Volume 10

"Look Beyond New Jersey": Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care Urges Congress to Examine National State of Child Welfare

Commission Chairman Bill Frenzel states "We need to ensure that child welfare systems in every state have the necessary tools to meet the nation's goal of safety, permanency, and well-being for children."

Washington, D.C. - In response to this morning's hearing examining the recent failure in New Jersey to protect child safety, former Congressman Bill Frenzel, Chairman of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, submitted a statement to the House Subcommittee on Human Resources. Frenzel is a former member of the Subcommittee, and former ranking minority member on the House Budget Committee.

While the hearing focused exclusively on the case of four brothers in New Jersey adopted from foster care and discovered apparently starving in their parents' home, Chairman Frenzel urged the Subcommittee, and Congress as a whole, to "look beyond New Jersey for national approaches to improving outcomes for children who have experienced abuse and neglect."

"The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care shares Congress' desire to protect children from abuse and neglect, and place them with safe, permanent families," stated Frenzel. "To do so, we need to address the overlooked policy question from the New Jersey tragedy: how to ensure that child welfare systems – the public agencies and courts charged with protecting abused and neglected children – have the necessary tools to meet the nation's goals of safety, permanency, and well-being for these children."

To address this question, the Pew Commission will develop recommendations to improve federal financing of foster care, adoption, and other child welfare services, so that public dollars promote good outcomes for children. Today, decisions by state agencies and judges are heavily influenced by which services the federal government will pay for – and which ones it won't. Federal dollars flow easily to pay for foster care for poor children. But they are much less available for services to help families stay safely together, reunify safely after a period of time in foster care, or establish safe, nurturing adoptive homes. As a result, the average foster child spends three years in foster care, in three different foster homes.

The Commission will also make recommendations to improve court oversight in the child welfare arena. Judges determine whether a child enters or remains in foster care, returns home, or is placed for adoption. Despite this critical role, most courts are handicapped by crowded dockets and limited management tools that would enhance decision-making by judges.

The Commission expects to release its final report and recommendations by the summer of 2004.

"A parent's love can't be bought with money or ordered by a court," Frenzel concluded. "But with a better financing structure, stronger court practices, and greater accountability all around, we can build a child welfare system that does a better job of getting children the loving families they deserve."

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About the Commission

The nonpartisan Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care was launched on May 7, 2003 under the leadership of former Congressmen Bill Frenzel and Bill Gray. This expert panel of experienced legislators, child welfare administrators and providers, judges, parents, and youth is committed to improving outcomes for some of the nation's most vulnerable children by developing practical, bipartisan recommendations related to federal financing and court oversight of child welfare. It will report those recommendations in 2004. The Commission is supported through a grant by The Pew Charitable Trusts to the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute.

For more information about the Commission, or to request an interview with Bill Frenzel, contact Gina Russo at 202-687-0697 or mediaiq@comcast.net.

Read Chairman Frenzel's full testimony (pdf)