[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 156 (Saturday, November 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12210-S12213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROMOTION OF ADOPTION, SAFETY, AND SUPPORT FOR ABUSED AND NEGLECTED
CHILDREN ACT
Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I would like to express my strong support
for legislation we considered this evening, the Promotion of Adoption,
Safety, and Support for Abused and Neglected Children, the so-called
PASS Act. This bill, which I introduced along with Senators Craig,
Rockefeller, DeWine, Coats, Jeffords, and others, will make some
critical changes to the child welfare system, changes which will vastly
improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of children currently in
foster care and waiting for adoptive homes.
We have been working on this legislation for the past year, and I am
very pleased we were able to work out a proposal that everyone could
support. The primary goal of this so-called PASS Act is to ensure that
abused and neglected children are in safe, permanent settings. About a
half a million children who have been abused or neglected currently
live outside their homes, either in foster care or with relatives. In
Rhode Island, there are nearly 1,500 children who have been removed
from their homes and are in foster care. Many of these children will be
able to return to their parents, but others will not.
Under the current system, children remain in foster care an average
of 3 years. Mr. President, I call to your attention and that of
everyone who may be interested in this subject, a child in foster care
on the average remains there 3 years before any decision is
[[Page S12211]]
made about that child's future. And in some cases the wait is even
longer. It is time we put a stop to this, and our bill does that.
The PASS Act directs States to shorten this time, all the while
ensuring that the child's health and safety are guaranteed. Our bill
removes unnecessary geographic barriers to adoption, and requires
criminal record checks for all prospective foster and adoptive parents,
and other adults living in the household. It allows children to be
freed for adoption more quickly in extreme cases, such as when the
parents have murdered another child, and requires States to document
efforts to move children into safe adoptive homes.
The PASS Act also contains some important provisions that will go a
long way toward helping to find homes for so-called special needs
children. Lack of medical coverage is a huge barrier to families who
want to adopt special needs children. Many of these children have
significant physical and mental health problems due to years of abuse,
neglect, or foster care. Parents who adopt these children are taking
huge financial risks. If these children are not guaranteed health
insurance, there will be great reluctance in many cases for the
prospective parents to adopt these children. Our bill ensures that
special needs children who are going to be adopted will have medical
coverage. We also ensure that children whose adopted parents die, or
whose adoptions are disrupted in some fashion, will continue to receive
Federal subsidies when they are adopted by new parents.
Finally, our bill reauthorizes and provides a modest increase for the
Family Preservation and Support Program, which is a worthwhile program
that prevents children from having to be removed from their homes.
This is a good bill. The sponsors have worked long and hard to come
up with this compromise. We have talked with the House about the minor
differences between our bills and it appears we will be able to quickly
conference and pass this bill, hopefully before the Senate goes out
this year.
In closing, let me thank and congratulate the Members of the PASS
coalition who worked so tirelessly on the measure. Senators Craig,
Rockefeller, DeWine, Coats, Jeffords, and others have made enormous
contributions toward this initiative. This would not have happened
without their dedication to the children who we are trying to move from
foster care into adoptive homes.
I also thank Chairman Roth of the Finance Committee for helping us to
move quickly.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I also want to congratulate this body
for the passage of the adoption bill. It is a good step forward. I hope
when we work out the differences between the House and Senate, they can
be worked out amicably. I hope there is not a watering down of the
Senate provisions.
I would also like to have legislation passed yet this year. If it
can't be worked out that way, obviously it is going to have to be put
off until next year until it can be conferenced, but I hope we can work
out these differences yet this year.
A pioneer in the adoption field wrote ``when a child of the streets
stands before you in rags, with tear-stained face, you cannot easily
forget him, and yet you are perplexed what to do. The human soul is
difficult to interfere with. You hesitate how far you should go.''
Congress has been considering adoption and foster care reform this
year that has caused all of us involved to ask, how far should we go?''
But after extensive research into the failure of the foster care
system, I ask how far can we go?
Confronting the issues for children in foster care is uncomfortable--
almost painful. But the foster care system is in crisis and children
are suffering. We are compelled to confront these problems.
Foster care is a complicated entitlement program. Meaningful reform
can only happen when Congress recognizes the seriousness of the problem
and begins taking the measured steps toward reform.
While the issues are complex, so are the solutions.
Today we are getting what we pay for, long-term foster care. Twenty-
one States are under consent decrees because they failed to take proper
care of their children who had been abused or neglected by their
parents.
Set up to serve as a temporary, emergency situation for children, the
foster care system is now a lifestyle for many kids.
The Federal Government continues to pour billions of dollars into a
system that lacks genuine accountability.
Instead of encouraging States to increase adoptions, the current
system rewards long-term foster care arrangements.
Jennifer Toth described in her book ``Orphans of the Living,''
children are ``consigned to the substitute child care system, a
chaotic, prison-like system intended to raise children whose parents
and relatives cannot or will not care for them.''
She also wrote, ``the children in substitute child care today have
all suffered trauma. They are all at greater risk than the general
child population. Yet they are given less care, when they need more
care. Many thousands of children are lost and millions of dollars are
wasted each year because no one--not the caseworker, not the foster
home--takes full responsibility for them. Instead, each is passed from
one caseload and placement to another, with too many kids and too
little attention to go around. When these children look to adults for
help, no one is there. Only when their situation becomes desperate,
when they also fail, are they awarded the attention they crave.''
One organization said that ``foster care has been a black hole for
many of America's neediest and most neglected children.''
``I have a poster in my office that inspires me to work for real
reform. The Iowa Citizen Foster Care Review Board asked children who
were waiting to be adopted what they would like to tell us and this is
what the children said: ``Don't leave us in foster care so long.'' ``It
is scary to move from home to home, find us one good family where we
can feel like a real member of the family.'' ``Check on us frequently
while we're in foster care to ask us how we're doing and make sure we
are safe.'' ``Tell us what's going on so we don't have to guess. Tell
us how long it will be before we're adopted and why things seem to take
so long.''
Dave Thomas of Wendy's challenged me and others to make sure kids
have a happy childhood. For those who have had a happy childhood it is
hard to understand why. For those who did not have a happy childhood--
you know why, he said.
Children need to know that they have a permanency--which means
successful, healthy reunification with their birth families or
permanency in an adoptive home.
My wife, Barbara, and I, have been blessed as the parents of five
children. Today, we get to watch our sons and daughters enjoy their own
families and the happiness found through parenthood. These experiences
have made me appreciate the importance of a family unit. A happy,
permanent home life provides more than a safe haven for kids. It gives
children confidence to grow into positive contributors in our society.
In the United States, at least a half million children are not living
in permanent homes. While waiting for adoption or a safe return to
their natural families, many kids may live out their childhoods in the
foster care system. Sadly, it often turns into a lonely, even futile
transition. If the ``window of opportunity'' is missed, a child can
leave the system a legal orphan, as an adult.
These children leave foster care and enter onto the welfare rolls or
into prison. Only 17 percent of those who emancipate from the system
become completely self-supporting. Barely half finish high school, a
little less than half are gainfully employed as adults. And, almost 60
percent of the girls give birth within a few years of leaving the
system.
Since 1982, about 20,000 children a year are adopted from foster
care. Obviously, that leaves tens of thousands of kids in limbo every
year.
Reform is needed to help place more children in a safe, permanent
home. Improvements should limit the time a child legally can spend in
foster care;
[[Page S12212]]
remove financial incentives to keep kids in foster care; and, provide
incentives for successful family reunifications or adoptions, not
attempts.
More needs to be done to dispel the myth that some kids are
unadoptable. I say that no child is unadoptable, we just havent't found
a home for them yet. And, most children want the permanency provided
through adoption.
I support the promotion of adoption, safety, and support for the
Abused and Neglected Children Act, or Pass Act, because it takes the
initial, necessary steps toward real reform.
For the first time, in 17 years, this body has strived to address the
pain and suffering of these children. A cornerstone is laid upon which
future reforms can be built.
The Pass Act will ensure health care coverage for adopted special
needs children; break down geographic restrictions facing adoptive
families; and, encourage creative adoptive efforts and outreach.
Thanks to Senator DeWine's vision and efforts we have strengthened
the reasonable efforts statute. Senator DeWine raised our awareness on
this issue and has been a champion for these children.
One of the problems we as legislators have experienced has been the
inadequate statistics to understand the performance of the States. The
data is sparse and many States can't tell us how many children they
actually have in their care or how long they have been there. The Pass
Act will require States to report critical statistics. No longer will
children languish without being identified, their lives will be
personalized to those responsible for them. We will know who they are,
where they are, and how long they have been in the system. And, the
status quo will not be able to hide behind the lack of information
excuse.
Currently, the Federal Government does not require that States
actively seek adoptive homes for all free-to-be-adopted children, who
often are assigned to long-term foster care. This bill, however, will
compel States to make reasonable efforts to place a child in an
adoptive home. Long-term foster care should never be a solution for a
child.
The Federal Government plays a significant role in child welfare, by
providing funds to States and attaching conditions to these funds. The
single largest category of Federal expenditure under the child welfare
programs is for maintaining low-income children in foster care.
To receive Federal funds, States must comply with requirements
designed so that children can remain safely with their families or
return home after they have been placed in foster care. States will be
penalized for not complying with the Pass Act.
In most States, children are being denied permanency because of the
artificial barrier of geography. The Senate bill contains a provision
that will break down the geographic barriers to adoption.
An adoption organization in a northeastern State shared with me a
real life example of why this provision is necessary.
Allison, Beth, Jimmy, and Jarod are siblings, ages 6, 8, 10, and 11.
They were freed for adoption in October 1996.
Because the siblings had regular visits and a close relationship with
each other, their caseworker hoped to find a family that could adopt
all four children. Our agency was able to send the caseworker the home
studies of four out-of-State families who were interested in, and had
space to adopt, all four children. However, the State child welfare
agency pressured the worker to select in-State families for the
children.
Over a period of 6 months, there were no appropriate in-State
families who could adopt all four children, so it was decided to split
the sibling group. Jimmy and Jarod were placed with one family, and a
different family has been identified for Allison and Beth.
It is the intent of this legislation to remove the geographic
barriers that keep children from appropriate adoptive families.
I recognize the Members for their efforts on this issue and
congratulate the authors of this monumental piece of legislation.
They understood the complexity of this issue and pushed for reform.
It was a very unique coalition, and I was glad to be part of it.
Under Senator Craig's leadership, a successful consensus was formed
and bipartisan, incremental steps were taken.
Senator Roth was also instrumental in forging an agreement with
Members so that this bill could pass with an overwhelming majority. His
guidance and insight were critical to the bill's success.
Today we begin to change the culture surrounding adoption. Children
deserve permanent homes. All children are valuable and adoptable.
I have been impressed by the compassion of those who adopt these
special children. They are gifted and should inspire us all.
We know that more families are willing to adopt children, including
those with the most challenging of circumstances.
We have always had a class of children considered unadoptable.
Several decades ago many said that minority children were
unadoptable. We know now that is not true.
Many once thought that children with AIDS were unadoptable. We know
now that is not true.
Adoption organizations are finding homes for children and have
waiting lists of parents all over the country anxious to adopt children
despite their special circumstances. One adoption agency has a waiting
list of a hundred families, willing to adopt a child with Down's
syndrome.
A family in Texas adopted 8 drug-exposed siblings ranging in age from
2 to 10.
Susan Badeau, a witness before the Senate Finance Committee, shared
her story about adopting 19 children out of the foster care system--
virtually rescuing them from a lifetime in foster care.
The Pass Act will encourage permanency for the children who cannot
return to their original homes.
To ensure that these new adoptive families are healthy and stay
together they will need postadoption services and respite care.
Postadoptive services are crucial for the success of these families
because many of these children will have long-term service needs.
In States where postadoption services are offered, the number of
adoptive families that disrupt is significantly lower.
According to the Congressional Research Service the following Federal
programs could be used to provide postadoption services to adoptive
families. Although none of these programs is exclusively intended to
provide such services, they are among a number of allowable activities.
They include the following: The Adoption Opportunities Program; the
Family Preservation Program; Child Welfare Services; Child Abuse
Prevention and Treatment Act; Community-Based Family Resource and
Support; Child Care and Development Block Grant; and the Social
Services Block Grant.
I was pleased with the provision in the Pass Act which emphasizes
adoption promotion and support services in the Family Preservation and
Support Service Act.
I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record an explanation of the
services provided under these programs.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
1. The Adoption Opportunities Program authorizes
appropriations for the Department of Health and Human
Services to conduct a number of adoption-related activities,
including provision of post-legal adoption services for
families that have adopted special needs children. These
services may be provided either directly or by grant or
contract with States, local governments, public or private
nonprofit licensed child welfare or adoption agencies, or
adoptive family groups. Services must supplement, and not
supplant, activities funded through other sources with the
same general purpose, including individual, group or family
counseling, case management, training, assistance to adoptive
parent organizations, and assistance to support groups for
adoptive parents, adopted children or siblings of adopted
children.
2. Family Preservation Program. The Social Security Act
authorizes entitlement grants to States, which are used for
two types of services: family preservation, and community-
based family support. ``Family preservation'' services are
intended for children and families (including adoptive
families) that are at risk or in crisis, and may include
respite care of children to provide temporary relief for
parents or other care givers,
[[Page S12213]]
and services designed to improve parenting skills in such
areas as child development, family budgeting, coping with
stress, health and nutrition.
3. Child Welfare Services. Under subpart 1 of title IV-B,
the Social Security Act also authorizes appropriations for
grants to states for child welfare services, which are
defined broadly to include public social services directed
toward protection and promotion of the welfare of children.
These funds are typically used to support State children
protective service and child welfare systems. However, while
post-adoption services are not specifically identified in the
statute, they could be allowable activities at State option.
4. Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. Title I of the
Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) authorizes
funds for HHS to conduct a variety of discretionary
activities, including grants to mutual support and self-help
groups for strengthening families, respite and crisis nursery
programs provided by community-based organizations, and
hospital-based information and referral services for parents
of children with disabilities and children who have been
victims of abuse or neglect.
5. Community-Based Family Resource and Support. Title II of
CAPTA authorizes HHS to make grants to Stats to develop,
operate, and expand statewide networks of community-based
family resource and support programs. These programs provide
various forms of support for families, including respite care
for adoptive families.
6. Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG). This
program authorizes both discretionary and mandatory funding
for States to help subsidize the cost of child care for low-
income families, including both working families and families
receiving welfare. Adoptive families in need of child care
could potentially receive assistance under this program,
assuming they met income and other eligibility criteria.
7. Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). Title XX of the
Social Security Act authorizes entitlement grants to States
that may be used for a wide variety of social services at the
states' discretion. Although services for adoptive families
are not specified in the law, States could opt to use SSBG
funds for this purpose.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, let's build upon the cornerstone of this
monumental bill. Congress has a chance to continue to press on for
meaningful reform. In spite of this legislation, some children will
still remain hostages in an inefficient system.
Any future reforms must: First, strive to dramatically limit the time
a child can legally spend in foster care. According to the available
statistics, the national average length of stay in foster care is three
years--three birthdays, three christmases, first, second and third
grade. Second, remove financial incentives to keep children in foster
care; and provide incentives for success not for attempts. Currently
the system pays the same rate per child per month without limitation.
The Federal Government is entitled to pay for performance.
Senator Brownback plans to hold hearings next year as chairman of the
Subcommittee on Oversight of the District of Columbia to determine what
the Federal Government can do to address the crumbling foster care
system in the District.
These children are the most vulnerable of all--their little lives
begin with abuse and neglect by their own parents and, for many, they
experience systemic abuse by languishing in long term foster care.
CRS stated that ``children are vulnerable and their well-being is
affected by conditions beyond their control.'' But is not beyond our
control.
Those on the front lines, on whom we rely to make this policy work
include: the court appointed special advocates, volunteers who advocate
in the courts on the children's behalf; juvenile judges--an Illinois
judge told me she requires each of the children's pictures to be
attached to the front of their files so that those who come in contact
with the case know that these are children, not a caseload number; the
foster and adoptive parent associations; the citizen foster care review
boards; special needs adoption organizations, Governors, the human
services departments and social workers.
We are all responsible for these children who depend on us. Foster
care is a poor parent. A loving, committed family is the best gift to
give any child. Passage of this bill is one way to encourage this.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senator from Alabama
will be recognized for however much time he may consume.
Mr. SESSIONS. Thank you, Mr. President.
First, I would like to say how much I appreciate the excellent
comments of the Senator from Iowa, Senator Grassley. He believes deeply
in improving the life and health of children, as you do, Mr. President,
and have worked toward that end.
I salute the work that has been done. It is a major step forward in
improving foster care and the ability to adopt children in America,
which is something this Congress, I think, will be able to take real
pride in.
____________________