[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 6]
[Senate]
[Pages 7617-7618]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   RECOGNIZING NATIONAL FOSTER CARE MONTH AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO RAISE 
  AWARENESS ABOUT THE CHALLENGES OF CHILDREN IN THE FOSTER-CARE SYSTEM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the HELP 
Committee be discharged from further consideration of and the Senate 
proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 466.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 466) recognizing National Foster Care 
     Month as an opportunity to raise awareness about the 
     challenges of children in the foster-care system, and 
     encouraging Congress to implement policy to improve the lives 
     of children in the foster-care system.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, the month of May gives us the chance to 
raise awareness about the challenges of children in the foster care 
system and to consider ways to improve policies and practices to ensure 
that children are in safe, loving, and permanent homes. There are 
nearly 415,000 children living in foster care; more than 255,000 
entered the foster care system in 2014 alone.
  According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting 
System, AFCARS, data for fiscal year 2014, the vast majority of foster 
children reside with a foster parent: 29 percent live in the foster 
family home of a relative, and 46 percent live in the foster family 
home of a non-relative. The rest live in institutions, 8 percent; 
groups homes, 6 percent; pre-adoptive homes, 4 percent; trial home 
visits, 5 percent; supervised independent living, 1 percent; or are 
runaways, 1 percent.
  As co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, I 
led a bipartisan and bicameral group of colleagues in introducing 
legislation recognizing May as National Foster Care Month. The 
resolution aims to bring foster care issues to the forefront and 
recognize the essential role that foster parents, social workers, and 
advocates have in the lives of children in foster care.
  While there have been vast improvements over the years, there are 
many challenges still facing our Nation's youth. These children have 
experienced abuse or neglect, often both. They can be moved from home 
to home, transferred from one school to the next, and endure trauma and 
mental health challenges. Older foster youth face difficult challenges 
as well. They deal with separation from their parents, educational 
instability, separation disorders, and depression, as well as challenge 
of transitioning to adulthood on their own. Whereas youth in foster 
care are much more likely to face educational instability with 65 
percent of former foster children experiencing at least seven school 
changes while in care. The number of youth who age out of foster care 
has steadily increased for the past decade as well.
  The resolution encourages Congress to implement policy that further 
the goals of safety and permanency. The resolution currently has 24 co-
sponsors.
  Because there are so many issues that affect youth in the foster care 
system, it is important that members of Congress understand the 
realities beyond the beltway. That is why I helped form the Senate 
Caucus on Foster Youth. Our caucus was created to be a clearinghouse 
for members in the Senate to discuss policy issues that cross many 
committee jurisdictions. Our caucus was also created to help generate 
better ideas and best practices. We want people to learn from both 
youth and experts. And we want these ideas to be put into practice. 
Today, 21 Senators are committed members of the Foster Youth Caucus. It 
is a bipartisan caucus that focuses on understanding the challenges 
that foster youth face and finding solutions that can improve their 
lives.
  Because of the challenges facing older youth, I held a hearing as 
chairman of the Judiciary Committee to examine the interplay between 
the foster care system and the juvenile justice system when children 
are involved with both systems. The hearing focused on what data, or 
lack thereof, currently exists about children involved in both systems, 
the risk factors associated with foster children who become exposed to 
the juvenile justice system, and how to improve on current best 
practices implemented by the foster care and juvenile justice systems.
  My goal for holding this hearing was to spark innovative solutions 
and to forge relationships between two distinct groups--the juvenile 
justice system and child welfare system. The experts in these fields 
must come together to help dually involved youth who are in need of 
services.
  It was also a renewed call for Congress to pass the Juvenile Justice 
and Delinquency Prevention Reauthorization Act, which I helped author. 
If this measure is enacted, States participating in the juvenile 
justice formula grants program couldn't lock up foster care children 
merely for running away from a foster home. Some of these runaways are 
fleeing abusive situations and detention isn't the right place for 
them. Our bill, which awaits action by the full Senate, also encourages 
States receiving juvenile justice formula grants to screen children 
with mental illness or substance abuse issues. Finally, our bill would 
encourage States to rely on policies and practices that reflect the 
most recent research on what works best with troubled youth.
  Also during May, the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth held several 
forums to allow foster youth to share their experiences and to hear 
from experts about how policies can be improved for children and 
families.
  The caucus hosted a three-part series of panel discussions on the 
impact of substance abuse and mental health disorders on children and 
families involved in the child welfare system. We heard directly from 
youth, learned more about how the opioid epidemic is impacting 
families, how to prevent foster care by working with families, and how 
to better achieve positive outcomes through in-home services. We were 
fortunate to have Iowa's Judge William Owens from the Wapello County 
Family Drug Court. Judge Owens highlighted how professionals working 
with child welfare-involved families have changed their practice and 
policies in his county leading to improved outcomes for families.
  On the same topic, I co-hosted Dr. Phil who shared his expertise with 
policymakers in helping families in crisis dealing with substance abuse 
issues. He focused on the link between the current opioid epidemic and 
the rising number of children placed in foster care.
  The caucus also partnered with other child welfare organizations on a 
briefing about foster parent recruitment and retention. The frontline 
caregivers for hundreds of thousands of children in foster care are 
foster parents. They provide physical care, emotional support, 
education advocacy, and, many times, a permanent home and future for 
these kids. Sometimes they are relatives; sometimes they are complete 
strangers. But no matter who they are, they are opening their hearts 
and homes to children in need. Because more children are coming into 
care, we need to do all we can to recruit quality foster parents to 
keep these kids safe, healthy, in school, and thriving in society.
  At the end of the month, I helped co-sponsor a briefing to discuss 
effective practices for youth transitioning out of foster care. Because 
26,000 young people leave foster care without a forever family and with 
limited resources and little support, we need to do better to guide and 
help this population successfully navigate the real world of adulthood. 
It was an opportunity to learn about intensive, individualized and 
clinically focused case management and counseling, which has proven 
results for long-term success.
  Finally, I participated in a Senate Finance Committee hearing titled,

[[Page 7618]]

``Can Evidence Based Practices Improve Outcomes for Vulnerable 
Individuals and Families?'' As a senior member of the Finance Committee 
and the author of many child welfare laws that have gone through that 
committee, I was able to listen and ask questions of experts about how 
we can move to more evidenced-based programs and learn from programs 
that are successful.
  The hope for panel discussions and briefings is to find innovative 
solutions--whether through legislation or awareness and shifts in 
practice.
  This year, I also urged the Department of Education to work with 
States to implement a provision I helped pass in the Every Student 
Succeeds Act. This education bill includes new data collection and 
reporting provisions to shine a light on achievement gaps for students 
who have long been overlooked in federally funded education, including 
homeless and foster youth.
  I have also worked on several bills this year to improve foster care 
policies.
  The Modernizing the Interstate Placement of Children in Foster Care 
Act would reduce the amount of time it takes to place children by 
incentivizing more States to implement the National Electronic 
Interstate Compact Enterprise, or NEICE system. Six pilot States that 
utilized NEICE, on average, reduced wait times for children by 30 
percent and anticipate savings of $1.6 million per year in reduced 
copying, mailing, and administrative costs. Throughout the country, 
caseworkers often avoid exploring out-of-state placements because of 
the long delays in processing the paperwork. Our bill gives incentives 
to States to join the NEICE system and streamline the paperwork to make 
foster care placements and eventual adoption happen faster. The more we 
can do to give children safe, stable homes, the better. The increased 
displacement of kids due to parental substance abuse, including opioid 
abuse, makes this cause especially important.
  The Protecting Families Affected by Substance Abuse Act would 
reauthorize for 5 years the regional partnership grants that were 
created in 2006 when I was chairman of the Finance Committee. While the 
original intent of the 2006 grants was to address methamphetamine 
abuse, the scope expanded to other substances as new problems emerged. 
Opioid addiction is a key focus of the new bill, as we have seen the 
havoc prescription painkillers and heroin continue to have on families 
and communities around the nation. The grants support regional 
partnerships for services including early intervention and preventive 
services; child and family counseling; mental health services; 
parenting skills training; and replication of successful models for 
providing family-based, comprehensive long-term substance abuse 
treatment services.
  Supporting Foster Youth Who Age Out--this bill would allow States to 
use these Federal dollars for foster youth services up to age 23 and 
further help those who age out of care with more opportunities to 
transition to adulthood. It also would allow greater flexibility for 
States to use their funds in a manner that best benefits the youth 
population they serve. The legislation builds on the Chafee Foster Care 
Independence Program, created by then-Senator John Chafee in 1999 to 
better support youth who age out of the foster care system at the age 
of 18. The program provides financial support for youth who are 
transitioning to adulthood with the goal to make them self-sufficient.
  For years, I have tried to call attention to the issues facing foster 
care youth, which consists of more than 415,000 children nationwide, 
more than 6,000 of whom live with one of Iowa's approximately 2,700 
foster families. As founder and co-chair of the Senate Caucus on Foster 
Youth, I often have the opportunity to hear firsthand from kids growing 
up in foster care. Foster youth long to be heard. These children need 
permanency and a loving family, not to be shuffled around from home to 
home. They tell me that important improvements have recently been made, 
but there are still gaps in services that could be solved with a 
combination of policy changes and citizen involvement.
  While this population of youth deserves year-round attention, we 
honor them this month. This is an especially important time to have 
discussions about how we can improve their lives and strengthen their 
families. It is important, too, that we remember all of the other 
individuals involved in helping children who are in the foster care 
system--including caseworkers, social workers, guardians, child welfare 
advocates, and foster families.
  Our work on this issue will continue.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed 
to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 466) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  (The resolution, with its preamble, is printed in the Record of May 
16, 2016, under ``Submitted Resolutions.'')

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