[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 21140]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  REVAMP AMERICA'S FOSTER CARE SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, last week I introduced the Fostering Our 
Future Act of 2005, a bill to help our Nation's foster youth by 
strengthening dependency courts and requiring accountability. Foster 
care is a critical safety net for half a million abused and neglected 
American children.
  It is, however, a system in need of drastic reform and greater 
support. Twenty percent of all foster kids will be forced to wait over 
5 years for a safe, permanent family. Even worse, almost 20,000 older 
youth age out of the system without the assistance of a permanent 
family every year.
  Frequent foster home transfers create turbulence and insecurity that 
heighten the emotional behavior and educational challenges faced by 
these youth. The doubling of the foster care population since the early 
1980s compounded this problem by creating enormous caseloads and taxing 
the capacity of foster homes. The end result is that foster kids, 
through no fault of their own, are more likely to experience 
homelessness, unemployment, and other life course problems despite 
their courageous resilience.
  Imagine what it is like to be 8 years old, neglected by your parents 
and then taken away from them, living with a family that is not your 
own, confused by the court proceedings that govern your future, 
frightened that you might be transferred to another home and alienated 
and from your peers who talk about mom and dad. Imagine what that feels 
like.
  These children deserve better. They should be guaranteed physical and 
emotional safety. They should have continuing relationships with 
caregivers and loved ones. They should have an informed voice in the 
legal decisions made about their lives. And they should enter early 
adulthood prepared to live a healthy, happy, and productive life. We 
have a responsibility to these children to meet these goals, and 
anything less is unacceptable.
  Practitioners and policy experts have conducted thorough analyses and 
advanced proposals to overhaul the foster care system. The most 
prominent is a comprehensive 2004 report by the bipartisan Pew 
Commission, and identified several areas where the Federal Government 
can support these kids by strengthening the Nation's foster care 
systems.
  The Pew report found that State dependency court systems are failing 
to sufficiently track cases, and trained personnel, unlike State child 
welfare agencies, they did not receive Federal funds to do so.
  Interagency collaboration and performance measurement, where they 
exist, are inconsistent, both within and between State systems, and 
tend to focus on bureaucratic needs rather than outcomes.
  Finally, these systems struggle to retain qualified dependency 
attorneys who are often burdened by substantial debt. A recent survey 
found that almost a third of those practicing dependency attorneys 
graduated law school with over $75,000 in outstanding loans, and 44 
percent of them currently owe over $50,000.
  High turnover among dependency attorneys has led to a dearth of 
experienced lawyers who have a comprehensive understanding of the 
system and can maintain valuable relationships with their young 
clients.
  The Fostering Our Future Act responds to each of those shortcomings. 
My bill authorizes grants to State dependency court systems to track 
and analyze caseloads as well as to train court personnel. These grants 
are leveraged by requiring that the recipient court systems collaborate 
with the State's corresponding child welfare agencies and track a 
series of critical performance metrics.
  The legislation further establishes a loan forgiveness program to 
attract and retain qualified child welfare attorneys. By encouraging 
statewide interagency collaboration and data-sharing by tracking cases 
and training court personnel, by ensuring that effective representation 
is available to children and their families, and most importantly, by 
focusing on child welfare outcomes, this legislation will keep the 
needs of children and families rather than the needs of bureaucrats 
front and center.
  I commend the child welfare workers of America for the invaluable 
services they provide and for constantly struggling to get this issue 
the attention that it deserves. Foster care plays a crucial role in our 
Nation's child welfare safety net, but it is in desperate need of 
support and reform.
  I call my colleagues to join me in working for the day when all of 
the Nation's children are protected, nurtured, and loved, and I invite 
you to join me in that quest by cosponsoring the Fostering Our Future 
Act of 2005.

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