[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 88 (Monday, June 20, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3930-S3931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRASSLEY:
  S. 1234. A bill to amend part B of title IV of the Social Security 
Act to reauthorize grants to assist children affected by 
methamphetamine or other substance abuse under the promoting safe and 
stable families program; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to introduce a 
bill on an issue that is very important to me and many of my colleagues 
here in the Senate. I have long been a passionate supporter of some of 
the most vulnerable members of our society, especially the thousands of 
our Nation's foster youth. Currently, there are over 420,000 children 
living in foster care. Each one of these foster youth deserves a safe, 
loving and permanent home. But, each year, these children face a 
declining number of foster homes, and must also deal with the 
widespread negative misperceptions attached to the foster care system. 
Many of them have to cope with parents that struggle with substance 
abuse problems. Parental substance abuse is one of the leading, if not 
the primary, reasons forcing children into the foster care system.
  According to the Congressional Research Service, in a nationally 
representative study, caseworkers investigating allegations of abuse or 
neglect noted active drug abuse by the 37 percent of the primary 
caregivers from whom children were removed to out-of-home care. The 
same report also noted active alcohol abuse among 29 percent of the 
primary caregivers from whom children were removed. The percentage of 
children who remain in care due to issues related to substance abuse is 
believed to be even larger because, among other reasons, accessing and 
successfully completing treatment services is often time consuming and 
children may not be able to safely return to their homes until 
treatment is successfully completed. An additional troubling statistic 
comes from a 2005 report by the RAND Corporation, which revealed that 
more than 300,000 children entered the foster-care system due to 
methamphetamine abuse.
  I would like to take a moment to share a story about one foster youth 
who is currently serving as an intern in my Washington, DC office 
thanks to the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. Her name 
is Taatianna and her story is a reminder of the challenges that many 
foster youth face.
  When Taatianna turned three, she opened the front door of her home to 
a caseworker who removed her and her two siblings from their home. 
Taatianna was placed in the foster care system at very young age 
because of her parent's substance abuse. She has lived many years with 
shame and guilt, believing she was responsible for splitting apart her 
family. However, she now knows that drug and alcohol were the reasons 
she was neglected and forced into foster care. Fortunately, Taatianna 
and her siblings were able to live together and be raised by their 
biological grandmother, Ruby, in Relative Kinship Care. Ruby played the 
role of mom, dad, and grandma to these three children. While growing 
up, Taatianna and her siblings faced emotional and mental anxieties, 
trying hard not to succumb to the curse of substance abuse addiction 
that ran in their family. But more importantly, the kids longed to be 
with their mom and dad again, hoping they could get clean, hold a job, 
and be a family. Taatianna's mother struggled, and continues to 
struggle with, addiction.
  Drugs and alcohol have torn this family apart, and have destroyed any 
sense of normalcy or permanency they so desperately yearned for. 
Taatianna witnessed first-hand the traumatic effects of substance abuse 
in both her parents and many other family members. Taatianna, and many 
other foster youth in this country, could be helped if parents were 
treated or had better access to treatment for their substance abuse 
problems.
  Foster care shouldn't be a destination. It should be a temporary 
detour for children while their parents are treated and are ready to be 
parents.
  So, today, on behalf of many youth in foster care, I introduce the 
Partners for Stable Families and Foster Youth Affected by 
Methamphetamine or Other Substance Abuse Act. This bill will 
reauthorize the Regional Partnership Grants that were created in 2006 
as part of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Act. The passage of 
this legislation was a tremendous step forward

[[Page S3931]]

in our efforts to help the youth in the foster care system. The funds 
from these grants address a variety of challenges that are barriers to 
optimal family outcomes. The mission of the Regional Partnership Grants 
is to improve the safety, permanency, and well-being of children who 
are in an out-of-home placement or are at-risk of such placement 
because of a parent or caretaker's abuse of methamphetamine or another 
substance.
  In September 2007, following the authorization of the Regional 
Partnership Grants, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded 
multiyear grants to 53 regional partnerships representing 29 states and 
6 tribes. The first round of grants supported the creation or expansion 
of family treatment drug courts, improvement of system-wide 
collaboration, expanded access to comprehensive family centered 
treatment, use of evidence-based practice approaches such as 
motivational enhancement therapy, parent advocates, and recovery 
management approaches to drug treatment monitoring. The groups 
receiving these grants were split almost evenly between the public and 
private sectors, and they represent a great example of how both can 
assist the many youth and families that are a part of the foster care 
system.
  Allow me an opportunity to tell you about the grantees in my home 
state of Iowa.
  One grantee, Upper Des Moines Opportunity Inc., is undertaking the 
Parent Partner Program in 9 counties in rural Northwest Iowa. This 
program primarily assists individuals addicted to meth, and is unique 
because parents are matched to Parent Partners who serve as mentors, 
assisting clients to navigate the child welfare and substance abuse 
systems. The goal of these Parent Partners is to support and mentor 
parents who have trouble keeping their families together and are at 
risk of incarceration or permanently losing custody of their children. 
This program is more personal than stand alone drug treatment programs 
because Parent Partners have been through the same situations. One 
outcome is that clients are developing a trusting relationship with 
professionals in the child welfare and substance abuse systems; thereby 
increasing their chances for success and becoming more engaged in 
substance abuse treatment and recovery. The Parent Partner understands 
the client's situation, allowing them to bond and build trust with the 
goal of regaining custody of their children more quickly. The Parent 
Partners serve as the critical link between the Department of Human 
Services, the parent, and other experts.
  Another grantee, the Parents and Children Together, PACT, is a family 
drug court initiative implementing a community based approach to 
substance abuse treatment. The program supports the family to remain 
the primary permanency option for their children. PACT is a partnership 
of the courts, the state child welfare agency, the Iowa Department of 
Public Health, and five community pilot sites with the State Court 
taking the lead. Through this program, family treatment courts were 
implemented in each pilot site. The program is focused on increasing 
the safety, permanency and well-being of children by addressing the 
substance abuse treatment programming and service gaps through a 
community collaborative planning approach. The partnership has worked 
hard over the years to establish family drug courts in their pilot 
sites that support families as they navigate the foster care system and 
substance abuse treatment. With the knowledge they are gaining on what 
works and what doesn't, they have provided two family treatment court 
forums for other interested community court led teams. They presently 
serve 6 sites and have 6 other court led teams that are interested in 
learning more.

  According to a forthcoming report from the Administration on 
Children, Youth, and Families, over 8,000 adults and 12,000 children 
have been served by the Regional Partnership Grants. Bryan Samuels, the 
Commissioner of the Administration, has said that children are 
discharged from foster care at a faster rate because of the grants and 
that families are more likely to be reunited within 12 months and are 
more likely to stay that way after 12 months.
  The efforts to help at-risk youth must continue. We know that 
substance abuse issues will continue to push kids into foster care. In 
Iowa alone, from 2005-2009, the Iowa Department of Human Services 
classified 5,330 children victims of abuse due to the presence of an 
illegal drug in their body. Meth continues to be a huge concern. In 
fact, meth lab incidents in Iowa have dropped dramatically since their 
peak in 2004, but have risen in each of the past three years. The 
resurgence in meth lab incidents coincides with a rise in drug-related 
prison admissions, meth treatment admissions, and child abuse cases.
  In my original version of the Regional Partnership Grants in 2006, I 
envisioned $40 million per year to be available for grants to improve 
the outcomes of those affected by meth or other substance abuse. 
Unfortunately this amount was reduced during conference committee 
negotiations. In the bill I am introducing today, I am again calling 
for the amount to be set at $40 million per year. This will allow new 
grantees to start programs while giving short two-year extensions to 
existing grantees. The goal is to encourage new collaborations 
throughout the country, while giving time to existing collaborations to 
institute best practices and educate other entities about what works 
and what does not.
  The reauthorization of the Regional Partnership Grants will also 
include several measures aimed at improving the original legislation. 
The bill will allow more dollars to be available for activities and 
collaborative efforts by instituting a 5 percent administrative fee cap 
on the amount that can be retained by the Administration on Children, 
Youth, and Families for technical assistance or contract services. 
Finally, the bill will require more evaluation of regional 
partnerships, and require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 
evaluate the new grantees and issue a report on the best practices 
implemented by their programs no later than December 1, 2012, with a 
follow-up report due in 2017. These reports will prove useful in 
efforts to improve our foster-care system.
  The improvement of the lives of families and youth that are involved 
in the foster care system is one of the most important issue I have 
undertaken in the U.S. Senate. The Regional Partnership Grants have not 
only helped youth in search of permanent, loving families, but have 
brought back together families that were torn apart by substance abuse. 
As a founder and co-chair of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, I have 
been a witness to the many successes that have occurred thanks to our 
support of these children and young adults; however, I am also still 
painfully aware of the amount of work that remains. We can take another 
significant step forward in this area by passing the Partners for 
Stable Families and Foster Youth Affected by Methamphetamine or Other 
Substance Abuse Act and reauthorizing the Regional Partnership Grants.
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