[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 141 (Friday, October 9, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S12221]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             THE STRENGTHENING ABUSE AND NEGLECT COURTS ACT

 Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise today to join Mr. 
DeWine in his introduction of the Strengthening Abuse and Neglect 
Courts Act. I would like to thank Mr. DeWine of this leadership on this 
bill, another example of his ongoing commitment to our Nation's most 
vulnerable children and families. I would also like to thank my good 
friends Ms. Landrieu and Mr. Chafee for their support of and input on 
this legislation.
  Last year at this time, Congress passed and President Clinton signed 
into law the Adoption and Safe Families Act, the most sweeping piece of 
child welfare legislation in more than two decades. For the first time, 
this law establishes that a child's health and safety must be the 
paramount consideration when any decision is made regarding a child in 
the abuse and neglect system. The law promotes stability and permanence 
for abused and neglected children by requiring timely decision-making 
in proceedings to determine whether children can safely return to their 
families or whether they should be moved into safe and stable adoptive 
homes. More specifically, the law requires a State to move to terminate 
the parental right of any parent whose child has been in foster care 
for 15 out of the last 22 months. While essential to protect children, 
these accelerated time lines increase the pressure on the Nation's 
already overburdened abuse and neglect courts.
  Our courts play a vital role in the Nation's abuse and neglect 
system. Through my discussions with judges in my state of West Virginia 
and across the country, I have learned that abuse and neglect judges 
make some of the most difficult decisions made by any members of the 
judiciary. Adjudications of abuse and neglect, terminations of parental 
rights, approval of adoptions, and life-changing determinations are not 
made without careful and sometimes painful deliberation. Despite the 
courts' commitment to the fair and efficient administration of justice 
in these cases, staggering increases in the number of children in the 
abuse and neglect system, have placed a tremendous burden on our abuse 
and neglect courts.
  Many abuse and neglect courts have found creative and effective new 
ways to eliminate their backlogs and move children more efficiently and 
safely through the court system. In West Virginia, Supreme Court 
Justice Margaret Workman and a dedicated group of judges and attorneys 
have developed a comprehensive plan to increase the accountability and 
efficient administration of abuse and neglect cases. In Cincinnati, 
Ohio, Judge Grossman's abuse and neglect courts have implemented state-
of-the-art computer tracking systems which help them smooth the legal 
paths of children in foster care.
  The purpose of the Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Courts Act is to 
help remove the burdens on an even greater number of abuse and neglect 
courts by increasing their administrative efficiency and effectiveness. 
The bill establishes a program which will provide grants to state and 
local courts for the creation and implementation of computerized 
casetracking systems, similar to the one that has seen such incredible 
success in Ohio. Through the establishment of such systems, courts are 
able to more easily track how long a child spends in foster care and 
the status of their cases. Such easy-to-access information will allow 
courts to move children more quickly and efficiently through the foster 
care system and into adoptive homes and other permanent placements. 
This grant program will also enable state and local courts to design 
and use similar computer systems and to allow for the replication of 
similar models in other jurisdictions. The technical assistance 
provision in this bill provides additional funds to aid these courts in 
the design and implementation of their new computer programs.

  Throughout the debate on the Adoption and Safe Families Act, we heard 
from dozens of judges who said that the biggest problems facing their 
courts was the overwhelming backlog of abuse and neglect cases. Without 
creative ways to eliminate such backlogs, the judges argued, new cases 
will never move smoothly through the court system. That is why this 
bill also authorizes a grant program to provide State courts with the 
funds they need to eliminate current backlogs once and for all. For 
some courts, that might involve the temporary hiring of an additional 
judge, a temporary extension of court hours, or restructuring the 
duties of court personnel. This program will provide grants to those 
court projects that will result in the effective and rapid elimination 
of current backlogs to smooth the way for a more efficient courts in 
the future.
  The Strengthening the Abuse and Neglect Courts also recognizes the 
need to improve training, continuing education opportunities, and model 
practice standards for judges, attorneys and other court personnel who 
work in the abuse and neglect courts. More specifically, the bill 
requires that abuse and neglect agencies design and encourage the 
implementation of ``best practice'' standards for those attorneys 
representing the agencies in abuse and neglect cases. The Act also 
extends the federal reimbursement for training currently provided to 
agency representatives to judges, court personnel, law enforcement 
representatives, guardians-ad-litem, and the other attorneys who 
practice in abuse and neglect proceedings. For the first time, such 
reimbursement would help fund specialized cross-trainings between 
agency and court personnel and trainings that focus on vital subjects 
such as new research on child development.
  In addition to the judges, guardians-ad-litem and attorneys in the 
abuse and neglect courts, volunteers for the Court-Appointed Special 
Advocate (CASA) Program also play a key role in helping abused and 
neglected children in the court system. CASA volunteers are the eyes 
and the ears of the courts, spending time with abused and neglected 
children, interviewing the adults involved in their lives, and helping 
to give judges a better understanding of the needs of each individual 
child. Despite the incredible success of the CASA programs, thousands 
of abused and neglected children do not have the benefit of CASA 
representation. The Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Courts Act provides 
CASA with a $5 million grant to expand its programs into under-served 
areas and to improve its ability to recruit, train and supervise 
volunteers in already existing programs.
  When we talk about child welfare in this country, abuse and neglect 
courts are too often left out of the discussion. This is an 
unacceptable mistake, since our courts play a central role in the well-
being of our nation's abused and neglected children. I am confident 
that the Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Courts Act will be valuable 
first step in making these courts stronger and more efficient than 
ever, and I ask my colleagues to join us in this important 
effort.

                          ____________________