H.R. 5456
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Speaker, I submit the following extraneous materials on H.R. 5456, the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016: Foster Family-Based Treatment Association, Hackensack, NJ, June 15, 2016. Re: H.R. 5456 Family First Prevention Service Act Hon. Kevin Brady, Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, Washington, DC. Hon. Vern Buchanan, Chair, House Human Resources Subcommittee, Washington, DC. Hon. Orrin Hatch, Chair, Senate Finance Committee, Washington, DC. Hon. Sander Levin, Ranking Member, Ways and Means, Washington, DC. Hon. Lloyd Doggett, Ranking Member, House Human Resource Subcommittee, Washington, DC. Hon. Ron Wyden, Ranking Member, Senate Finance Ranking Member, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Levin; Subcommittee Chair Buchanan and Ranking Member Doggett, and Chairman Hatch and Ranking Member Wyden: The Foster Family-based Treatment Association congratulates you on the important bipartisan work and agreement reflected in H.R. 5456 Family First Prevention Service Act.
Title I will provide crucial funding to keep families together, in particular those facing substance abuse problems, mental health, and generational deprivation of health parenting skills. Providing funding to address these crises is the first step to reforming our child welfare system so that families might stay together whenever possible and safe and avoid additional trauma of family breakup.
Title II will provide clarity about professional roles and responsibilities to assess each child and provide the most appropriate, least restrictive placement when a child must be removed from their home. Overall the bill recognizes the importance of a continuum of care from family support to family-like out of home placement to congregate care placements as needed by a child and family contingent on on- going, individualized assessments.
We look forward to working with the 115th Congress to be sure that this full continuum is supported and efficient: that qualified residential programs are able to meet these new requirements and serve youth clearly needing that level of care, and that community-based, family-like settings are supported and sustained so that youth who would otherwise be at the residential level of care can be served safely and professionally in the community in placements with biological family, with kin or guardians, or with non-kinship foster families.
We furthermore support the important reauthorization of Title IV-B programs and are especially pleased to see continuation of the adoption-kinship incentives, court improvement funds, and the regional partnership grants.
Again, thank you for your work on H.R. 5456. Please call on FFTA as we move forward in improving the family preservation and foster care systems for all of America's youth requiring such support. Sincerely, Jodie A. Austin, LCSW, Board President. ____ Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators, Government Relations Office, June 15, 2016. Re: Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 (H.R. 5456) Hon. Kevin Brady Chairman, Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Vern Buchanan, Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Sander M. Levin, Ranking Member, Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Lloyd Doggett, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Brady, Ranking Member Levin, Chairman Buchanan, and Ranking Member Doggett: On behalf of the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators, we are writing in support of your efforts to promote and improve outcomes for the children and youth who come to the attention of the child welfare system, including children in foster care. Over the decades the House Ways and Means Committee, with bipartisan support, has taken significant steps forward on behalf of our most vulnerable children.
We are aware that the House Ways and Means Committee is considering the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 (H.R. 5456), which would allow funds under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to be used for prevention services to help keep children at risk of placement in foster care safely at home with their parents or kin and would take important steps to ensure that children who need to enter foster care will be placed in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their needs, by targeting federal dollars on smaller family-foster homes and on other care settings for children and youth with special treatment needs or those in special circumstances, such as pregnant and parenting teens or older youth in independent living settings.
For your information, we enclose resolution, In Support of Reforms to Improve the Outcomes for Children in the Child Welfare System, recently adopted by our respective Conferences. We commend your efforts to promote and improve outcomes for the children and youth who come to the attention of the child welfare system. We hope that you consider our resolutions and support as you move forward to adopt this legislation.
Additionally, the legislation reauthorizes child and family services programs under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, including the three Court Improvement Program (CIP) grants through FY 2021 at the current $30 million level. The three CIP grant programs are critical for state courts as they provide the only federal funds to state courts for the purpose of improving state court oversight of abuse and neglect cases; and have been invaluable in assisting courts to improve and expedite our processes and procedures. These funds have resulted in abused and neglected children moving more expeditiously to safe, permanent homes and improved outcomes for children in need of protection. Our work, however, is not complete, so the reauthorization of these funds will allow us to continue our work to improve results for these children.
We look forward to working with you to ensure these child welfare reforms will truly benefit children who come to the attention of the child welfare system and to continue to explore additional improvements on their behalf to ensure they all have safe, permanent families. Thank you for your continuing leadership on behalf of these children. Sincerely, Hon. David Gilbertson,
President, Conference of Chief Justices. Patricia W. Griffin,
President, Conference of State Court Administrators. ____
Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators Resolution 5--In Support of Reforms to Improve the Outcomes for Children in the Child Welfare System
Whereas, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators recognize the importance of securing safe and permanent homes for children and the importance of moving children in state custody to permanent and safe homes as quickly as possible through the efficient and effective handling of child abuse and neglect cases; and
Whereas, the Conferences have made child welfare system reform a priority and undertaken initiatives to strengthen court oversight of child welfare cases; and
Whereas, Congress is considering a number of legislative proposals that seek to improve the outcomes for children coming to the attention of the child welfare system; and
Whereas, the legislative proposals have provisions that would:
allow states to use Title IV-E funds for time-limited prevention services for eligible children who are candidates for foster care at ``imminent risk'' of entering or re- entering foster care but who can safely remain at home or with a kinship caregiver if provided services, or pregnant and parenting youth in foster care, or parents or kin caregivers of children at risk of entering foster care;
allow Title IV-E funds to be used to provide evidence-based time-limited prevention services for up to 12 months when an intervention is necessary;
require state child welfare agencies to develop a prevention plan for each case that lists the services or assistance needed and identifies the permanency goal for a child, how services are tied to the placement and permanency goal and are trauma-informed in order to receive time-limited prevention services;
allow for a child to receive a Title IV-E maintenance payment when placed with a parent in a residential substance abuse treatment facility;
provide short-term financial assistance through Title IV-B for up to three months for a child's parent or kinship caregivers when it can be demonstrated that such assistance can prevent a child from entering foster care;
eliminate the time limit on the use of Title IV-B funds for family reunification services for children in foster care;
require states to take steps to safely reduce the inappropriate use of congregate/group care for children in the child welfare system;
require state child welfare agencies, at the initial placement and subsequent state reviews and permanency hearings, to demonstrate why the child cannot be served in a least restrictive placement and document efforts it has made to place the child into a more family-like setting;
require state child welfare agencies to conduct an assessment of appropriate placement prior to each permanency hearing or review;
require courts to review the assessment of the initial congregate care placements and updated assessments of congregate care placements and approve or disapprove those placements;
condition receipt of Court Improvement Program funding on the provision of training for judges about new federal policies on placement of foster children in non-family settings;
amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require a state plan for academic content and achievement standards to describe how the state will ensure the educational stability of children in foster care and include assurances that: a foster child will remain or be enrolled in the child's school of origin absent a determination that such enrollment is not in the child's best interest; if such a determination is made, the child will be immediately enrolled in a new school, which must immediately contact the child's previous school to obtain relevant records; and the state will designate a point of contact for child welfare agencies; and
allow states to certify that the state will provide assistance and services under the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program to youths who have aged out of foster care and have not attained age 23; and
Whereas, state courts, in their oversight role, have a responsibility to insure that state child welfare agencies are complying with these new federal policies and requirements; and
Whereas, while these added responsibilities will lengthen the time of court hearings, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators are committed to working with Congress and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to effectively implement the new policies and requirements: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators urge Congress to give favorable consideration to these legislative proposals; and be it further
Resolved, That the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators further urge Congress and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to provide adequate funding to state courts to: provide training for judges and court personnel so that they understand and comply with the federal policies and requirements; develop resources and best court practices; and fully implement these resources and best practices.
Adopted as proposed by the CCJ/COSCA Courts, Children, and Families Committee at the Conference of State Court Administrators 2015 Midyear Meeting on December 5, 2015 and at the Conference of Chief Justices 2016 Midyear Meeting on February 3, 2016. ____ The Supreme Court of Texas, Austin, Texas, June 20, 2016. Re: Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 (H.R. 5456) Hon. Kevin Brady, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Kevin: I understand the House may vote tomorrow on the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2016 (H.R. 5456), and that the bill has broad support so far. It would allow Social Security Title IV-E funds to improve the foster care system. It would also reauthorize child and family service programs under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act including the three Court Improvement Program grants through FY 2021 at the current $30 million level. These grants are critical for state courts in improving oversight of abuse and neglect cases and generally improving procedures.
As you well know, improvement in the foster care system is of growing concern in Texas as well as a national issue. I enclose a recent resolution of the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators ``In Support of Reforms to Improve the Outcomes for Children in the Child Welfare System''.
Thanks, as always, for your consideration. Cordially, Nathan L. Hecht, Chief Justice. ____
Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators Resolution 5--In Support of Reforms to Improve the Outcomes for Children in the Child Welfare System
Whereas, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators recognize the importance of securing safe and permanent homes for children and the importance of moving children in state custody to permanent and safe homes as quickly as possible through the efficient and effective handling of child abuse and neglect cases; and
Whereas, the Conferences have made child welfare system reform a priority and undertaken initiatives to strengthen court oversight of child welfare cases; and
Whereas, Congress is considering a number of legislative proposals that seek to improve the outcomes for children coming to the attention of the child welfare system; and
Whereas, the legislative proposals have provisions that would:
allow states to use Title IV-E funds for time-limited prevention services for eligible children who are candidates for foster care at ``imminent risk'' of entering or re- entering foster care but who can safely remain at home or with a kinship caregiver if provided services, or pregnant and parenting youth in foster care, or parents or kin caregivers of children at risk of entering foster care;
allow Title IV-E funds to be used to provide evidence-based time-limited prevention services for up to 12 months when an intervention is necessary;
require state child welfare agencies to develop a prevention plan for each case that lists the services or assistance needed and identifies the permanency goal for a child, how services are tied to the placement and permanency goal and are trauma-informed in order to receive time-limited prevention services;
allow for a child to receive a Title IV-E maintenance payment when placed with a parent in a residential substance abuse treatment facility;
provide short-term financial assistance through Title IV-B for up to three months for a child's parent or kinship caregivers when it can be demonstrated that such assistance can prevent a child from entering foster care;
eliminate the time limit on the use of Title IV-B funds for family reunification services for children in foster care;
require states to take steps to safely reduce the inappropriate use of congregate/group care for children in the child welfare system;
require state child welfare agencies, at the initial placement and subsequent state reviews and permanency hearings, to demonstrate why the child cannot be served in a least restrictive placement and document efforts it has made to place the child into a more family-like setting;
require state child welfare agencies to conduct an assessment of appropriate placement prior to each permanency hearing or review;
require courts to review the assessment of the initial congregate care placements and updated assessments of congregate care placements and approve or disapprove those placements;
condition receipt of Court Improvement Program funding on the provision of training for judges about new federal policies on placement of foster children in non-family settings;
amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to require a state plan for academic content and achievement standards to describe how the state will ensure the educational stability of children in foster care and include assurances that: a foster child will remain or be enrolled in the child's school of origin absent a determination that such enrollment is not in the child's best interest; if such a determination is made, the child will be immediately enrolled in a new school, which must immediately contact the child's previous school to obtain relevant records; and the state will designate a point of contact for child welfare agencies; and
allow states to certify that the state will provide assistance and services under the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program to youths who have aged out of foster care and have not attained age 23; and
Whereas, state courts, in their oversight role, have a responsibility to insure that state child welfare agencies are complying with these new federal policies and requirements; and
Whereas, while these added responsibilities will lengthen the time of court hearings, the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators are committed to working with Congress and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to effectively implement the new policies and requirements: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators urge Congress to give favorable consideration to these legislative proposals; and be it further
Resolved, That the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators further urge Congress and the United States Department of Health and Human Services to provide adequate funding to state courts to: provide training for judges and court personnel so that they understand and comply with the federal policies and requirements; develop resources and best court practices; and fully implement these resources and best practices.
Adopted as proposed by the CCJ/COSCA Courts, Children, and Families Committee at the Conference of State Court Administrators 2015 Midyear Meeting on December 5, 2015 and at the Conference of Chief Justices 2016 Midyear Meeting on February 3, 2016.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source