Volume 7, Number 5
In this Issue:
U.S. House Committee Passes Home Visiting Legislation
Congress Passes FY 2009 Budget Resolution
Several Bills Focused on Children and Youth Moving in Congress This Week
--The Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307)
--The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 (H.R. 6358)
--Senate Panel Schedules Hearing on CAPTA Reauthorization
U.S. House Committee Passes Home Visiting Legislation
Take Action to Keep Bill Moving
On June 18th, the Education and Labor Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Education Begins at Home Act (EBAH, HR 2343), legislation that would provide much needed funding for early childhood home visitation services.
Take Action Now
The action by the Education and Labor Committee marks a HUGE step closer to the enactment of EBAH, but we still have a long way to go before EBAH is passed by both full chambers and makes it to the President’s desk. You can help encourage Congress to enact EBAH by sending a message to your members of Congress urging them to cosponsor the bill. Follow this link to find a sample message to your Senators and Representative, which you can send as is, or personalize.
Congressional Hearing Paved the Way
The committee action comes on the heels of a successful hearing on the bill that took place in the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee June on 11th. Much thanks and applause go to Makeda London, the Program Manager for a Healthy Families program in the Near North neighborhood of Chicago, for her thoughtful and passionate testimony in support of the bill and for skillfully answering a number of questions about home visiting posed by the committee. The webcast of the hearing is available online. | |
Summary of Changes
EBAH as passed by the committee does include a number of changes to the bill, some technical and some substantive. Following is a summary of the substantive changes.
Funding Level
- State Grants. The bill as passed by the committee authorizes $150 million for FY 2009 and "such sums" for FY 2010-2013 for state grants for home visiting. The original called for $400 million spread over 3 years for this section of the bill.
- Competitive Grants. The bill as passed by the committee authorizes $20 million per year for competitive grants to help serve military families and $20 million per year for competitive grants to help serve families with English language learners. The original bill called for $50 million spread over three years for each of the competitive grants.
Targeting
The bill as passed by the committee includes criteria that states identify and prioritize serving communities that are in high need of such services, such as communities with:
- low student achievement;
- high rates of teen pregnancy;
- high proportions of low income families;
- high incidences of child abuse;
- high rates of children with development delays or disabilities; and
- large concentrations of individuals who serve or served in the Armed Forces.
This provision represents a compromise between the original bill, which left it up to states to determine eligibility, and the desire by some members of the committee to limit services to individuals who meet certain income-level criteria.
Defining “High Quality”
The markup defines "high quality home visitation" as programs that adopt a clear, consistent model that:
- is research-based;
- is grounded in empirically-based knowledge related to home visiting and child health or development;
- is linked to program-determined outcomes;
- is associated with a national organization or institution of higher education that has comprehensive home visitation program standards; including standardized training and on-going professional development, that ensure high quality service delivery and continuous quality improvement;
- has been evaluated, and the results of the evaluation have been published in a peer-reviewed journal; and
- has been in existence at least 3 consecutive years prior to the program receiving EBAH funding.
The bill as originally introduced did not define “high quality.”
State Coordinating Body
The bill as passed by committee removes the coordinating body previously created in EBAH and replaces it with language to ensure that home visiting representatives are included in an existing state-level early childhood coordinating body.
State Match
The mark requires states to match their EBAH funding with non-federal sources as follows:
FY 2009 -- No match required
FY 2010 -- No match required
FY 2011 -- 10 percent match
FY 2012 -- 20 percent match
FY 2013 -- 30 percent match
The original bill did not have a match requirement.
Congress Passes FY 2009 Budget Resolution
Earlier this month, both chambers of Congress passed a joint budget resolution for FY 2009 (S. Con. Res. 70), marking the first time since 2000 that Congress has approved a final budget plan in an election year. The resolution was passed in the Senate by a vote of 48-45 on June 4th, followed by passage in the House on June 5th by a vote of 214-210.
The budget resolution sets an overall discretionary spending level at $24.5 billion above what was requested by the President in his budget proposal for FY 2009, including increased funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and the Community Service Block Grant (CSBG). The resolution also rejects the Administration’s proposed cut to the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), maintaining funding at the current level of $1.7 billion.
While the budget resolution does not require the President’s signature and allows Congress to move forward with passage of the 12 annual appropriations bills, it is not yet clear how many appropriations bills they intend to send to the President this year. Democratic Congressional leaders had indicated that they might not move forward with passage of appropriations bills to avoid likely Presidential vetoes of bills that exceed the Administration’s requested spending levels. Instead, Congress would pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) this year maintaining funding for government programs at their FY 2008 levels, and resume work on passage of the appropriations bills when a new President takes office. However, despite the potential CR strategy, both the House and Senate Labor-HHS-Education (Labor-HHS) subcommittees passed Labor-HHS appropriations bills this month and full committee action is expected soon. The Labor-HHS spending bill funds a range of social services, including child maltreatment prevention.
Several Bills Focused on Children and Youth Moving in Congress This Week
On Tuesday, the House passed a foster care reform bill, with a vote also scheduled this week for legislation on child abuse in residential treatment programs as well as a hearing scheduled in the Senate on the reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).
The Fostering Connections to Success Act (H.R. 6307)
Introduced last week by Representatives McDermott (D-WA-7th) and Weller (R-IL-11th), this bill aims to improve connections to services, family, health care, and education for children in foster care and those who “age out” of the system. It was passed by voice vote in the House and includes provisions that will:
- Expand incentives to states for placing children from the foster care system with adoptive families;
- Require notification of grandparents and other relatives when a child enters foster care;
- Extend federal support that helps children in foster care be raised permanently by relatives;
- Authorize funding for initiatives that help relative caregivers navigate the system of available services, support, and resources;
- Promote the placement of siblings together when in foster care;
- Improve attention to the health and mental health needs of children in foster care;
- Promote greater educational stability for children in foster care;
- Provide more support and protection to Indian children in foster care by increasing tribes’ access to federal foster care and adoption assistance programs;
- Expand funding for training of child welfare workers;
- Give states the option to extend assistance to youth in foster care up to the age of 21, provided that they are living in a supervised setting and are participating in school, work, or a related activity.
A Senate companion bill has not yet been introduced, though there are several bills circulating in the Senate with content very similar to various portions of this legislation.
The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 (H.R. 6358)
This legislation, which is sponsored by House Education and Labor Committee Chair George Miller (D-CA-7th) and was approved by that committee last month, would increase federal oversight of residential treatment programs serving children and adolescents, including wilderness camps, therapeutic boarding schools, and “boot camps.”
The bill was drafted in response to concern among parents and child advocates about the fact that many of these programs are not monitored by any state or federal regulatory agencies, as well as a study conducted by the Government Accountability Office that revealed reports of abuse, neglect, and in some cases fatalities in residential programs. The legislation would create national safety standards for residential programs, to be enforced by states as well as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. States would also be required to establish similar standards of safety and protection and would share accountability for investigating reports of abuse or neglect in these programs.
Senate Panel Schedules Hearing on CAPTA Reauthorization
On Thursday, June 26th, the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).
Since 1974, CAPTA has been a key part of the federal government's effort to help states and communities improve their practices in preventing and treating child abuse and neglect. CAPTA provides grants to states to support innovation in state child protective services (CPS) and community-based preventive services, as well as research, training, data collection, and program evaluation.
The Protecting Children, Strengthening Families: Reauthorizing CAPTA hearing is scheduled for 2:30pm ET on June 26th and will feature the following witnesses:
- Dr. Cheryl Boyce, Chief, Child Abuse and Neglect Program, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), Bethesda, MD;
- Tanya Long, Parent, Columbus, OH;
- Karen Foley-Schain, Executive Director, Connecticut Children’s Trust Fund, Hartford, CT; and
- Caren Kaplan, Director of Child Protection Reform, American Humane Association, Denver, CO.
The hearing is expected to be webcast.
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