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Federal Document Clearing House
Congressional Testimony
April 11, 2002 Thursday
SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 4804 words
COMMITTEE:
HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS
SUBCOMMITTEE:
HUMAN RESOURCE
HEADLINE: WELFARE OVERHAUL PROPOSALS
TESTIMONY-BY: SHAY BILCHIK,, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
AFFILIATION: CHILD WELFARE LEAGUE OF
AMERICA
BODY: Statement of
Shay Bilchik,
President and Chief Executive Officer, Child Welfare League of America
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources of the House
Committee on Ways and Means
Hearing on Welfare Reform
Reauthorization Proposals
April 11, 2002
Mr. Chairman and
members of the Subcommittee, I am Shay Bilchik, President and CEO of the Child
Welfare League of America. I welcome this opportunity to testify in behalf of
more than 1,175 public and private nonprofit child-serving agencies nationwide
on the reauthorization of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program
(
TANF) and reauthorization of the mandatory funding levels in
the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF).
TANF
reauthorization this year presents the first real opportunity for members of
Congress, the Administration, and the nation to review and evaluate the
significant decision made in 1996 to replace the Aid to Families with Dependent
Children's program (AFDC). We have an opportunity to evaluate what has worked
and to make changes that, hopefully, will improve the lives of millions of
low-income children and their families. Child Well-Being
CWLA represents
both public and private nonprofit agencies that serve children, youth, and
families every day. Advancing child well-being is at the core of our agencies'
missions. CWLA is pleased the Administration has offered as one of its main
themes the need for
TANF to focus on ways to promote child
well-being. We look forward to working with this Subcommittee and other members
of Congress in crafting legislation that will improve the lives of our most
vulnerable children.
CWLA agrees with the Administration's proposal to
tie child well- being to the purposes of the
TANF statute.
Including this phrasing in the purposes section of the law is one step to better
provide a link between
TANF and the children who make up most
of the
TANF caseload. CWLA also supports the Administration's
suggestion that
TANF state plans should include measures of
child well-being so that states design and implement
TANF
programs that will measure themselves against how they affect children.
Poverty is an overarching indicator of child well-being and should be
addressed in
TANF reauthorization. Although some have framed
this part of the
TANF reauthorization debate as a choice
between child well-being and poverty reduction as a strategy, CWLA does not see
these two measures as competing, but rather as complementing each other. With
poverty as an overarching indicator of child well-being, the challenge will be
to develop strategies that address the needs of these children.
CWLA
encourages states to develop child well-being outcome measures. Each state
should also move toward the goal of adopting some standardized indicators for
child well-being based on indicators that researchers have found to be
associated with positive outcomes for children. CWLA's monograph, Making
Children a National Priority: A Framework for Community Action, presents
indicators of child well-being in terms of five fundamental needs: fulfilling
basic needs, ensuring nurturing relationships, protecting children from harm,
easing the impact of harm, and promoting optimal development.
Child
Trends, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization, recently drafted a
comprehensive list of indictors that significantly overlaps CWLA's
recommendations. These include a range of options in six areas: education,
socioemotional development, health and safety, attitudes, family well-being, and
poverty. Within each of these areas are more specific measures. For example,
socioemotional development measures include indicators on adolescent mental
health, behavioral problems, teen child-bearing, and afterschool activities.
Family well-being includes a range of concerns and measures, such as parent
monitoring and supervision, work efforts among adolescents, parent-child
relationships, connectedness and activities, and housing adequacy and
homelessness.
CWLA recommends this Subcommittee consider the existing
research as a way to improve understanding of how states might better measure
their
TANF policies and their positive and negative effects on
children and families. We would be pleased to further contribute to this
discussion as this legislation is drafted, debated, and enacted, and as
regulations are shaped.
States will also need federal leadership as they
develop their own sets of child well-being indicators. Any new outcome measures
should be coordinated with ongoing federal efforts to develop child well-being
outcomes. The Adoption and Safe Families Act requires the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop measures for outcomes on safety,
permanency, and well- being, by which all state child welfare agencies'
performance is reported to Congress annually.
Reports were published in
2000 and 2001, but, to date, only measures in safety and permanency have been
implemented, with measures in well-being still in development. This is due,
partly, to the complexities of measuring well-being and partly due to lack of
comprehensive, comparable data being collected. Another federal effort under way
is the development of measures to determine the well-being of youth leaving the
foster care system, mandated by the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act.
Work Requirements
CWLA urges Congress to carefully consider
changes to the existing
TANF work requirements and how they
will affect children. One of the important messages of the 1996 law was the
emphasis on work. The value of a job is important because it provides obvious
financial benefits to children. A parent who is working serves as a model for
children and the behaviors that we wish to see as children grow. Behaviors such
as hard work, self-reliance, and achieving goals can all benefit children. When
that work has meaning, it promotes dignity, self-worth, and self-esteem for the
parent.
A quality job that allows a parent to advance in skills and
income is important to families and children. A good job strengthens
opportunities for parents that can benefit children.
TANF
already includes definite work requirements and targets for parents and states.
Congress must carefully consider how changes to these existing work rules will
affect families. We hope Congress will not engage in a debate that ignores the
needs of struggling parents who are trying to work, to find quality child care,
and to be the best parents they can be.
Additional work requirements
could have the unintended result of becoming stressors and challenges to
families. We must consider the amount of time it takes to get to work. We must
ensure that policies allow parents to spend time with their children-to meet
some of their children's needs, such as affection, by which children develop
self-esteem, and support so children can develop new skills and capabilities. We
must ensure that families who may already be under stress and struggling to meet
their own economic needs have time to tend to routine care and family needs and
time for family emergencies.
There are ways to strengthen the current
work requirements, such as replacing the caseload reduction credit with a credit
that encourages states to place adults into jobs with substantial wages. CWLA
urges Congress to reject strategies that will force states to meet a numerical
goal of 40 hours of work, creating a system focused only on reaching numbers and
not on moving families forward. We cannot ignore the reality that many of these
parents spend several hours each week traveling to and from jobs, to and from
child care providers, and to and from school.
Some proposals Congress
may consider may include a flexible definition of activities and work.
Additional work requirements may appear simple and flexible at the federal
level, but when implemented locally, they may become more stringent. New federal
work requirements may force states to design policies with a very specific
number of work activities. States may try to avoid federal penalties rather than
focus on progress for families. Consistent with a work policy that helps parents
move into permanent, productive jobs, CWLA urges the Subcommittee to consider
ways that work requirements can address barriers to self- sufficiency. We
address this more fully in our comments on barriers and screening.
TANF and Child Welfare
There is a long
historical link between Title IV-A of the Social Security Act and the child
welfare system. The links that existed under AFDC continue under
TANF, including funding, the families and children served, and
the way the two programs are administered. A significant percentage of families
in the child welfare system receive cash assistance and services funded by
TANF. TANF funds also provide needed supports to prevent
children from coming in contact with the child welfare system in the first
place.
Child Only Cases
CWLA recommends that the flexibility to
serve families through
TANF be maintained and not altered in
ways that would restrict states' abilities to address the needs of children who
are eligible for child-only grants.
Child-only cases under
TANF, and under AFDC, have always represented a significant
percentage of the overall cash assistance caseload. In 1999, child-only families
represented 29% of the total number of families receiving
TANF.
This does not mean, however, that none of these families had a parent in the
household, or that all of them were kinship care families. In fact, most of the
child-only caseload includes a parent. Parents may be ineligible for
TANF because of their legal alien status, because of their
disability status under
TANF, or because they
receive Supplemental Security Income. In 1999, of the child-only caseload, 30%
were children in families where the head of the household was related but not
the parent. These child-only kinship families represented approximately 9% of
the total families on
TANF. Kinship care allows
relatives to care for their family members' children within the context of the
family. This form of family care strengthens the family system and enables
children to remain within the family if separation from their biological parents
is necessary. Kinship caregivers are being responsible family members and
responsible members of society. Receiving
TANF child- only
stipends helps kinship caregivers meet some of the essential needs of the
children for whom they have taken full responsibility. The caregivers that care
for their family members' children are usually living on fixed incomes. Many
live in poverty, and they are not prepared financially to provide these children
with basic essential items. They have chosen to keep their children within the
family, however.
The child-only stipend provides some limited financial
help with the daily expenses incurred in raising a child, but it is insufficient
to cover the costs of raising a child. Child-only stipends vary considerably in
different parts of the country. CWLA encourages states to increase the amount of
monthly stipends for children living with kin.
Title IV-E Foster Care
and Adoption Assistance
The 1996
TANF law repealed the
eligibility standards for AFDC.
TANF, however, requires states
to look back to the AFDC rules that existed on July 16, 1996, to determine
eligibility for Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance. CWLA recommends
the eligibility link between Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance and
AFDC be removed. This change will eliminate a costly administrative burden and
will treat all children with special needs equitably.
Child Care
With or without increased work requirements, as a nation we must face
the fact that our society has changed. Record levels of single parents with
young children are in the workplace. Increasing numbers of two-parent families
are discovering they need two incomes to make ends meet. As a result, we have an
ever- growing need for child care.
CWLA applauds President Bush's recent
statements acknowledging the link between the quality of care and whether
children enter school ready to learn. To change the current system of care into
a quality system that is both a critical support for parents who work outside
the home and an educational and child well-being tool for the children who
attend that care, we need significant investments at the federal, state, and
local levels.
It is true that the decade of the 1990s represented a
historic increase in child care funding. It is also true that those increases
came at the very same time as we experienced record workforce participation by
parents with school-age and preschool children. In the 1990s, we also began to
recognize the importance of early brain development and its impact on our
national goals for education and child well-being.
Despite this increase
in federal child care dollars, funding for the Child Care and Development Fund
(CCDF) is inadequate. HHS indicates that approximately one in seven eligible
children receive care. Many families have been placed on long waiting lists to
get the financial support they need and for which they are eligible. And waiting
lists do not tell the full story, since many lists may be limited in some way,
and in some instances lists are not kept because the need is so great. Existing
resources simply are not enough to reach all those in need.
In addition,
states do not have adequate resources to ensure that child care services
provided are of high quality. Many families who do receive child care support
are forced to choose lower quality programs because states don't have the funds
to reimburse programs at a level necessary to ensure quality.
CWLA is
disappointed with recommendations by the Administration and others who argue
that no new resources are needed for child care and that current funding will
address current or future work requirements in
TANF. We should
continue to recognize that our child care system is not designed merely to
provide the minimal form of care for those who are on or who are leaving
TANF. In the conference report that accompanied the
1996 reauthorization legislation (Report 104-725), Congress made clear its
intent: "States must spend a substantial portion of the amounts available to
provide child care to low-income working families who are not working their way
off welfare or at risk of becoming welfare dependents." Congress made clear that
child care was intended for more than just the goal of reducing cash assistance
caseloads. That same law also increased the number of families who are
potentially eligible for child care by increasing the maximum income eligibility
from 75% to 85% of a state's median income.
Child care must address the
needs of those on or leaving
TANF, as well as a broader
population. All this must be done while improving standards and quality of that
care. To accomplish these goals, CCDF funding must be increased substantially.
CWLA recommends no less than a $
11 billion increase in
mandatory funds, as included in at least two legislative proposals before
Congress. If work requirements are altered significantly, then this total will
have to be increased even more.
Social Services Block Grant
The
Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) has long been a source of funding for child
care. Recent state reports indicate, however, that the most prominent use of
SSBG funds are for child welfare services. SSBG also funds a number of other
human services, including services for the aging and people with
disabilities. Many of these services are provided by community
and faith-based organizations. While states continue to use SSBG funds for child
care, the reduction in SSBG funding since 1996 has eroded the block grant to
such an extent that many human services, including child care, are in
competition for these funds. Clearly, SSBG does not sufficiently meet the great
need for additional child care resources. CWLA urges Congress to restore SSBG
funding in FY 2003 and beyond to $
2.8 billion, the level agreed
to in the 1996
TANF law. In doing so, this would allow other
critical human service needs to be met.
TANF and
Barriers to Employment: Substance Abuse
Families receiving
TANF assistance face a number of barriers. As a result, some
TANF recipients are unable to move from welfare to personal
responsibility and work. These barriers may include substance abuse, mental
illness, domestic violence, and
disabilities. For those
families who come to the attention of the child welfare system-a good portion of
them
TANF recipients- alcohol and other drug (AOD) use is a
major contributing factor for remaining unemployed for long periods of time.
Estimates of the prevalence of substance abuse among
TANF recipients range from 16% to 37%. In a survey of CWLA
member agencies, caseworkers reported that up to 80% of the families that come
to the attention of the child welfare system have a substance abuse problem. HHS
estimated in August 2000 that at least 460,000 families on welfare-about 1.2
million parents and children-were affected by substance abuse. Several studies
have suggested a high prevalence of substance abuse among women receiving
TANF, with rates as high as 27% to 39%. Whatever the prevalence
of the problem,
TANF caseworkers, in particular, see substance
abuse as perhaps the most inflexible of the barriers facing people who are
trying to make the transition from welfare to permanent employment.
In
keeping with the philosophy of removing obstacles to work to achieve the overall
goals of personal responsibility and self- sufficiency, CWLA supports changes
and improvements in screening and assessment, sanctions, and work requirements
for those needing substance abuse treatment and applying for
TANF benefits.
Family Screening and Assessment
The purpose of family assessment is to learn about and engage a family
in identifying their needs, strengths, and current resources. Family screening
and assessment is a key ingredient in our efforts to assist families in
achieving self-sufficiency. It is also a vital tool for helping families improve
their parenting abilities and to ensure child safety and well-being. Families
seeking cash assistance often face many other stressors in their lives that can
become barriers to completing
TANF successfully and that can
jeopardize child safety and well-being. These include the need for adequate
housing and transportation, substance abuse and behavioral health treatment, and
assistance with domestic violence.
Many jurisdictions have initiated
screening and assessment for families. Some conduct an assessment with all new
families requesting assistance. A personal responsibility plan is developed,
based on the assessment findings. The plan sets forth the services the family
will receive to address barriers, and includes recommendations from substance
abuse or behavioral health assessments. Assessments may be conducted
"mid-course" to determine client progress and make any necessary corrections to
the service plan. Finally, some jurisdictions require a full assessment with the
family prior to imposing sanctions.
These steps can prevent problems for
families down the road-both the failure to meet work requirements and the
increased risk of child abuse or neglect. For those families already involved
with the child welfare system, joint
TANF-child welfare
assessments provide the opportunity to implement a coordinated service and work
plan with the family. This reduces the likelihood that the family will
experience "competing" or disjointed demands by different parts of the system
and provides the family with a single plan for accomplishing both their work and
family goals.
CWLA recommends that all families seeking
TANF assistance should participate in an initial screening by a
trained caseworker to identify and screen for barriers to work, such as
substance abuse. This initial screening should identify potential barriers that
might interfere with the family's ability to work requisite hours and otherwise
comply with program requirements. If the screening identifies potential barriers
for the parents or safety risks for the children, the caseworker should conduct
a full family assessment and, where necessary, refer the family member for a
professional evaluation to assess substance abuse, behavioral health, or other
concerns beyond the worker's expertise.
We also believe that
TANF workers should be trained to screen for barriers to work,
including substance abuse, physical and behavioral health, and domestic
violence, and for risks to child safety. Workers should also receive training in
family assessment, enabling them to assess the needs, strengths, and resources
of families as a tool for developing a plan that will lead to successful work
and promote a safe environment for the children. Finally, for families already
involved with the child welfare system, workers should be encouraged to conduct
joint assessments and planning with child welfare so that both systems support
families in their efforts to succeed in the workplace and as parents.
Substance Abuse and Sanctions
Families in need of services such
as substance abuse treatment must receive the assistance they need to overcome
barriers to employment. CWLA recommends that states conduct a presanction review
before sanctioning parents who are considered noncompliant. Parents should not
be subjected to sanctions and case closures because of the state's limited
substance abuse treatment capacity. If substance abuse treatment services, as
specified in the individual responsibility plan, are not available to the
parent, states should refrain from sanctions or case closures.
Substance
Abuse and Work Requirements
We must view substance abuse treatment as
both work and job preparation. Comprehensive, family-focused treatment programs,
either residential or outpatient, require that parents engage in intensive
therapy sessions, group counseling, parenting classes, and education or job
training services. A 1998 Legal Action Center study, entitled Helping Women with
Alcohol and Drug Problems Move from Welfare to Work, looked at 20 women's
treatment programs and found that 60% included work and vocational training as
part of treatment, whereas 75% required work and vocational training during the
substance abuse treatment process.
The Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
[42 USCA Sec.12210(b)(1)], and state laws require welfare programs to provide
meaningful access and accommodation to people with
disabilities. ADA covers parents in drug treatment programs.
Reasonable accommodation and individualized assessment are key entitlements
accorded to persons covered by ADA. Substance abuse treatment as a work activity
can constitute reasonable accommodation for parents. CWLA asks the Subcommittee
to consider providing substance abuse treatment as a work activity as a
reasonable accommodation for parents. Successful transition from treatment to
work is necessary to ensure that states provide reasonable accommodation for
persons in treatment.
Improving Access to Comprehensive Treatment for
Families
With the reauthorization of
TANF, Congress is
taking a long, hard look at the characteristics shared by those who remain on
the
TANF rolls. The hardest-to-serve will be those who have
been unable to gain employment. Clearly, behavioral changes will be critical to
move those who have not been able to find and keep jobs because of existing
barriers, particularly those confronting substance abuse.
CWLA is
encouraged by the Administration's provision to give work credit to families
engaged in short-term substance abuse treatment. Although we feel that three
months is not nearly long enough to effectively address a substance abuse
problem, the recognition of treatment as a work activity is extremely important.
We would encourage reasonable accommodation given to treatment as a work
activity to take into account the parent's particular circumstances and needs as
part of the individual responsibility plan. Aside from the needed improvements
of screening and assessment, sanctions, and work requirements, substance abuse
treatment services must be available for this to work. If treatment capacity is
not accessible for those individuals most in need, family assessment and
reasonable accommodation will not be successful. The Center for Substance Abuse
Treatment has found that when treatment is available, parents are more likely to
be employed and moving toward self- sufficiency.
We have a real
opportunity with the reauthorization of
TANF to change
behavior-a goal in both welfare reform and treatment for substance abuse.
TANF and Adolescents
TANF has
resulted in unanticipated negative consequences for teens. New research
indicates an already high risk group of adolescents face added difficulties due
to these welfare reforms. According to a study by the Manpower Demonstration
Research Corporation, which looked at data from 16 programs involving almost
15,000 children and adolescents, teens have more problems than do younger
children when their mothers participate in welfare-to-work programs.
The
studies indicate that school achievement is negatively affected for adolescents,
they repeat a grade more often, and they use more special education services.
The research suggests that reduced supervision and monitoring when maternal
employment increases and adolescents take on adult roles, such as caring for
siblings or paid work (more than 20 hours per week), affect youth negatively.
Congress should consider these new findings. Work requirements that keep
parents away from their children longer, especially without adequate child care
supports, should be examined. Forcing older siblings into a caretaker role, is
no substitute for needed child care and opportunities for positive youth
development.
According to an analysis of Child Trends' research, other
negative effects include increases in delinquency, arrests, involvement with
police, smoking, drinking, and drug use. These negative impacts on youth should
be addressed. New resources should be made available to promote the positive and
healthy development of young people. Youth fare better when they have access to
ongoing relationships with caring adults, safe places with structured activities
during nonschool hours, access to services that promote healthy lifestyles,
marketable skills and competencies through education and youth development, and
opportunities for community service and civic participation.
Proven
effective youth development strategies should be employed, such as character
development and ethical enrichment activities; mentoring activities, including
one-to-one relationship building and tutoring; community youth centers and
clubs; nonschool hours, weekend, and summer programs; sports, recreation, and
other activities promoting physical fitness and teamwork; and services that
promote health and healthy development and behavior on the part of youth,
including risk avoidance programs.
Reauthorization of
TANF provides an opportunity to ensure that youth have access
to the services and strategies necessary to support their positive and healthy
development. In so doing, we can counteract the unintended negative consequences
of
TANF for this vulnerable population.
TANF reauthorization also allows us to examine the
abstinence education program enacted at the same time as the
TANF law in 1996. In FY 2002, Section 510 of the Title V
Maternal and Child Health Block Grant was funded at $
40 million
for abstinence education. If this program is considered part of the
TANF reauthorization, CWLA encourages the Subcommittee to
consider enhancing state flexibility so states may use abstinence education
funds in ways that best meet the needs of adolescents in those states. In
addition, we encourage language to provide that scientifically and medically
accurate information be taught in all abstinence education programs.
Conclusion
The reauthorization of
TANF and the
Child Care and Development Fund may be the best opportunity Congress will have
this year to improve the lives of low-income children and families. Decisions
made at the federal level will shape state and local policies, affecting
millions of children and families in the years to come. Now is the time for
Congress to provide the resources, flexibility, and direction needed to assist
adults receiving
TANF with the tools they need to move from
poverty to self-sufficiency and to better help their children. CWLA looks
forward to working with members of this Subcommittee, Congress, and the
Administration as
TANF reauthorization proposals are considered
this year.
LOAD-DATE: May 1, 2002