Barbara Flynn Currie.

22 June 2010

News from Springfield..................by State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie (D-25)

Courtesy of Casey Family Programs, I recently spent a day in Washington, D.C. The event brought together child welfare representatives from 12 states for meetings with Congressional staffers and high-ranking officials in the Department of Health and Human Services. The focus was on reform of the federal program that helps fund family preservation and foster care services.

I was pleased to join Erwin McEwen, our highly regarded Director of the Department of Children and Family Services, in representing Illinois. And I was delighted that the new Commissioner of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services is his predecessor, Bryan Samuels.

Casey Family Programs, a close relative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is dedicated to improving outcomes for children at risk of abuse and neglect. It works to increase the number of children who can safely stay at home; when that isn’t possible, the Casey commitment encourages states to find permanent alternatives for our young.

The last 15 years have seen a sea change in the national landscape for vulnerable youngsters. In 1997, for example, there were 52,000 Illinois infants, children and adolescents in the care of the state’s Department of Family Services. Today the number is 15,500. Casey Family Programs hopes to reduce the numbers even further: the goal is a 50 percent reduction by 2020.

Why have things changed? Today child welfare services are focused on addressing the needs of families before children have to come into care. At the time when Illinois saw 52,000 children in care, we witnessed the occasional high-profile case in which a parent killed or seriously endangered a child, which meant that preventing physical harm to children had to be the agency’s urgent focus. In those days, child welfare dollars were rarely spent on prevention. But research into brain and child development makes clear that children who can safely stay with their families are happier, better adjusted and more successful in the long run than children who can’t. Of course the key word is ‘safely’, and that word has encouraged the child welfare system to focus on the supports families need in order to provide that safe environment.

It doesn’t always work. And here too Casey Family Programs has a prescription. Children who are bounced from one foster placement to the next do not fare well. In fact, the director of one state agency said the government itself commits child abuse when a child faces eight, ten or 15 foster placements before aging out of the system. The answer? Focus on adoptions and permanent guardianships.

We met in Washington to encourage the federal government to change the way it helps states fund services for at-risk kids. A major problem is that eligibility for funding is based on income eligibility under the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. But as AFDC was repealed in 1997, the income limits haven’t changed even though the cost of living has. And the states Casey brought together would like more flexibility in spending federal dollars. The government has granted a limited number of waivers. All the states at our conference have improved outcomes for at-risk youth, but the waiver states find it easier to carve out new and responsive routes to meet that goal.

I know our messages fell upon open ears. I’m hopeful that those who were listening will be able to spread that word to the rest of the federal government.

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