LEGISLATIVE ALERT

Urgent Calls Needed to Support Increased Funding

and Report Language for Child Welfare Training

June 25, 1997

Following the July 4th congressional recess, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees will be voting on funding for Department of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education discretionary programs. Urgent calls are needed BY JULY 7 to the Senate and House Committee members urging their support for increasing Child Welfare Training, Title IV-B, Section 426 of the Social Security Act, to $8 million for fiscal year 1998 and including report language on Title IV-E child welfare training program. Report language accompanies the appropriations bills and would, in this case, direct HHS to develop new regulations to address the confusing and contradictory policy interpretations that have seriously affected the implementation of the Title IV-E training program. Representative Nita Lowey (D-NY) on the House side and Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) have submitted requests to increase the funding of Title IV-B to $8 million to the Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittees. Rep. Lowey also submitted the report language on Title IV-E. It’s critical that other members of the Senate and House Appropriations Committees hear from you how important these programs are. For more information on Title IV-B funding and Title IV-E report language see attached.

Call or send a letter or telegram by Monday, July 7 to your senator and/or representative on the House and Senate Appropriations Committee members (listed below). The most important targets are the members of the Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittees (those with asterisks). If you do not have anyone from your state or district on the committees, please contact the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and Subcommittees. Here is how you contact them:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your representative or senator’s office. For fax and e-mail addresses, contact the individual member’s office. For telegrams, call Western Union at (800) 325-6000. Please fax copies of letters to Madeleine Golde at NASW at (202) 336-8311.

THE MESSAGE TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE OR SENATOR:

• Support increasing Child Welfare Training IV-B to $8 million for fiscal year 1998 from current $4 million.
• Support report language requiring new regulations to improve the effectiveness of the Title IV-E child welfare training program.

There is a critical need for more professionally trained social workers in the public child welfare system. The skills of highly trained social worker can make a critical difference when families are in crisis and where children are suffering from abuse and neglect.

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

* Members of the Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittee
** Chair, Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittee
*** Ranking on Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations Subcommittee

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

* Indicates Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee Members
** Indicates Labor/HHS/Education Subcommittee Chair

PROPOSED REPORT LANGUAGE ON TITLE IV-B AND TITLE IV-E

Administration for Children and Families, Child Welfare Training. The bill includes funding for the IV-B child welfare training program. This program provides teaching and traineeship grants to schools of social work to train social workers in the specialty of child welfare. The Committee recognizes the increasing need for trained, skilled and qualified child welfare protection personnel. The Committee strongly encourages the schools of social work to provide in-service training to those public child welfare staff not eligible for the graduate IV-E program. In addition, the Committee is concerned that effective implementation of the Title IV-E child welfare training program has been seriously hampered by confusing and contradictory policy interpretations that fail to accurately reflect the spirit and intent of the statute. An August 1996 Federal Register request for comments on the current program solicited over 160 responses concerned with the barriers to participation by private institutions of higher learning, inability to use training funds for the full-range of child welfare services, counterproductive caseload cost allocations, and inappropriate restrictions on costs eligible for the training matching rate. In a time of escalating child abuse and neglect cases and the urgent need for more qualified staff to serve our most vulnerable children and families, the Committee directs the Secretary to promulgate regulations by July 1, 1998 that address the problems raised regarding implementation of the training program.

POSITION PAPER

March 25, 1997

INCREASED FUNDING FOR CHILD WELFARE TRAINING PROGRAMS

IS ESSENTIAL TO MEET THE NEED FOR MORE

SKILLED CHILD WELFARE WORKERS

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is concerned about the need for more qualified child welfare workers and, therefore, urges Congress to increase funding for the Child Welfare Training Program, Title IV-B, Section 426 of the Social Security Act, to $8 million.

IMPORTANCE OF THE CHILD WELFARE TRAINING PROGRAM

Child Welfare Training, Title IV-B, Section 426 of the Social Security Act, is a discretionary grant program administered by the Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau. It provides grants to public and private nonprofit institutions of higher learning to develop and improve education and training programs for child welfare workers and students preparing to work in child welfare services. Traineeship, in-service, and curriculum development grants are available.

Traineeship grants provide financial support for undergraduate and graduate education, usually in social work. Students who receive traineeships under Title IV-B are required to work in child welfare agencies following graduation. In-service grants support short-term training of personnel currently employed by public child welfare agencies. Curriculum development grants are used, usually by social work education programs, to create and enhance curricula to teach undergraduate and graduate students the specific knowledge and skills necessary to provide public child welfare services (GAO, 1993).

Funding for the Child Welfare Training Program, Title IV-B, Section 426, began in 1965 at $3.5 million. It received the greatest amount of funding¾ $8.15 million¾ during 1978 and 1979. Current funding (FY 1997) is at $4 million.

Child welfare services provide a wide range of preventive and treatment services that promote the health and well-being of children and protect them from abuse and neglect. Social workers in child welfare offer services that help families gain the skills and obtain the resources they need to care for their children. The skills of a highly trained social worker can make a critical difference when families are in crisis. The services such workers provide include child protective services and adoption, foster care, and family preservation services.

THE CRITICAL NEED FOR CHILD WELFARE TRAINING

According to a 1995 state-by-state survey conducted by the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, over 3.1 million children were reported abused or neglected, and child abuse fatalities increased by 39% from 1985 to 1995. The Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, released in September 1996, estimated that the number of child abuse and neglect cases nearly doubled between 1986 and 1993.

The implementation of the federal welfare reform law at the state level could substantially increase the number of children living in poverty, which can lead to an increase in child maltreatment and a corresponding increase in demand for child welfare services. Using Department of Health and Human Services data, the Children’s Defense Fund estimates that for every 1% reduction in welfare rolls (AFDC), foster care caseloads will increase over 20% nationally.

To meet the complex needs of vulnerable children and their families, child welfare workers need a wide range of skills and knowledge. A 1989 survey by the American Public Welfare Association shows that 88% of the responding states had difficulty recruiting qualified child welfare workers.

The current system is not retaining workers who are adequately qualified to handle the tasks and decisions required in child welfare practice. Only 25% of child welfare case workers have social work training, and 50% have no previous experience working with children and families (National Commission on Children, 1995). The high turnover in the field of child welfare is due to the fact that workers without social work training are more likely to leave their positions, therefore diminishing the quality of services to children and families in need (Child Welfare League of America, 1989; Hornby, 1987).

Education, specifically a master’s degree in social work (MSW), appears to be the best predictor of overall performance in social service work. The overall performance of MSWs has been significantly higher than that of non-MSWs, specifically when performing tasks such as intake, casework or case management, and counseling and therapy (Booz Allen & Hamilton, 1987).

BENEFITS OF CHILD WELFARE TRAINING, TITLE IV-B, PROGRAMS

Training programs benefit child welfare programs by

• promoting collaboration between child welfare agency staff and university faculty, which results in better services for vulnerable children and families and stronger training programs that better prepare public child welfare workers
• providing opportunities for agency staff to receive education and training, which increases their knowledge and skills and improves retention and services
• developing a critical and qualified pool of child welfare workers who have been exposed to public agency practice and understand the changing world of child welfare services
• developing training programs that targets emerging and serious problems within child welfare , such as domestic violence, kinship care, and substance abuse
• encouraging tenured faculty in bachelor of social work (BSW) and MSW education programs to integrate applied and theoretical knowledge of contemporary child welfare practice in the training of their students for work in the field of child welfare
• strengthening the capacity of the universities and colleges to educate child welfare workers based on a competency based curriculum reflecting the current needs of state and local child welfare agencies
• developing perspectives and opportunities for policy change and service improvements

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact Madeleine Golde, NASW Government Relations Staff Associate, at (202) 336-8237 or by e-mail at mgolde@naswdc.org.

FACT SHEET

March 25, 1997

CHILD WELFARE TRAINING UNDER THE TITLE IV-E,

FOSTER CARE, ADOPTION ASSISTANCE

AND INDEPENDENT LIVING PROGRAMS

The Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, passed in 1980, is a means-tested, open-ended entitlement program under which states are partially reimbursed for AFDC-eligible children up to 18 years of age. Under the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Program states are reimbursed for maintenance payments for qualified children, administrative payments for expenses associated with placing children in adoption or foster care, and training professional staff and foster care and adoptive parents. The Independent Living program was established in 1986 to assist youth who would eventually be emancipated from the foster care system.

Title IV-E funds can be used to train public child welfare staff who work for state or local agencies that administer the Title IV-E state plan or those preparing for employment in public child welfare agencies. Reimbursement is available for courses at educational institutions and in-service training. It is estimated that approximately $141.7 million was spent on Title IV-E training in fiscal year 1995.

Serious limitations within the Title IV-E Program training provisions, underscore the importance of the flexibility present in the discretionary Child Welfare Training Program, Title IV-B, Section 426.

LIMITATIONS OF TITLE IV-E, TRAINING

States can only receive reimbursement of Title IV-E funds for training based on the Title IV-E eligible caseload.

Basing the cost allocation on Title IV-E eligible children seriously limits the amount of funds available for training and establishes arbitrary barriers in states’ efforts to upgrade the skills of existing agency staff and train new child welfare workers. If a state has a low AFDC-eligible children population in the foster care and adoption program than the state can only have access to limited training funds. Several states have taken issue with this requirement and have charged the full costs of training. HHS has challenged this position and sought refunds or disallowed claims for federal reimbursement from these states. States with training programs that successfully reduce foster care placements and have low AFDC rolls, are rewarded with less federal support for training under the Title IV-E program.

Reimbursement for training costs under Title IV-E may include only foster care maintenance and adoption assistance and administration. This excludes staff training on treatment and intervention skills.

The current requirements governing reimbursement of training costs do not consistently recognize the need to train child welfare workers on a wide array of competencies that include prevention, treatment, and intervention skills. Title IV-E is viewed by the federal government as an administrative, case management and maintenance program for low-income children in out-of-home placement, and not for training related to treatment and intervention.

Private institutions of higher education are not permitted to contribute to the state’s funding match, thus, limiting their ability to participate in Title IV-E training programs.

In a new regulation issued in 1994, HHS reversed its current policy allowing, under a waiver, third party in-kind contributions from private training contractors as state match funds under Title IV-E. The effect was to severely limit the participation of private colleges and universities in Title IV-E training programs. This action impedes the ability to expand collaboration and partnership between state child welfare agencies and the educational community with the goal of improving the quality and quantity of professional child welfare workers.

Confusing regulations and different policy interpretations across HHS regional offices of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) have made it difficult for social work education programs, child welfare agencies and states to receive reimbursement and provide uniform training under Title IV-E. Many recent interpretations in relation to Title IV-E training appear to have as their primary purpose the restriction of the reimbursement owed to states.

Recognizing the inconsistent and confusing regulations and policies governing training under Title IV-E, HHS called for public comment in the August 21, 1996 Federal Register on the implementation and management of the training provision of Title IV-E. Over 100 responses were received. They underscored the many problems in the training program and the need for revised procedures and policies that allow for more consistent administration of the program and enhanced training opportunities to ensure more qualified child welfare workers.

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact Madeleine Golde, Government Relations Staff Associate, at (202) 336-8237 or by e-mail at mgolde@naswdc.org.