florida. Mr.
    Buchanan would like to introduce a couple of our witnesses
    today.
        Mr. Buchanan.
        Mr. BUCHANAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks for this very
    important hearing. I was back a couple of years ago at a Boys
    and Girls Club, and they said children make up 25 percent of
    the population, 100 percent of the future. I want to thank not
    just our Chairman and the members here, but I also want to
    thank all of our witnesses for being here today. I have hung on
    to that because at the end of the day, that is really what it
    is all about. I really appreciate all the hard work you do
    here.
        It is an honor this morning to introduce my dear friend
    from Florida, State Senator Nancy Detert. I have known and
    admired her for over ten years. She has been an incredible
    Senator. She is a tireless worker with a passion for public
    service, fighting every day to better the lives of her
    constituents.
        I might add just this week I noticed she had the highest
    rating from our papers in terms of Florida finishing its
    legislative session. I think she got an A+. That is the grade I
    would give her as well.
        I should warn the Committee that Nancy has a reputation for
    not mincing words. She is very direct, very blunt. That is what
    I love about her, but she is going to tell you like it is.
        I hope my colleagues will take her words to heart today as
    I will.
        Also from Florida we have two special guests, Mr. Chairman.
    It is my pleasure to introduce from Florida, David and Tanya
    Wilkins. David and Tanya are an incredible husband and wife
    team. That is exactly what they are. My wife was telling me
    they were on a mission trip together a while back, so I know
    where their hearts are set in terms of the work they are doing.
        David is a very dynamic Secretary in the Florida Department
    of Children and Families, with a wealth of experience in both
    the private and public sector. Tanya is a tireless supporter
    for foster care and adoption.
        I think some of your children are some of our adopted
    foster children.
        David and Tanya were the recipient of the 2012 Daniel
    Webster Healthy Families Florida Leadership Award in
    recognition of their work on behalf of Florida's most at risk
    children.
        We are lucky to have them here today, and I look forward to
    their testimony. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Mr. Buchanan. Senator Detert,
    you are recognized for five minutes.

       STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE NANCY DETERT, A SENATOR IN THE
                          FLORIDA STATE SENATE

        Ms. DETERT. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Chairman
    Reichert and Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you,
    Congressman Buchanan, for your kind words.
        I am honored and thank you for the opportunity to
    participate in the hearing today. I am Nancy Detert, a State
    Senator from Florida. I served in the House from 1998 to 2006,
    and was elected to the Florida State Senate in 2008.
        In all those years, I have always served on the Committee
    for Children and Family and have chaired it on occasion. Foster
    care is an issue that I have dealt with for many, many years.
        Our foster care system historically has been focused on
    safety concerns and liability. We felt that our main purpose
    was to protect these children, to take them from unsafe homes
    and make sure they were safe, but in our quest to make them
    safe, what we have done is bubble wrapped these kids and
    deprived them of any kind of normalcy when it comes to
    childhood.
        We have designed a system where they have to check with
    their case worker over every move, things as simple as getting
    a haircut. We succeeded in protecting them but we deprived them
    of a life.
        Foster parents have concerns about safety. They have
    concerns about liability, but children typically miss many
    rights of passage common to their peers. While their friends
    are getting a driver's license, most children in care are not
    because they generally have no one to teach them to drive or
    lack the money for insurance. They do not have parents, they
    cannot even sign for insurance.
        Getting a first job, participating in sports, camping out
    with friends, even going to the prom, that are activities that
    are a normal part of growing up, but not common for children in
    our care.
        The issue of normalcy for children in foster care has been
    addressed in the past, and we promulgated rules in 2004, we
    made rules to solve all of these problems, but we have gone to
    community based care, and not everyone was following the rules.
        This year, we decided--former Secretaries have also issued
    memoranda and did everything they could do make people follow
    the rules, but they did not. Under our new Secretary of DCF,
    Secretary Wilkins, who we are very pleased to have, he is a
    Secretary who understands the issues and has seen them
    firsthand and cares, so the current Department of Children and
    Family Services implemented two surveys to gather data related
    to independent living services and outcomes.
        The surveys captured information from children 13 to 17,
    and from those who have aged out from 18 to 22.
        These are their findings: that children report that 66
    percent are able to spend time with friends without adult
    supervision; 46 percent can spend the night with friends; 53
    percent receive a personal allowance, which is one of our
    rules, so they can learn to manage small amounts of money, but
    that rule was not being implemented.
        Forty-four percent are allowed to go to school events,
    movies, shopping, and other unsupervised activities with
    friends; 14 percent have completed a driver's education course,
    and only two percent have a driver's license.
        I learned early in my legislative career that if you want
    to make a good law, you listen to the people who are affected
    by that law and try to implement the changes that they need,
    and we have listened to the kids.
        In Florida, we are fortunate enough to have a group of
    older teens and young adults known as ``Florida Youth Shine.''
    Youth Shine is a peer driven organization that empowers young
    advocates across the State to regularly identify the challenges
    and help create solutions to our growing problems in our child
    welfare system.
        I just have a few seconds left and I want to share two
    things that we learned in testimony. A young woman began by
    thanking the committee for allowing her voice to be heard. She
    said when you think of normalcy, you think of what everyone
    else is doing. When I think of normalcy, I think of going back
    and forth to court for orders to allow me to do things like
    going to a basketball game or spending the night.
        This is not normalcy. Our new bill changes these laws and
    codifies our rules. We hope to have some time to tell you about
    the laws that we have passed this past session.
        Thank you for your time.
        [The information follows:]

     [GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Senator.
        Ms. James, five minutes, please.

        STATEMENT OF TALITHA JAMES, FOSTER YOUTH FELLOW, KIDSAVE

        Ms. JAMES. I want to thank the Committee for this
    opportunity to speak on behalf of former foster youth and
    current foster youth. My name is Talitha James. I am a former
    CCAI intern. I had the opportunity to intern here on the Hill,
    as well as I am a graduate from California State University of
    Fullerton.
        My experience in care, I was placed in care at the age of
    two. I emancipated at the age of 18. My experience in care was
    not that great, but I know that a lot of youth had the
    opportunity to be placed in great homes, but I did not have
    that opportunity.
        I was placed in homes where I was not allowed to be myself,
    and I was not allowed to participate in sports. The reason
    being was that one of the homes I was placed in, the foster
    parent pretty much told me that I should go to therapy instead
    of playing sports. That was something that I held on to because
    I had a desire to play sports.
        As you have all seen the picture that is being passed
    around, I was on the volleyball team at Lancaster High School
    when I was placed with my aunt, so at the age of 14, I was
    placed with my aunt, and my aunt took the initiative to just
    bypass all the barriers that social workers put in place that
    do not allow foster youth to play sports. She took it upon
    herself to allow me to play sports, and that pretty much
    changed my life.
        Me playing sports, I was allowed to learn what team
    development was all about. I was allowed the opportunity to,
    you know, mess up, and not be reprimanded for that.
        Now, prior to me being on that team, I was bounced around
    from homes to homes, and they did not see the importance of a
    foster child playing sports. And, at that time, as well, they
    also said there was no funding for me to play sports for me or
    no funding for them to pay for a uniform. So that was another
    reason why I was not allowed to play sports. And I just wanted
    to highlight the importance of a lot of the barriers we put in
    place for foster youth to protect them, like we've heard, is a
    hindrance to their success as an adult.
        Had I not played on that team, a lot of the skills that I
    learned on that team I wouldn't have today, just the love for
    sports, the love for my coach that I developed on that team I
    would not have today. So I just wanted to highlight that
    important piece, as well as when I was in care I did not have
    the opportunity to receive rides from friends when I was going
    home. So I would have to walk to school and from school,
    because my foster parents at the time did not want to drop me
    off at school.
        So we had to walk to school. And, a lot of the times my
    friends would offer me the opportunity to have a ride home, but
    I had to explain to them that I couldn't. And, so, finally, one
    of my friends asked me. She said, ``Is everything okay? Are you
    okay?'' And I just finally told her I can't take the ride home,
    because I'm a foster youth. And it didn't make sense to her.
    And she was just so confused, and for me, I understood, because
    I knew the system. But she didn't understand the system. So
    that kind of showed me that that wasn't a normal thing for me
    not to be able to receive a ride from a friend on my way home.
        So those are just a few things I wanted to highlight about
    my experience and care. And, lastly, there was an opportunity
    for me to spend a night at a friend's house. And because they
    did not have time to complete a background check and all those
    things that you have to do in order for a child who is in
    foster care to spend the night, they did not have time to do
    that. And, so, my best friend, again, she wanted me to spend
    the night, and I couldn't do so.
        And, finally, the family, my best friend's family followed
    through on the requirements of completing a background check
    and doing all they needed to do so that I could spend the
    night. And, unfortunately, because they had a pool that was
    raised above ground and it did not have a fence around it, I
    ultimately could not spend the night at the friend's house. So
    it's a lot of barriers in place and we can't tackle them all,
    but I appreciate this opportunity to address the things we can
    tackle, which I think is the normalization of the experience of
    foster care. So, thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. James follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you
    for being here at all, for the struggles that you've gone
    through; and today, here you are testifying in front of the
    United States Congress. Congratulations on your upcoming
    career.
        Ms. JAMES. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Ms. Clements, you are recognized.

    STATEMENT OF IRENE CLEMENTS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FOSTER PARENT
                              ASSOCIATION

        Ms. CLEMENTS. Thank you, Chairman Reichert, and Members of
    the Subcommittee for this opportunity. My name is Irene
    Clements and I'm president of the National Foster Parent
    Association. For the last 43 years, the National Foster Parent
    Association shared the Subcommittee's quest to elevate and
    dramatically improve the foster family services that our
    members provide to children for whom the government has assumed
    temporary and all too often long-term responsibility, as well
    as we serve as the national voice of foster parents.
        My husband and I fostered for 27 years, and during that
    time we fostered 127 children and adopted four of those
    children. During our tenure as foster parents, we fostered
    children of all ages; however, the last 12 years were dedicated
    to youth 14 and over. While we know a lot of well-meaning
    legislation has been passed since 1991, we still have a system
    that's not working well for the children it was designed to
    serve.
        Children experience too many placement disruptions. They're
    often not placed with siblings. They're often placed too far
    from their biological parents to have effective and frequent
    visits or remain in their school. They're frequently not
    involved in decisions made on their behalf or attend court.
    Some children experience unneeded medications, and they often
    feel singled out as different. I'm going to use a couple of
    examples that I have put in my testimony to explain the kind of
    the situations that children experience, but also the
    frustrations of the foster parents because of the system.
        Let me use an example of Mary, who's an 11-year-old child
    in foster care. She was a member of the 4H Club in her small
    town. She wanted to take sewing lessons really bad. They were
    every week on Thursday, after school, and there were four
    little girls in her class. The 4H leader, who taught the
    classes, had been the leader for many years and provided those
    lessons in her home. Mary's foster mother was told that Mary
    could not attend these sewing classes until the 4H leader, and
    any others living in her home who were over the age of 14 had
    criminal background checks.
        Mary didn't understand why the other three little girls
    could go into this home and have sewing lessons when she
    couldn't. Why was it okay for her peers when she couldn't do
    it? Bottom line was that Mary's foster mother said, ``If I
    could, I would have stayed there and supervised each week for
    two hours on Thursday, but I had commitments with two other
    children: one to take to karate class, and one to pick up from
    band practice.'' And because of the family not wanting to get
    everybody in the family to have background checks, because they
    might come home before the class was over, Mary wasn't allowed
    to be in sewing class. So she lost interest in 4H. She dropped
    out. She stopped going to anything. And she became so
    discouraged, and she wanted to know and she kept asking ``Why
    do my friends get to go, but I can't go? What's the
    difference?''
        Then, an example of John, who's a freshman in high school,
    who made the freshman football team. Really, really proud of
    himself, and is keeping his grades up so he can play. His
    foster mother always picked him up after practice every day,
    and occasionally his foster father; but, his foster father
    traveled some for work, and wasn't available all the time. On
    one particular day, John's foster mother had a medical
    emergency with John's sibling, who was also in her home, and
    they were at the hospital. She couldn't pick John up from
    football practice, and her husband wasn't home. So she called
    the coach and asked him if he could take John home.
        John, in his service plan, had the ability to be in the
    home for three hours without supervision. The coach said he
    couldn't do it, because of something else he had to do. But he
    would get one of John's friend's parents to take him home.
    Well, that had occurred. The foster mother got home with the
    other child in about two hours, and everything was fine. A
    couple of days later, the children's caseworker came, and they
    were discussing the hospital visit and then how John got home
    from football practice. Immediately, the caseworker said,
    ``Well, you've broken many rules in this. Let me call my
    supervisor to see if I have to remove these children from your
    home, because you obviously did not supervise these children
    and made a bad decision on their behalf.''
        Thank God the supervisor said, ``No. Let's investigate a
    little bit further before you rip these kids out of this
    placement where they're doing very well.'' This family is not
    going to continue to foster, and they are a really good family.
    They have done really good work with a lot of kids, but they
    are so frustrated with a system that won't allow kids to have a
    normal life. And for when emergencies come up that we have
    understanding, that some of the time these things happen, and
    the outcomes can be all right.
        And, to conclude briefly, the National Association is
    literally looking forward to working with Congress to help make
    normalcy a reality. And we'll work diligently with foster
    parents around the country to help them trust that this move
    from risk aversion to a system that embraces normalization is
    real. Safety plus opportunity equals well being, and that's
    where we need to go with each of our kids. Thank you.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Clements follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you.
        Secretary Wilkins, and Mrs. Wilkins, you are recognized for
    five minutes.

     STATEMENT OF DAVID WILKINS, SECRETARY, FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF
                         CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

        Mr. DAVID WILKINS. Good morning, Chairman Reichert, Members
    of the Subcommittee and Congressman Buchanan. Thank you for
    giving us the opportunity to talk about this issue that's so
    near and dear to all of our hearts. And, as we previously
    mentioned, I am the Secretary of the Florida Department of
    Children and Families. And Tanya, my wife, is the Governor's
    Chief Advocate for Foster Care and Adoption.
        Tanya is a Registered Nurse. I worked for a global
    management consulting technology company for 30 years. We don't
    have a lot of experience in government, but our private sector
    experience and our experience raising our own three daughters,
    and our volunteer experience in fostering children in our home,
    I think, has given us a unique perspective of what are the
    issues. And we are here today to really tell you that the bill
    that we passed in the Florida legislature this session is
    something I think every state of the union could benefit from.
        You have heard testimony from Sen. Detert, talking about
    some of the challenges and some of the numbers of why children
    fell in foster care, and you've heard some of the other
    testimony about just some of the--no other word but bizarre
    rules and processes that have evolved into the foster care
    system over the years. You know, all of the statistics point
    out that the success of children in foster care is simply not
    adequate. And, on further analysis, a large reason of these
    inadequacies is related failures of our foster parenting
    system.
        Our foster parenting population in our state has dropped
    over 15 percent over the last three years. Not surprisingly,
    group home care has risen in that same timeframe. Upon
    surveying many of these parents, we were told that the
    frustrations are extremely high, and you heard some of the
    testimony there. Foster parents are burdened with paper work,
    court responsibilities, a list of job responsibilities, all
    centered around protecting the child, and the result is
    obvious. We are not letting kids be kids and we're not giving
    the parents the permission to parent.
        So, a culture change was needed in our state, and in
    essence to permeate the entire system with the information that
    normalcy in foster care is the most paramount of the goals. The
    parents of our children's families do not need to do
    backgrounds for sleepovers. Young people should be able to go
    to church activities without a licensed foster parent, and
    children should be included in all social and extra curricular
    activities.
        Having seen the need for these types of changes, we
    launched three, key initiatives in the state of Florida. One
    was around performance management of our provider network. We
    now believe that measuring performance is central to promoting
    accountability. We have developed a performance scorecard that
    measures contracted foster care agencies on 11 performance
    measures to determine how well they are meeting the most
    critical needs of our children.
        Since the first scorecard was produced over a year ago, we
    have improved performance by over 25 percent. We also initiated
    a whole initiative around normalcy, as Sen. Detert mentioned.
    We issued open letters to demand normalcy in all of our foster
    parents and provider organizations. We developed media
    campaigns and we issued social networking policies to basically
    say children can have access to the Internet. And, as you all
    know, I think every child has to have access to Face Book.
        That's a new requirement in our children. So this bill is
    absolutely key to our success; but, another key initiative that
    we knew we had to have was an initiative we called Fostering
    Florida's Future. And Tanya will address what we tried to
    accomplish there.

         TANYA WILKINS, ADVOCATE FOR FOSTER CARE AND ADOPTION,
           GOVERNOR'S OFFICE OF ADOPTION AND CHILD PROTECTION

        Mrs. TANYA WILKINS. Good morning, Chairman Reichert,
    Congressman Davis, Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for
    allowing me to speak to your committee about the Fostering
    Florida's Future Initiative. Recognizing that Florida needs
    additional quality foster parents and families who can provide
    safe and loving homes to children in need, we launched the
    Fostering Florida's Future initiative in June of 2012. This is
    a collaboration with our 20 community-based care organizations
    throughout the state with the Guardian Ad Litem, the Florida
    State Foster and Adoptive Parent Association, Quality Parenting
    Initiative, local associations and many others.
        When the Governor appointed me as the state-wide advocate,
    I had no idea how it would change our lives and touch our
    lives. We had been a sponsor family for foster children,
    teenage girls, primarily, from a residential group home in
    Tallahassee. We served them, and as we served them, we would
    listen to their stories. It was heart-wrenching the stories
    that they told us at night when we were tucking them into bed
    at night. And I had to listen to their stories--and we would
    say prayers--of the neglect and abuse that they had endured;
    and, yet, a blessing that we knew we could help empower them to
    overcome and have a future.
        We parented them as we would our own, much like the
    hundreds of foster parents that I've been fortunate to meet.
    Based on these learnings, we landed on an action plan for
    Fostering Florida's Future initiative. We developed an
    awareness campaign with a website, videos and social media. We
    created a recruitment campaign to find 1200 new foster
    families, quality foster families for our children. And we are
    trying to reach that goal by June of 2013, this year.
        We are improving training for foster parents through the
    Quality Parenting Initiative, using trauma-informed care
    principles focusing on awareness of attachment disorders, and
    we have simplified the licensing process. Fostering Florida's
    Future is showing great success in building enthusiasm and
    getting people interested in fostering and making a difference
    in these children's lives; but, most of all, it's helping to
    provide loving and caring families that these vulnerable
    children need.
        [The prepared statement of Mr. David Wilkins follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you. Thank you.
        Ms. Tiede.

    STATEMENT OF LYNN TIEDE, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR POLICY,
                JIM CASEY YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES INITIATIVE

        Ms. TIEDE. Good morning. It is my pleasure to be part of
    today's hearing on ``Letting Kids Be Kids.'' I thank the
    Committee for the invitation to be here and I commend you for
    inviting Talitha to give testimony as well.
        We know first-hand that results are always better when
    young people that have experienced foster care are involved in
    the conversations. I am the policy director with Jim Casey
    Youth Opportunities Initiative, a national foundation named in
    memory of the founder of United Parcel Service, UPS.
        We are focused solely on helping states and communities
    assist older youth in foster care in making successful
    transitions to adulthood. In fact, this hearing is very timely.
    Just this week, Jim Casey launched a national campaign,
    ``Success Beyond 18,'' which promotes state policies supportive
    of normalcy for older youth and young adults in foster care.
        Based on our experiences working in communities across 16
    states, partnering with youth leadership boards, we have
    encountered many, if not all of the barriers that you've heard
    about today. A key underpinning of the Jim Casey approach is
    the knowledge we now have about adolescent brain development.
    This science provides compelling evidence on why these normal
    experiences are so vitally important, especially as young
    people reach their teenage years. States have already begun to
    apply this knowledge.
        The two, critical things to know about adolescent brain
    development is that adolescence is a time of profound brain
    development, paralleling that of early childhood. The brain is
    not done developing at 3 or 6, as previous believed. Secondly,
    the impact of trauma on the brain is not permanent. Through
    adolescence and early adulthood, the brain can alter its
    structure in response to positive experiences and positive
    relationships.
        What does this mean? It means that adolescence is a time
    rich in opportunity, and potential to help young people
    overcome adversity, overcome trauma through positive
    experiences like those normal experiences we're talking about
    today, like playing on a sports team. It has done for us in
    many ways what the research on early childhood brain
    development did. It tells us that what families typically and
    naturally do is what is right.
        How do we act on this knowledge? We do this through letting
    kids be kids, which inherently involves a degree of risk. Any
    parent knows that and has lost sleep over it. Yet, we also know
    that gearing our kids towards these kinds of normative risks
    and healthy relationships will mean they are less likely to
    engage in more dangerous risks and unhealthy relationships.
        Talking to young people, they summarized the barriers that
    they face on a day-to-day basis, and you've heard about them
    today; not being engaged in normal, every day-to-day
    activities; internalizing a culture of ``no,'' after hearing
    ``no'' again, and again, and again, and just wanting normal
    family experiences like a family vacation. From our efforts in
    states to normalize foster care, we've seen progress that can
    be built upon. One area you've heard about today, policies must
    explicitly support kids in foster care being involved in normal
    activities.
        I commend the folks here from Florida for your work in this
    area. We also need a reduced reliance on congregant care as it
    poses inherent challenges to normalcy. There are two more
    promising areas that I'd like to highlight. First, we must also
    promote opportunities, because it's not enough just to remove
    barriers. This includes empowering foster parents and other
    care givers with decision making ability. Training and support
    as also was mentioned. It also includes supporting specific
    opportunities that are age appropriate, for example, financial
    skills.
        Financial skills are one of the things that young people
    report as most lacking when they leave foster care. Jim Casey,
    with our partners, implement the Opportunity Passport which
    provides young people with opportunities to earn money and save
    in a matched savings account. We have shown that young people
    can and will save money and they learn financial management
    skills along the way.
        Why has it worked? Because it provides what most families
    do for their teenagers and young adults; real life experiences
    managing and saving money for things that the young people care
    about and that will help them on their path to adulthood, like
    a car to go to work and school or a computer for college.
        The second and critically important area is to ensure that
    young people are not only engaged in speaking out, as Talitha
    has today, and is important--but are also engaged while in
    foster care in decisions about their lives.
        Too often young people in foster care have never been asked
    ``what interests you, what were you involved in before foster
    care, or what would you like to do''? Engaging young people, in
    their case planning where decisions about their life are made,
    is no different than a family sitting around the kitchen table
    talking with their teenager about the upcoming school year and
    planning what activities they want to be involved in.
        It's merely starting from the same place families do, which
    is ``what about you is special'' rather than where we too often
    start in the child welfare system which is ``what about your
    life went wrong?'' States are moving in this direction, but
    more can be done. Promoting clarity in state polices,
    incentivizing placements in homes, in family homes, with
    appropriate training and supports, incentivizing experience-
    based opportunities and revisiting the federal case planning
    framework and guidance to be modeled on the best practices
    we've learned in states.
        In conclusion, we should not be surprised that when we do
    not let kids be kids, we do not let them have normal
    experiences and grow up as most kids do, that they continue to
    face barriers well into adulthood. At Jim Casey, we know that
    we can do better. Thank you very much for this opportunity to
    address the committee.
        [The prepared statement of Ms. Tiede follows:]

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        Chairman REICHERT. Well, thank you all for your testimony
    and thank you for being here . The first part of the hearing
    was your testimony and the second part of the hearing will be
    some questions. I know the members of this Subcommittee are
    anxious to ask questions. I was a foster grandfather for a
    number of years until my daughter and her husband adopted two
    children. And they're drug-addicted babies and watching, they
    were three months old when they were adopted and--well, taken
    in as foster children and then finally adopted. But, they're
    ten and eleven now and they're playing soccer, she's a painter,
    Briar is a soccer player. But, they have a good solid
    foundation.
        The first hearing that this Subcommittee had was looking at
    how we can move foster children to adoptive homes more quickly.
    It's sort of a preventative move, creating that solid
    foundation that Talitha didn't--that you missed. And we're
    working on that.
        So, my question is what can we do to help? The Federal
    Government, you hear all the time we're from the Federal
    Government and we're here to help. And I know when I was the
    sheriff and the FBI came and told me that, I ran the other way.
    I hope there aren't any FBI agents in the audience this
    morning.
        But, we really do want to assist you in letting kids be
    kids and that's why we're holding this hearing. Can you think
    of some way that the Federal Government can play a role? And
    then secondly, is there any federal law that you can think of
    that's causing states to react in the way that they are? I
    understand liability is a huge issue, but is there any federal
    law that's really causing the states to have a reaction and
    limit the activity of foster youth? Senator?
        Ms. DETERT. I kind of thought you might ask something like
    that. I do the same thing. They always blame it on government,
    but is government really the problem?
        It's really a mind set and it starts at the Federal
    Government and it goes down. And the mind set was safety and we
    just need to change the emphasis to permanency and to normalcy.
        So, if the Federal Government would just rearrange its way
    of thinking, which is what we've had to do in Florida as we
    wrote this law. What we're doing is changing the dynamic,
    empowering foster parents so they can behave more like real
    parents and change the dynamic in the relationship.
        The relationship under current laws is that kid and their
    caseworker, and the caseworker turns over eighteen months, and
    they have less of a relationship with the foster parent.
        So, my vision is you have more of a relationship with your
    foster parents, empower the foster parents, free them up from
    some liability and, you know, for normal decision-making and
    break that cycle where the kid has to go to court for
    everything. And we're the lawmakers and we're the ones that
    make those rules and regulations. And so, if we could just
    change the way we think and just say does this make the kid's
    life easier or harder?
        One of the things in meeting with so many of these foster
    kids, and this girl is probably a prime example, there are so
    calm and patient. And I think that probably comes from years of
    waiting for the caseworker, or sitting in court waiting for a
    decision. They're certainly not usually hyperactive. So, it's
    more of a mind set than a law.
        Chairman REICHERT. Can I ask Talitha? You know, you grew up
    knowing the system. I grew up in the sheriff's office knowing
    the system in an entirely different way, watching young people
    like yourself move through the system. Is it mostly local law,
    state law, federal law? Did you get into it that deeply or you
    just knew you were under the law, a law?
        Ms. JAMES. You're speaking of while I was in care?
        Chairman REICHERT. Yes.
        Ms. JAMES. Yes, so when you're in care, when you're in the
    thick of it, all you know is the system whether it be state,
    federal, but mainly I knew the system to be the social workers.
    So, it wasn't a matter of legislation or law, but it was the
    social workers because I had face-to-face contact with those
    individuals who were making my life a miserable hell, so.
        Chairman REICHERT. Yeah. Now, as you look back, do you see
    specific laws that--?
        Ms. JAMES. I wanted to touch on a point where you asked
    what can be done. I feel like the social workers are the ones
    who are being scrutinized because they have liability as well,
    so I think it needs to be addressed at that level as well
    because a social worker can only make a decision based on the
    grounds that they're given. And then they put those same
    barriers up on the foster parents. I think that needs to be
    addressed. And there are so many social workers who would
    rather check off the box that they're doing their job versus am
    I really doing this for the good of a child? So, that needs to
    be addressed.
        And also you asked about how can we move older youth into
    permanent homes, which I did have the option to be adopted--or,
    not the option; I was not adopted when I was in care. But,
    there is a program that I work for called Kidsave. And we have
    a Weekend Miracles program and we help to get older youth from
    foster care in adoptive homes through hosting.
        So, we have a program where you're able to host a child for
    a year, get to know them naturally, and then these families are
    able to adopt them because they know them naturally. They get
    to work out the kinks of building a relationship that most
    adoptive families don't have the opportunity to do so because
    they're given the child without any experience. So, I think
    that is a great program and we have an eighty percent success
    rate if you want to look at it, so.
        Chairman REICHERT. Well, with you involved, we know it's
    going to succeed. Thank you.
        Ms. JAMES. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Ms. Clements, did you have a comment?
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Yes, sir, I did. We currently have the Child
    and Family Services review that every state goes through every
    four years and those are built on safety, health, and well-
    being, where you look at the outcome performance measures that
    states are supposed to meet. And we know the states are not
    meeting those very well historically over the last two rounds.
        But, we already have a mechanism through the CFSR review
    where we address well-being and that's where normalcy fits in.
    And so, I think if we would re-look, review those outcome
    performance measures that are in the CFSR review and maybe put
    some teeth into them, more emphasis into that. Maybe less on
    the safety part because hopefully, we've got that down pretty
    well across the country.
        But, use a tool we already have, a system we already have
    in place, so that when these reviewers come out and visit the
    states every four years, they'll be looking more in depth at
    the well-being.
        And so, if states aren't doing a very good job at that,
    then they're going to have to do their program improvement plan
    back to the feds about how they're going to improve that over
    the next two years until their next CFSR review.
        I think that the mechanism is there; it's just reviewing
    what the content of those performance measures are to make sure
    that they're in line with this new way of thinking.
        And then the other piece that is probably local, or state
    and then local, depending on how the child protection systems
    are set up. And some states are state-run, some are county-run,
    so you have lots of different people making rules and
    regulations and setting standards, especially for foster homes
    and what they can and can't do, what they can allow children to
    do and not do, is the whole piece of the liability concern.
        You know, we have immunity for our state employees in my
    state where I live in Texas, but you can't even get liability
    insurance for a foster parent. Nobody wants to do that.
        Chairman REICHERT. Right.
        Ms. CLEMENTS. And you know, foster parents are investigated
    over so many things and one example was a little boy that his
    mother was standing four feet from him. He was climbing a tree.
    He's nine years old and there was three other little boys at a
    little birthday party and they were climbing this tree. He fell
    and he broke his arm and of course, Murphy's Law, they got a
    full-blown investigation for child abuse. And he just fell out
    of the tree. I mean, it was an accident, but he was climbing,
    he was having fun with his friends. And so, the foster family
    had their children removed from their home. They went through
    this kind of stuff, they were in fear that the birth parents
    might bring a lawsuit against them, you know, all that kind of
    stuff.
        Chairman REICHERT. Right.
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Those are the realities of care, so however
    we take the time to change the systems from risk of adverse,
    like I said, to something that embraces taking risks so
    children can have normalcy.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you. And Mr. Secretary, I'm going
    to ask for your response in writing because I've gone way over
    my time and my committee members are going to really get upset
    with me, so Mr. Davis, you're recognized.
        Mr. DAVIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Ms. James,
    let me ask you and I commend you first of all for your personal
    development, the way that you navigated the system, and for
    being who you are and where you are at this point.
        Do you think you would've gone to college necessarily had
    you not been able to express your interest in athletics?
        Ms. JAMES. I would say I would not have gone to college had
    my aunt not cared for me at the age of fourteen and her
    guidance is what got me to where I am today. So, had she not
    taken me in, I would not have been able to play sports, I would
    not have been able to graduate high school. Only three percent
    of foster youth graduate high school. One percent then go on to
    graduate college. So, she set me up for a lot of things when
    she took me into her care. So, I give all the credit to her and
    to God, of course.
        Mr. DAVIS. Well, thank you very much. I think that she is
    indeed an angel and there are many angels like her.
        The community that I live in has a great deal of interest
    concerning engagement in child welfare issues. As a matter of
    fact, my congressional district has more children who live with
    someone other than their natural parents than any other
    congressional district in America. And the district that is
    adjacent to mine is number two in terms of children living with
    someone other than their natural parents.
        We have every kind of program that one can imagine. The
    State of Illinois has a good system and I commend them for
    their forward thinking.
        One of the areas that we have difficulty with, though, is
    recruiting foster parents for teenaged young people. That seems
    to be a big problem for us. We've got programs where foster
    children are living with grandparents, where grandparents are
    raising grandchildren. But, finding foster parents for
    teenagers, Secretary and Mrs. Wilkins, could you all address,
    because I am tremendously excited about your success in this
    area; how you really get foster parents for teenagers.
        Mr. DAVID WILKINS. Thank you. I agree, it is a major
    challenge. And fortunately or accidentally, it--Tanya and I--
    the children we fostered were teenagers, so we jumped right in
    as well.
        But what we have tried to do in Florida is look at the
    recruitment of foster parents as a major imperative and a focus
    area. And my simple business background says you get what you
    measure and you get what you focus on. And so what we said is
    just in general, if we are going to create this normalcy
    initiative, then we have to raise the bar on foster parents.
    And so we need to expect more out of foster parents, and so
    the--because they have to do all these things we talked about,
    in terms of getting the kids to soccer practice and demanding
    performance in academics on the children, and all those kind of
    things.
        So we have really looked at creating a--literally just a
    private sector marketing program, going after people
    differently and telling people that foster parenting is not
    like your father's Oldsmobile. Foster parenting today is
    different than it was 20, 30 years ago. And so we are looking
    for those families who really wanted to dedicate their lives.
    And what we are finding in Florida is they are there. And what
    we need to do is go outside the normal channels. Reach out to
    the faith communities, reach out to other NGOs, and reach out
    to private businesses to partner with us on these types of
    things. And it can be accomplished.
        Mrs. TANYA WILKINS. When we started taking foster children
    in our home, everybody thought we were crazy. They think that
    foster children come with all of this baggage, that they're bad
    kids. They are kids from tough places. And when we showed up
    the same place, church, wherever, about the 16th time, people
    would say, ``You are okay and you still have these children.''
    And I said, ``Absolutely.'' And as people get to know the
    children, they will realize that they are so--so many decisions
    that they make are fear-based. They are scared to death. These
    children have been moved and moved and moved. There is nothing
    stable in their life.
        So if you understand that, which is part of our training
    for new foster parents and for older ones that want to stay
    there--if you understand that about the children that we deal
    with--there is normal adolescent behavior, there is normal
    childhood behavior, and then there is trauma. And that is going
    to be fear-based behavior. So in that--if you explain that, you
    will reach those people that have the heart to care, but then
    also will be equipped to be able to do that. So as David said,
    I have dragged him all over the state of Florida to do
    recruitment. And when people hear the message and the awareness
    of the need, when we go to a community and say--in this
    community in Tallahassee, when we presented to them and said,
    we have no one in this Tallahassee area that will take a
    teenage girl, we had probably 50 people that responded and
    said, ``I will do it from my heart.''
        So you have--David calls drinking the Kool Aid. You have to
    get the awareness out there and talk about these children. That
    they are children that want to be loved and cared for. And if
    you get out there and tell that, and spread that kind of
    message--so there is not--there are marketing plans and then
    there is getting to the people and telling them what you really
    need. And it is working in Florida. It is exciting.
        Mr. DAVIS. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Mr. Renacci, you
    are recognized.
        Mr. RENACCI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you
    for holding this hearing. And I want to thank all the witnesses
    for your testimony. It has been a learning experience, I know,
    for me, in listening to all of you and reading your testimony.
        One thing I have learned in looking into some details in
    Ohio, which is the state I represent, 12,000 Ohio children are
    living in foster care each month. Last year, more than 1,500
    foster children aged out of care when they turned 18. When I
    hear these statistics, I think about whether or not the system
    has really prepared the young adults to become successful in
    their adulthood. Our job as their representatives should be to
    set them up for success, not to make their lives more
    difficult.
        I understand there are states like my home state of Ohio
    that have begun to lessen the barriers for foster youth to
    engage in normal activities. One thing I heard today was a lot
    of discussion about Florida and some of the things Florida has
    done. And Senator Detert, as a legislator, what did it take to
    get Florida interested in changing their current foster system?
        Ms. DETERT. Thank you for that question.
        A friend of mine who gives me simple but startling advice
    once said, first you have to care. And years ago, I had a
    foster girl--I mean, it is really not on anybody's radar. And
    the most--when you talk about the subject to your colleagues
    and to groups, they say, I had no idea. Because none of us have
    any idea. And what got to me was a foster care girl walked into
    my office when I chaired Children and Family in the House.
        And she said, ``Why does the state of Florida keep screwing
    with my life?'' And I said to her, ``We spend millions of
    dollars to do that to you. Why don't you sit here and tell me
    how we can spend millions of dollars to fix your life?'' And
    she went through her list, which was legitimate. We--I have
    been moved four times. My whole goal is just get out of foster
    care. You are not helping me. You are not doing anything. She
    was turning 18. She was going to go in the Army.
        So my staff, I told them, sit down with this girl and make
    a list and see what we can fix. And it is simple things. Don't
    move them in the middle of their school year and make them
    repeat a whole year. This is not helping. So because of that
    girl, that year we did a bill that I sponsored and I got--I
    named it the Road to Independence. Which covered foster care
    kids from 18 to 21. Because we found when they left foster care
    they were ending up homeless or in jail. They have grown up
    with no family support. Nothing there for them. So under that
    piece of legislation -which we used with your federal dollars,
    thank you--those kids, as long as they were in community
    college, university, or any kind of school that would get you a
    job, we would give them a small monthly stipend.
        So I did that bill probably 10, 15 years ago. 2008, I got
    elected to the Senate. I was not thinking of serving on that
    committee anymore, but I signed up for it. And who came back
    but all those kids that originally were in the Road to
    Independent program. And now they are grownups and they help
    other foster kids. And it has just been thrilling. So really,
    first you have to care. You have to tell your colleagues. You
    have to take an interest. We pass laws and then we have to
    survey and see are they working.
        Mr. RENACCI. Well thank you for caring, and I do want to
    thank the other witnesses. Because I know there is a lot of
    caring at that table as well.
        Mrs. Clements, I heard in testimony a lot of discussion
    about breaking the rules. And I would like to find out a little
    more about that. What would be the repercussions for a
    guardian, should they break a rule with the foster child?
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Well, there are standards that every home has
    to follow, and you are supposed to be in 100 percent compliance
    with all those standards that are set up by your individual
    state or county on what it takes to be a foster parent. They
    are very restrictive and almost make families have to act like
    little institutions because they have to be so restrictive on
    the kids. And when either the private agency that you foster
    for or the state licensing people come out and they look at
    that, and you are not following the rules, there is an
    investigation. And the example I used about the foster mother
    who had an emergency at the hospital with another child and
    could not go pick up her foster son from football practice, not
    only did she get in trouble because the coach and the parent
    did not have a background check, neither one of them had a copy
    of their automobile insurance on file with the caseworker. That
    is how nit picky it gets. So you get investigated because you
    have broken those rules. And there are so many of them that you
    have to back off and you can't let kids do anything.
        Mr. RENACCI. Thank you. I know I have run out of time.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
        I yield back.
        Chairman REICHERT. Unfortunately, we are going to be called
    to go vote in a few minutes. So we would like to continue the
    hearing, but if the members could be more poignant in their
    questions, we can go vote. Mr. Reed is recognized.
        Mr. REED. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank
    you to the witnesses for coming today. I do want to publicly
    acknowledge some work by a colleague of mine who is not a
    member of the Committee but is here today, a good friend of
    mine, the gentle lady from California. And this is a Republican
    publicly applauding a Democrat on the other side of the aisle
    because she is a tireless advocate for adoption, and I applaud
    her for those efforts.
        And this is one of those moments where--you don't get a lot
    of good testimony down here, many a days. But Ms. James, Ms.
    Wilkins, hearing your testimony makes me proud to sit here and
    hear it. My hat is tipped to you. We have passed some
    legislation here recently on the Federal level, 2008, 2013,
    some acts. And one of the concerns I always have when we act
    federally, we sometimes think that one size fits all as to this
    issue. And I would be very interested in knowing from maybe Ms.
    Clements, Mr. Wilkins, and the state senator--is this area
    really a one size fits all issue that a Federal standard could
    address? Or is this something that we should give the
    discretion to the states for to try to deal with it on a state
    by state basis? Anyone want to take a stab at that?
        Mr. DAVID WILKINS. Great question. One of the reasons
    Florida has been able to ``turn around'' their system over the
    last 8 years is because you guys granted the state of Florida a
    waiver in our child welfare system. And in that waiver, we have
    now more flexibility of, in essence, how to spend the money.
    And so we have then been able to move more of our costs to the
    front end of the system and we are continuing on a journey to
    really focus more on prevention types of activities. And I
    think the results speak for themselves. I mean, if you look
    at--just at the mathematical progress that Florida has made
    over the last 8 years, it is a model that other states could
    benefit from. Now, how Florida did doesn't necessarily--
    probably, there is not even a one size fits all, I think,
    because other states are coming from different places and would
    go after an implementation differently.
        But I would definitely encourage giving more waivers to
    states. But going back to a comment Irene made, too, was--is
    continuing to hold states accountable for outcomes, not process
    results. And we still get a lot of Federal Government reporting
    and measurements based on process. It doesn't matter how many
    kids we have, it's the progress of those children. Right? And
    so if we do that, then people don't get as obsessed about
    following all the rules and procedures, because it is not about
    process. Instead, it is about making the right decisions for
    kids.
        Mr. REED. Mrs. Clements? Want to offer?
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Completely agree with the secretary on that
    one. I do believe we have the system already in place through
    the Child and Family Service Reviews to look at the outcomes of
    these performance measures and let the states decide how they
    are going to do it. Because we all have a different personality
    out there, depending on where we are from. And that is, I
    think, the key.
        Mr. REED. Senator, I don't know if you want to offer
    anything, but----
        Ms. DETERT. I would agree with the secretary on that.
    Flexibility and accountability, and we are there.
        Mr. REED. Very good. So then I generally am hearing, let
    states have the flexibility and the Federal Government
    potentially have an accountability oversight type of role. And
    I appreciate that. Because the other issue that is out there is
    that--we are hearing some great stories today, but we also--I
    have heard the horror stories of the .001 percent situation
    that needs to be recognized as we go through this. Because God
    forbid that that happens in the future and we had an
    opportunity to do something about it. And so I just offer that
    as kind of a sensitivity that I am too--that I am aware of, and
    that--and trying to grapple with as we deal with this. Giving
    flexibility but at the same time making sure that
    accountability gets at that .1 percent situation that we have
    identified.
        So with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back and I appreciate
    the Chairman's hard work in this area. And I know he is
    personally committed to this area also.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Mr. Reed.
        I think what I am going to do is limit the time now to
    three minutes so that we can make sure that every member has an
    opportunity. Mr. Young is recognized.
        Mr. YOUNG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you all for
    your testimony. I will try to speak quickly and ask you to
    perhaps respond pointedly to the questions I have.
        Common sense and the powerful testimony of people like Ms.
    James tell us that a certain amount of innovation at the state
    level is certainly helpful to our foster care population. That
    is evidenced not just by testimony but also by hard evidence,
    much of which we receive, as has been indicated, through the
    Child and Family Service Reviews. My first question would be to
    Ms. Wilkins and Senator Detert. If you could speak to those
    reviews, do you have any ideas for improvement with respect to
    those reviews?
        Ms. DETERT. To reviews by the Federal Government?
        Mr. YOUNG. That is right.
        Ms. DETERT. Of the state?
        Mr. YOUNG. That is right. You are on the receiving end of
    them, so----
        Ms. DETERT. Right.
        Mr. YOUNG. Yeah.
        Ms. DETERT. And I think, frankly, if you would do surveys
    of the kids aging out of foster care, and if they had an
    opportunity, one of the things that bothers them is they feel
    they are caught up in a whirlwind of a bureaucratic system, and
    that they don't have a voice. So I would say surveying them and
    then looking at our results.
        Mr. YOUNG. Okay. That sounds excellent. Got a minute forty
    left, very quickly on this because I have another question,
    please.
        Mrs. TANYA WILKINS. Yeah, one thing that we did do was not
    have the government call the foster parents that had been in
    that situation before, fostering. And so we had foster parents
    call foster parents that had quit fostering for whatever
    reason. So we specifically did that so that they would open up.
    And so you are not going to open up to DCF or whatever. So we
    got a lot of information about what barriers there are, and
    then I spend a lot of time speaking with youth in--under 18 and
    over. ``And what held you back from where you want to go in
    life?'' And all these things. And we bring them back, and I am
    fortunate enough to live with this man, so I can kick him at
    home and say, This is what needs to be arranged in DCF----
        Mr. YOUNG. Sure.
        Mrs. TANYA WILKINS [continuing]. Or the system, or
    whatever.
        Mr. YOUNG. Briefly, we have laboratories of democracy, so
    to speak, here. If we empower you to innovate, I think it would
    be helpful for other states to learn from your innovation.
    Perhaps they adopt some of your best practices. Perhaps they
    learn from worst practices and failed experimentation. Through
    what means or forum do you share such information and can the
    Federal Government, to your mind, help facilitate such
    conversation and sharing of information either way? I will give
    this to either of you that maybe have strong feelings.
        Senator?
        Ms. DETERT. Yes. What we found--we're talking about our
    normalcy bill today, and it's very important in the lives of
    the kids, but we also did another huge bill that is yet to be
    signed by the Governor, but he will sign it, extending foster
    care to age 21 for no new money, and the way we did that is to
    look at our budget and look at what we've privatized and
    community-based care and how many things are vendor-driven
    rather than child-driven.
        Mr. YOUNG. But state-to-state conversation is just an
    informal basis? Is that right?
        Mr. DAVID WILKINS. Yeah. And I would personally like to see
    more standardization on the accountability issues for states,
    because when we go and look at other states and try to
    understand who is doing something good, everybody measures
    things differently, and so, there's--it's very complicated.
        We do have some great organizations, like all the different
    Casey organizations that try to help triangulate that, but
    better standardization on the accountability issues nationally
    would help.
        Mr. YOUNG. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Mr. Kelly.
        Mr. KELLY. Thank you, Chairman, and thank you all for being
    here.
        My question, Ms. James, would be to you, because I don't
    think that most of us would realize the difficulties that could
    come from participating in sports and it wasn't till your aunt
    took you in that you were able to do it. I've got to tell you,
    those life experiences, playing in teams sports, are not about
    making the major leagues, it's about making a major difference
    in your life, and every life is a journey. Tell me more the
    difficulty--that's hard for me to understand.
        Growing up in a little town where I coached youth sports--
    and I want to talk to--Mr. Young--he talks about his soccer
    days. Mr. Renacci talks about all the football and baseball and
    days he had, and of course, my friend Tom Reed was a great
    swimmer.
        But for you, a huge difference in your life, was it not,
    being able to have a common goal. Tell me, how tough was it,
    though, and why couldn't you play when you were in a foster
    home?
        Ms JAMES. Thank you for the question. I could not play
    prior to me being with my aunt because of the barrier of money.
    So, a lot of foster homes, they did not want to pay an
    additional fee out of their pocket for me to pay for my uniform
    or just have money when we had a game out of town.
        So, those were the things that prevented me from doing
    that, as well as taking me to practice.
        So, a lot of the foster parents were not foster parents;
    they were bystanders in the process.
        But a lot of issues came about because you have to travel
    outside of your residence. So, if I traveled 100 miles outside
    of my residence, I would need county approval or my social
    worker had to sign off on it, and she would have to go to the
    courts to get that approved.
        So, that was an issue until my aunt just said this is
    nonsense; I'm just going to do what I am going to allow you to
    do.
        Mr. KELLY. That's great. Did your aunt come and watch you
    play?
        Ms. JAMES. Absolutely, yes.
        Mr. KELLY. We just passed a bill yesterday in the House
    that's going to allow comp time where people can actually go
    and watch their sons, their daughters, their nephews and nieces
    play, which I thought was a great piece, so I'm glad that
    happened to you.
        Ms. Clements, you talk about Mary in 4-H. I was a 4-H'er,
    and I know it's about head, heart, health, and hands.
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Absolutely.
        Mr. KELLY. What another great experience. But if you are a
    foster child, you can't participate in 4-H?
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Well, you can.
        Mr. KELLY. But----
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Right. But everybody has to have a background
    check. You know, again, the child couldn't go to 4-H camp every
    summer. I mean, I went for nine years and it was the biggest
    deal of my life each time. But if you are a foster child, you
    often can't go because it is too far away from home and there
    are too many people without criminal history checks.
        You had all these people there that were adults and kids
    over 14 where, in my state, they all had to have a background
    check if you're going to be around them more than a few hours.
        You couldn't do those things, and it just totally, totally
    ties the hands of the parents who are trying to take care of
    these kids and frustrates the children to the point where they
    have acting-out behaviors.
        It's not that they're bad kids. They're just so darn
    frustrated with the system, and they don't trust anybody
    anymore to do their best interest.
        Mr. KELLY. Yeah. Well, that's great you can mainstream
    them, and thank you for all being here.
        Mr. Wilkins, congratulations on the award, private sector.
    You've got to inspect what you expect. So, you're seeing some
    changes. It's what you've done that makes a difference.
        Thank you all so much for being here.
        Chairman, thank you for having this hearing.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you, Mr. Kelly.
        Mr. Lewis is recognized.
        Mr. LEWIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
        Mr. Chairman, I will be very brief.
        I want to thank members of the panel for being here. I've
    read some of your testimony. I apologize for not being here
    earlier. I was on the floor.
        But Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you for holding this
    hearing, and thank Mr. Davis for being here, and for the other
    members, and I want to thank our colleague, Congresswoman Bass.
        Since she's been here, she's been a strong advocate,
    unbelievable spokesperson in the House, on the Hill, for foster
    care.
        So, thank you.
        Ms. James, I had an opportunity to read your testimony, and
    I admire all of you for all of your work--the parents; Senator,
    for your leadership and your vision. Ms. James, I admire you
    for not giving up, for not giving in, for not becoming bitter
    or hostile but for keeping the faith with a sense of direction
    and a sense of purpose.
        I notice, in the end, at the end of your testimony, you
    quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. King.
        Ms. JAMES. Absolutely.
        Mr. LEWIS. I knew Dr. King. I met him when I was 18. I met
    Rosa Parks when I was 17. I grew up in a very large family,
    very, very poor, but individuals that I met and came in contact
    with inspired me and lifted me, and someone along the way in
    foster care, no doubt, lifted you, and you just kept the faith.
    Thank you.
        Ms. JAMES. Thank you.
        Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
        Chairman REICHERT. Well, if you're not inspired by that----
        Ms. JAMES. Let the church say amen.
        Chairman REICHERT. Amen.
        Thank you, Mr. Lewis.
        Mr. Griffin, you are recognized.
        Mr. GRIFFIN. And this Baptist says amen.
        I want to apologize for not being here earlier. I was on
    the floor with the highly esteemed Representative Lewis, and I
    appreciate his words, and it's always an honor to serve with a
    living legend and a civil rights icon, and I appreciate
    everything that he does.
        I just want to mention that there's a great program in
    central Arkansas, in Little Rock, called The Call. You're
    shaking your head. Children of Arkansas Love For a Lifetime. I
    call it The Call.
        My wife and I have been learning about that through our
    church, Immanuel Baptist Church. A lot of churches in Little
    Rock are working with The Call, which is a nonprofit, and the
    purpose is to find more foster parents. There are something
    like 7,000 children in Arkansas in any one year in foster care
    and only about 950 families, and so, in addition to improving
    it, we've got to do more recruiting, but one of the things that
    really struck me and that I want to get your input on is this--
    this is a nonprofit. It is a faith-based, Christ-centered
    organization with a lot of local churches in it. It's very open
    about that.
        But I've been really impressed that the top levels of
    leadership in our Arkansas Department of Health and Human
    Services, Division of Children and Family Services, have been
    active. It's described here as unprecedented cooperation
    between state government and these churches, which I think is
    fabulous.
        The churches are meeting a need that they believe and I
    believe is part of our Christian mission to love kids who need
    homes, and the government is saying this is helpful and is
    partnering.
        So, I'm wondering, have you heard of this? Have you heard
    of similar cooperation between churches and the government in
    other states? Any of you want to comment on that in my very
    limited time?
        Ms. TIEDE. Very quickly, I know that Commissioner Corrigan
    in Michigan has had a similar outreach. They are under a
    consent decree and needed to recruit, I think, 600 foster
    family homes within a year, I believe, and she called together
    all of the faith-based organizations across the state and gave
    them a challenge, and last I heard, they are meeting that
    challenge.
        Mr. GRIFFIN. So, Michigan. Any others?
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Yes, sir, we have a faith-based initiative in
    Texas, as well, and over 400 churches are participating at this
    point, and we're just in the beginning stages.
        Recruiting for foster parents, for adoptive parents, and
    for those who don't feel they can do that, how those
    congregations then can support those that can. Beautiful,
    beautiful programs.
        Mr. GRIFFIN. Well, it seems to me it's a natural network of
    thousands, if not hundreds of thousands and millions of people
    ready to go to work for the same cause that the government has.
        Ms. CLEMENTS. Well, we have 11 regions across the state,
    and there's a state employee in each one that's called a faith-
    based initiative specialist. I mean, that's how dedicated the
    department is.
        Mr. GRIFFIN. Awesome.
        Ms. WILKINS. I just wanted to say a quick thing. I went to
    the Christian Alliance for Orphans conference last week, and it
    was 4,000 faith-based leaders across the U.S. coming together
    to talk about this issue, and so, we had breakouts in
    government, Arkansas being one of them and how they use The
    Call.
        So, I met them. I said come to Florida, and we've got some
    great things going on in Florida. We at DCF actually--we--
    sorry--he actually has hired a faith-based leader. He was a
    pastor.
        Mr. DAVID WILKINS. It's a partnership.
        Ms. WILKINS. A partnership. I had to find my place. And so,
    we brought him to DCF, and so, he's actually meeting with
    pastors cause they can do the pastor-to-pastor talk and talk
    about why wasn't it on his radar as a pastor, and so, he's
    getting this.
        So, we just were able to speak with Northland in Orlando.
    They have 20,000 members, and it simulcasts all over, right?
    And so, we had 300 that responded to the call, and so, now
    they're going to nurture those through the church in coming
    along, and they're going to save the government tons and tons
    of money in the support that they get, plus it's going to be
    recruitment ongoing in that church.
        Mr. GRIFFIN. It's exciting.
        Ms. DETERT. It's exciting.
        Mr. GRIFFIN. Let me know what I can do to help.
        Ms. DETERT. Okay. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. Thank you.
        Well, we wish we could listen to you all day. You really
    have a lot of excitement, a lot of knowledge, and good or bad,
    some experience in this arena, and I think what you'll find
    from this Committee is a great passion and a devotion to trying
    to find a way, as I said earlier, to help our foster youth.
        There are Members of Congress who have come from places
    that you may not really expect, and of course, Mr. Lewis shared
    just briefly a little piece of his story from a large family
    from a poor neighborhood, and here he is a Member of Congress.
        I know Mr. Davis has had a similar experience. I grew up
    the oldest of seven, ran away from home when I was a junior and
    senior in high school and lived in my car, a 1956 Mercury. I'll
    never buy another 1956 Mercury again in my life.
        But the reason I share that with all of you is that I hope
    that, as you go back and you share, Ms. James, with the folks
    you work with, your experience, there's opportunities.
        You're a very, very bright young lady.
        Ms. JAMES. Thank you.
        Chairman REICHERT. You have a great future in front of you,
    and faith is one of the things I know I've used and I know that
    you have relied on.
        I appreciate all of you--all the hard work you do, your
    testimony here today, and I'm sorry we had to cut it a bit
    short, but that's sometimes the nature of Congress.
        So, we're all going to go vote. We look forward to working
    with you. We are going to be sending you some questions,
    expecting some answers in writing, as I said earlier.
        If members have additional questions for the witnesses,
    they will submit them to you in writing, and we would
    appreciate receiving your responses for the record within two
    weeks.
        The committee stands adjourned.
        [Whereupon, at 10:55 a.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
        [Questions for the record follow:]

                  Florida Department of Children and Families

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    [Submissions for the record follow:]

                     Generations United Outside Submission

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                               Statement of CCAI

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                            Statement of Linda Young

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                            Letter of Mandy Urwiler

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                 Statement of Will Lightbourne and Frank Mecca

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