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Stangler to Senate: Stronger Incentives Needed for Promoting Permanency
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The topic of permanence for foster youth was front and center in the U.S. Senate on May 10 as the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony from key players about progress achieved and challenges ahead in America's child welfare system. Among those testifying was Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative executive director Gary Stangler.
Committee chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, opened the hearing by saying, "The system is under-staffed and under-trained. Children linger too long before securing a safe and permanent home."
Opening Testimony Highlights Bush Administration Priorities
Joan Ohl, commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, testified that the Bush administration strongly supports reauthorizing three programs under consideration by Congress: the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program, the Mentoring of Children of Prisoners program, and the Court Improvement program.
The Promoting Safe and Stable Families program provides funds for states and tribes to develop and operate programs of community-based family support services, family preservation services, time-limited family reunification services, and adoption and promotion support services.
Ohl also testified that federal reviews of each state's performance in child welfare show that states are weak on timely achievement of permanence, especially adoption, for youth in foster care. "Indeed, no state was found to be in substantial compliance with the outcome measure reflecting whether or not children have permanency or stability in their living situation," she said.
Ohl also said that the Bush administration is proposing a change in the current structure of federal funds for child welfare, the IV-E Foster Care program, which provides about $5 billion annually to states. She called the program "administratively complex and substantively rigid" in how funds can be used. President Bush wants Congress to approve legislation that would permit states to take IV-E Foster Care funds as a fixed allocation, rather than as an open-ended entitlement, that could be used to pay for the full range of child welfare services, including preventive services, in-home services, services to reunited children with families, and post-permanency support services to stabilize families after reunification or adoption.
Stangler Urges Increasing Financial Incentives
Director Gary Stangler
Stangler testified about what policymakers should do to encourage permanence. "Human nature responds to incentives," he said. "Systems, like people, respond best to incentives as well. And the best kind of incentive is financial. We need financial incentives to foster permanence – through adoption, legal guardianship, family members trying to take on that role, or other family-type arrangements that assure life-long connections.
Specifically, Stangler suggested:
- Continuing post-adoption support, including family support and family strengthening services, and ensuring they are available for guardians as well as for adoptive parents.
- Providing federal subsidies to guardians of all children who leave foster care to live with a permanent legal guardian when a court has explicitly determined that neither reunification nor adoption is feasible.
- Offering post-permanence services for relatives trying to provide the supports that would come from a family but are in situations where adoption or guardianship is not an option.
- Encouraging innovative and entrepreneurial approaches among states to learning best practices and reinstituting the waiver process and providing incentives to states that increase all forms of safe permanence.
Stangler also urged Congress to:
- Extend federal support and incentives for foster care to age 21 in all states and allow youth who have aged out at 18 to re-enter foster care when they realize that being on their own is harder than they thought it would be. Stangler commended the leadership in Iowa – the legislature and the governor – for recent legislation expanding services and supports to youth leaving foster care up to their 21st birthday and urged other states to take this step.
- Offer more aggressive and flexible support for post-secondary education because economic success depends on education. States should ensure that the use of educational training vouchers supports part-time employment and part-time school attendance more strongly.
- Sever the link between adoptive/guardian family incomes and eligibility for financial aid. Stangler told the story of former Initiative intern Mary Lee who had to choose between her financial aid package for college and having a family, since her adopted family's income would be factored in. In the end, she decided it was more important to have a father to walk her down the aisle than to be able to afford college. Mary Lee told her story last spring on Capitol Hill, and Senators Landrieu and Coleman introduced the Foster Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act last summer, which wouldn't force kids to choose between having a family and getting financial aid. The bill is still in committee.
- Offer incentives for states to extend access to health care – including mental health and substance abuse services – for these young people. So far, only 12 states have taken the option under the Chafee Act to extend Medicaid benefits for former foster youth older than 18. Stangler noted that many more states should provide this basic care for young adults who aged out of foster care.
- Establish and finalize mandatory data collection and performance assessment requirements for states under the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, also known as the Chafee Act.
- Enact authorization for matched savings accounts, or Individual Development Accounts, for youth transitioning from foster care that would include assets such as a car, which is essential to get to school or work in most places in this country, especially in rural areas.
- Guard against unintended consequences of successful permanence. Some young people may be ineligible for services under the Chafee Act, if they are placed with family members or adopted.
Former Foster Youth Says "Lifelong" Connections Are Key
Jackie Hammers-Crowell
Among those testifying was Jackie Hammers-Crowell, who spent 10 years in six foster-care placements in Iowa before aging out of care. She sums the situation up by saying, "The foster care system is a work in progress. It has made huge strides in only a few decades, but it still has much room for improvement."
Hammers-Crowell noted that more than anything, the support of the adults in her life helped her come through the system intact. "The lifelong supports in my life include two sets of foster parents, my social worker, a transition planning specialist, and the families of two of my friends," she said. "For other foster children, it might include a teacher, a coach, a mentor, a therapist, or a member of the clergy. The point is that the connection be lifelong and supportive."
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., specifically spoke about the challenges faced by older youth in foster care. "We must remember the approximately 20,000 children who age out of our system without finding a permanent home," he said. "I applaud the resiliency of the children who manage to make this difficult transition and go on to lead functional and fulfilled lives."
