LEGISLATIVE ALERT

Action Needed to Build Support for S.A.F.E.

(Safe Adoptions and Family Environments) ACT (S. 511)

May 12, 1997

CONVINCE YOUR SENATORS TO SIGN ON AS COSPONSORS

ISSUE: Child welfare, specifically increasing safety and permanence for abused and neglected children.

BACKGROUND: The S.A.F.E. (Safe Adoptions and Family Environments) Act (S. 511) is a bipartisan bill introduced by Senator John Chafee (R-RI) and Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). It is designed to increase safety and permanence for abused and neglected children, whether they are at home or in out-of-home care. It recognizes every child’s need for a permanent family by accelerating timetables and reviews and by extending incentives for the adoption of children with special needs.

Most importantly for NASW, the bill also would:

(1) expand funds for services, such as treatment for substance abuse, mental health problems and domestic violence, making them available up front to ensure better and more timely decisions about reunification, adoption, and other permanency options.

(2) require development and implementation of state guidelines, such as those issued by a nationally recognized accrediting body, to ensure safe, quality care for children.

(3) provide additional resources for training and retention of staff who work with abused and neglected children.

NASW is one of the original endorsing national organizations, along with Children’s Defense Fund, Child Welfare League of America, American Psychological Association, National Education Association, Catholic Charities, USA and others.

The S.A.F.E. Act puts forth a stronger, more comprehensive approach to keeping children safe and in permanent families than the corresponding House bill. That bill, the Adoption Promotion Act (H.R. 867) passed the House by a vote of 416 to 5 on April 30, 1997. While H.R. 867 also addresses safety and permanence, it fails to offer any increased resources for the services and staff training necessary to produce the desired outcomes.

ACTION NEEDED:

By Letter: The Honorable (first name, last name); United States Senate; Washington, DC 20510; Dear Senator (last name).

By Fax/E-Mail: Call individual congressional offices for fax numbers and e-mail addresses.

By Telephone: Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for Senator’s office.

By Telegram: Western Union, 1-800-325-6000.

TIMING: Building the number of Senate cosponsors is most critical within the next month, but can continue until final action is taken (difficult to predict, but may not be until late summer).

BACKGROUND MATERIAL INCLUDED: For use in crafting letters, phone calls, etc. As always, inclusion of state/local information often makes the most compelling case.

(1) Summary of the S.A.F.E. Act (S. 511).

(2) NASW statement of support.

(3) Sample Letter to the Editor.

SUMMARY OF THE

SAFE ADOPTIONS AND FAMILY ENVIRONMENTS (S.A.F.E.) ACT S. 511

Enhances the Safety of Children At Home and In Out-of-Home Care

Safety in the Home. Clarifies that a child’s health and safety are paramount concerns in making decisions about the removal of a child from and the child’s return to his home and that there are situations where reunification efforts are not required because to do so would endanger the child’s health or safety; and requires states to specify in state law those situations where efforts to reunify are not reasonable and are not required. **

Safety While Out of the Home. Clarifies the importance of safety in decisions around case planning and case reviews for children in foster care.

Multi-agency Child Death Review Teams. Requires states to establish within five years statewide multi-agency child death review teams to explore ways to prevent fatalities in the future. A federal Child Death Review Team also is established.

Background Checks. Requires criminal and child abuse record checks for final approval of foster parents, group care staff, and adoptive parents to increase the safety of children in out-of-home placements and with adoptive families.

Provides Incentives for Adoption and Other Permanency Options

Reasonable Efforts Toward Permanence. Requires that when the goal for a child is adoption or another permanent option that states must make reasonable efforts to place the child in a timely manner with an adoptive family or in another permanent home and must document in the child’s case plan specific recruitment efforts and other steps taken to achieve permanence for the child. **

Permanency Planning Hearing. Establishes a permanency planning hearing within 12 months of a child’s placement, rather than within 18 months as in current law, at which time there must be a determination whether and when a child will be returned home, referred for termination of parental rights, placed for adoption or referred for legal guardianship or some other planned permanent living arrangement. **

Increased Resources for Services. Gives states increased flexibility to use foster care funds (currently only used for room and board) for substance abuse, mental health, and domestic violence services, counseling and transportation for children and parents/primary care givers to promote prompt permanency decisions. Services can be provided for up to one year from the date the child is removed from the home.

Expanded Adoption Assistance. Expands eligibility for federally-funded adoption subsidies to all children with physical, mental or emotional disabilities or other special needs. This change eliminates the inequity that exists in current law and expedites adoptions by eliminating the need for costly eligibility determinations about the financial status of a child’s parents at the time the child entered foster care, even though all parental rights to the child have been terminated in order to make the child free for adoption.

Geographic Barriers to Adoption. Establishes an advisory panel to study and recommend to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Congress how to reduce barriers to out-of-state and out-of-country adoptions.

Enhances Capacity and Accountability for Safety and Permanence

Substance Abuse and Child Welfare Collaboration. Encourages collaboration between substance abuse and child welfare agencies by expanding knowledge about the nature of the problems of substance abuse, barriers to treatment for child welfare families, and the collaborations underway to jointly assess families’ needs, fund treatment, train staff and evaluate program effectiveness. **

Priority for Treatment. Establishes priority for substance abuse treatment for caretaker parents who are referred for treatment by the state or local child welfare agency.

Treatment for Parents and Children Together. Increases treatment options for substance abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, and the problems of teen parenting by allowing a child’s foster care payment to be used for his care with a parent being treated in a residential program.

Staff Training Across Agencies. Provides flexibility to states to fund staff retention initiatives and training for court staff and staff of substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, education and other agencies, in addition to child welfare staff, who are charged with keeping children safe; allows training funds to benefit all children in foster care or receiving adoption assistance payments.

States Benchmarks for Quality Care. Requires states to develop their own guidelines to ensure safe, quality care for children in out-of-home placements, and over time to use them to judge the performance of agencies with which the state contracts for the out-of-home care of children.

Innovation Grants. Establishes competitive grants for state innovations in child protection and permanence that address goals such as reducing a backlog of children awaiting adoption, ensuring a permanent placement for a child within one year of entering care, addressing barriers to permanency, and implementing community-based child protection initiatives.

Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers. Expands from 10 to 15 the number of states that can obtain federal waivers to demonstrate new approaches to child welfare reform. **

** There is a similar provision in the Adoption Promotion Act (H.R. 867).

April 1997

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS

ENDORSES S.A.F.E. ACT

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) endorses the Safe Adoptions and Family Environments (S.A.F.E.) Act (S. 511), introduced by Senator John H. Chafee and Senator John D. Rockefeller IV.

NASW salutes Mr. Chafee and Mr. Rockefeller for their continuing commitment to America’s most vulnerable children. Through their efforts, child welfare programs were saved from the block grant frenzy of the 104th Congress and now with the S.A.F.E. Act, they take the first step toward necessary improvements in the foster care and adoption programs.

NASW is particularly supportive of the bill’s following provisions:

Expansion of necessary support services for ensuring permanence for children. The bill allows states to include, for up to one year, reunification services within its definition of foster care maintenance payments for purposes of Title IV-E reimbursement and increases substance abuse treatment options for families by allowing Title IV-E dollars to be used for the care of a child with a parent in a residential program.

Development and implementation of state guidelines to ensure safe, quality care for children. The bill requires states to develop and implement guidelines, such as those issued by a nationally recognized accrediting body, for the care of children residing in out-of-home settings, to assist public and private provider agencies in meeting the guidelines, and to judge compliance with the guidelines by measuring improvement in child and family outcomes.

Enhancement of resources for training and retention of staff who work with abused and neglected children. The bill allows Title IV-E training funds to be used for staff retention and cross-agency training of child welfare staff and staff of substance abuse, mental health, education, juvenile justice, probation, and welfare agencies and the courts.

The National Commission on Children, chaired by Senator Rockefeller, found that only 25 percent of child welfare workers are professionally trained social workers and only 50 percent of child welfare staff have had any experience in working with families. These workers are often called upon to make life and death decisions. Our children deserve staff who are adequately trained and experienced to make the decisions that will ensure their safety. Without necessary support services, quality care, and qualified staff, tinkering with timelines and terminology will fail to produce the desired improvements in outcomes for children and families who are served by foster care and adoption programs.