United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-12-29 monographic deposited born digital 66 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-191 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191 P0b002ee1803871ae f:d01191 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191 GAO-01-191 Child abuse Foster children Public administration Municipal governments Interagency relations District of Columbia District of Columbia FACES Information System District of Columbia D.C. KIDS Program Letter Report

Once in the care of the District of Columbia's child welfare system, many children have languished there for extended periods of time. Years of indifference, managerial shortcomings, and long-standing organizational divisiveness constrained the system's ability to keep children safe. As a result of these prolonged deficiencies, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a remedial order in 1991 to improve the performance of the child welfare agency. GAO assesed the agency's progress in complying with the court's requirements, specifically examining how financial and operational changes made by the Children and Family Services Agency (CFSA) have affected the protection of children and the provision of services to children and families, the extent to which critical elements of an effective child welfare system have been applied in the District, and issues that need to be addressed in planning for the transfer of CFSA back to local governance. GAO found that the financial and operational changes have not significantly improved the protection of children or the delivery of other child welfare services. Although the District has begun to integrate child welfare services with other support services, it still lacks a fully developed collaborative structure to help foster more efficient day-to-day operations and improve program accountability. Furthermore, multiple issues must be resolved before CFSA can be transferred back to local governance. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191.pdf GAO-01-191 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-191 Letter Report GAO-01-191; District of Columbia Child Welfare: Long-Term Challenges; Child abuse Foster children Public administration Municipal governments Interagency relations District of Columbia District of Columbia FACES Information System District of Columbia D.C. KIDS Program Title 42 Section 675 42 U.S.C. 675 Public Law 106-397