[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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Generations United Outside Submission
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Statement of CCAI
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Statement of Linda Young
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