[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5872-S5874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REID (for Mr. Rockefeller (for himself and Ms. Snowe)):
  S. 1151. A bill to amend part A of title IV of the Social Security 
Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct 
research on indicators of child well-being; to the Committee on 
Finance.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce with 
my distinguished colleague Senator Olympia Snowe, bipartisan 
legislation known as the State Child Well-Being Research Act of 2009. 
Companion legislation has already been introduced in the House by 
Congressmen Fattah and Camp. This bill is designed to enhance child 
well-being by requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 
facilitate the collection of state-specific data based on a defined set 
of indicators. The well-being of children is important to both national 
and State governments. Therefore, data collection is a priority that 
cannot be ignored if we hope to make informed decisions on public 
policy.
  In 1996, Congress passed bold legislation, which I supported to 
dramatically change our welfare system. The driving force behind this 
reform was to promote the work and self-sufficiency of families and to 
provide the flexibility to States necessary to achieve these goals. 
States, which is where most child and family legislation takes place, 
have used this flexibility to design different programs that work 
better for the families who rely on them. The design and benefits 
available under other programs that serve children, ranging from the 
Children Health Insurance Program, CHIP, to child welfare services, can 
vary widely among States.
  It is obvious that in order for policy makers to evaluate child well-
being, we need state-specific data on child well-being to measure the 
results. Current surveys provide minimal data on some important 
indicators of child well-being, but insufficient data is available on 
low-income families, geographic variation, and young children. 
Additionally, the information is not provided in a timely manner, which 
impedes legislators' ability to effectively measure child well-being 
and design effective programs to support our children.

[[Page S5873]]

  The State Child Well-Being Research Act of 2009 is intended to fill 
this information gap by collecting up-to-date, State-specific data that 
can be used by policymakers, researchers, and child advocates to assess 
the well-being of children. As we strive to promote quality programs, 
we need basic benchmarks to measure outcomes. Our bill would require 
that a survey examine the physical and emotional health of children, 
adequately represent the experiences of families in individual states, 
be consistent across states, be collected annually, articulate results 
in easy to understand terms, and focus on low-income children and 
families. This legislation also establishes an advisory committee, 
consisting of a panel of experts who specialize in survey methodology 
and indicators of child well-being, and the application of this data to 
ensure that the purpose is being achieved.
  Further, this bill avoids some of the problems in the current system 
by making data files easier to use and more readily available to the 
public. As a result, the information will be more useful for policy-
makers managing welfare reform and programs for children and families. 
Finally, this legislation also offers the potential for the Health and 
Human Service Department to partner with private charitable 
foundations, like the Annie E. Casey Foundations, which has already 
expressed an interest in forming a partnership to provide outreach, 
support and a guarantee that the data collected would be broadly 
disseminated. This type of public-private partnership helps to leverage 
additional resources for children and families and increases the 
study's impact. Given the tight budget we face, partnerships make sense 
to meet this essential need.
  I hope my colleagues review this legislation carefully and choose to 
support it so that Federal and state policy makers and advocates have 
the information necessary to make good decisions for children.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 1151

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

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``State Child Well-Being 
     Research Act of 2009''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The well-being of children is a paramount concern for 
     our Nation and for every State, and most programs for 
     children and families are managed at the State or local 
     level.
       (2) Child well-being varies over time and across social, 
     economic, and geographic groups, and can be affected by 
     changes in the circumstances of families, by the economy, by 
     the social and cultural environment, and by public policies 
     and programs at the Federal, State, and local level.
       (3) States, including small States, need information about 
     child well-being that is specific to their State and that is 
     up-to-date, cost-effective, and consistent across States and 
     over time.
       (4) Regular collection of child well-being information at 
     the State level is essential so that Federal and State 
     officials can track child well-being over time.
       (5) Information on child well-being is necessary for all 
     States, particularly small States that do not have State-
     level data in other federally supported databases. 
     Information is needed on the well-being of all children, not 
     just children participating in Federal programs.
       (6) Telephone surveys of parents represent a relatively 
     cost-effective strategy for obtaining information on child 
     well-being at the State level for all States, including small 
     States, and can be conducted alone or in mixed mode strategy 
     with other survey techniques.
       (7) Data from telephone surveys of the population are 
     currently used to monitor progress toward many important 
     national goals, including immunization of preschool children 
     with the National Immunization Survey, and the identification 
     of health care issues of children with special needs with the 
     National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs.
       (8) A State-level telephone survey, alone or in combination 
     with other techniques, can provide information on a range of 
     topics, including children's social and emotional 
     development, education, health, safety, family income, family 
     employment, and child care. Information addressing marriage 
     and family structure can also be obtained for families with 
     children. Information obtained from such a survey would not 
     be available solely for children or families participating in 
     programs but would be representative of the entire State 
     population and consequently, would inform welfare 
     policymaking on a range of important issues, such as income 
     support, child care, child abuse and neglect, child health, 
     family formation, and education.

     SEC. 3. RESEARCH ON INDICATORS OF CHILD WELL-BEING.

       Section 413 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 613) is 
     amended by adding at the end the following:
       ``(k) Indicators of Child Well-Being.--
       ``(1) Renaming of survey.--On and after the date of the 
     enactment of this subsection, the National Survey of 
     Children's Health conducted by the Director of the Maternal 
     and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services 
     Administration shall be known as the `Survey of Children's 
     Health and Well-Being'.
       ``(2) Modification of survey to include matters relating to 
     child well-being.--The Secretary shall modify the survey so 
     that it may be used to better assess child well-being, as 
     follows:
       ``(A) New indicators included.--The indicators with respect 
     to which the survey collects information shall include 
     measures of child-well-being related to the following:
       ``(i) Education.
       ``(ii) Social and emotional development.
       ``(iii) Physical and mental health and safety.
       ``(iv) Family well-being, such as family structure, income, 
     employment, child care arrangements, and family 
     relationships.
       ``(B) Collection requirements.--The data collected with 
     respect to the indicators developed under subparagraph (A) 
     shall be--
       ``(i) statistically representative at the State and 
     national level;
       ``(ii) consistent across States, except that data shall be 
     collected in States other than the 50 States and the District 
     of Columbia only if technically feasible;
       ``(iii) collected on an annual or ongoing basis;
       ``(iv) measured with reliability;
       ``(v) current;
       ``(vi) over-sampled (if feasible), with respect to low-
     income children and families, so that subgroup estimates can 
     be produced by a variety of income categories (such as for 
     50, 100, and 200 percent of the poverty level, and for 
     children of varied ages, such as 0-5, 6-11, 12-17, and (if 
     feasible) 18-21 years of age); and
       ``(vii) made publicly available.
       ``(C) Other requirements.--
       ``(i) Publication.--The data collected with respect to the 
     indicators developed under subparagraph (A) shall be 
     published as absolute numbers and expressed in terms of rates 
     or percentages.
       ``(ii) Availability of data.--A data file shall be made 
     available to the public, subject to confidentiality 
     requirements, that includes the indicators, demographic 
     information, and ratios of income to poverty.
       ``(iii) Sample sizes.--Sample sizes used for the collected 
     data shall be adequate for microdata on the categories 
     included in subparagraph (B)(vi) to be made publicly 
     available, subject to confidentiality requirements.
       ``(D) Consultation.--
       ``(i) In general.--In developing the indicators under 
     subparagraph (A) and the means to collect the data required 
     with respect to the indicators, the Secretary shall consult 
     and collaborate with a subcommittee of the Federal 
     Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, which shall 
     include representatives with expertise on all the domains of 
     child well-being described in subparagraph (A). The 
     subcommittee shall have appropriate staff assigned to work 
     with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau during the design 
     phase of the survey.
       ``(ii) Duties.--The Secretary shall consult with the 
     subcommittee referred to in clause (i) with respect to the 
     design, content, and methodology for the development of the 
     indicators under subparagraph (A) and the collection of data 
     regarding the indicators, and the availability or lack 
     thereof of similar data through other Federal data collection 
     efforts.
       ``(iii) Costs.--Costs incurred by the subcommittee with 
     respect to the development of the indicators and the 
     collection of data related to the indicators shall be treated 
     as costs of the survey.
       ``(3) Advisory panel.--
       ``(A) Establishment.--The Secretary, in consultation with 
     the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, 
     shall establish an advisory panel of experts to make 
     recommendations regarding--
       ``(i) the additional matters to be addressed by the survey 
     by reason of this subsection; and
       ``(ii) the methods, dissemination strategies, and 
     statistical tools necessary to conduct the survey as a whole.
       ``(B) Membership.--
       ``(i) In general.--The advisory panel established under 
     subparagraph (A) of this paragraph shall include experts on 
     each of the domains of child well-being described in 
     paragraph (2)(A), experts on child indicators, experts from 
     State agencies and from nonprofit organizations that use 
     child indicator data at the State level, and experts on 
     survey methodology.
       ``(ii) Deadline.--The members of the advisory panel shall 
     be appointed not later than 2 months after the date of the 
     enactment of this subsection.
       ``(C) Meetings.--The advisory panel established under 
     subparagraph (A) shall meet--

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       ``(i) at least 3 times during the first year after the date 
     of enactment of this subsection; and
       ``(ii) annually thereafter for the 4 succeeding years.
       ``(4) Authorization of appropriations.--There are 
     authorized to be appropriated for each of fiscal years 2010 
     through 2014, $20,000,000 for the purpose of carrying out 
     this subsection.''.

     SEC. 4. GAO REPORT ON COLLECTION AND REPORTING OF DATA ON 
                   DEATHS OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE.

       (a) In General.--Within 1 year after the date of the 
     enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United 
     States shall conduct a study to determine, and submit to the 
     Congress a written report on the adequacy of, the methods of 
     collecting and reporting data on deaths of children in the 
     child welfare system.
       (b) Matters to Be Considered.--In the study, the 
     Comptroller General shall, for each year for which data are 
     available, determine--
       (1) the number of children eligible for services or 
     benefits under part B or E of title IV of the Social Security 
     Act who States reported as having died due to abuse or 
     neglect;
       (2) the number of children so eligible who died due to 
     abuse or neglect but were not accounted for in State reports; 
     and
       (3) the number of children in State child welfare systems 
     who died due to abuse or neglect and whose deaths are not 
     included in the data described in paragraph (1) or (2).
       (c) Recommendations.--In the report, the Comptroller 
     General shall include recommendations on how surveys of 
     children by the Federal Government and by State governments 
     can be improved to better capture all data on the death of 
     children in the child welfare system, so that the Congress 
     can work with the States to develop better policies to 
     improve the well-being of children and reduce child deaths.
                                 ______