child care - Digital Library Collections

THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
tice, and mental health systems were struggling to
care for many of the same children, federal and
state policies seldom promoted interagency approaches,
nor was community participation emphasized.
Service systems did not comprehensively
address the needs of individual children and
families.
The Child and Adolescent Service System Program
(CASSP), begun in 1983 with a $1.5 million
budget, was the fIrst initiative focused exclusively
on improving the coordination of service agencies
for children and teens with serious emotional disturbances.
As funding grew, services expanded, but
the principle of partnering with agencies, parents,
and others working for children remained key. The
1993 Family Preservation and Support Services
Program also required states to bring together
these kinds of partners to identify existing supports
and needs for children and families and to plan for
the use of new resources.
Families in Crisis: The Scope
of the Problem Today
Asurvey of state child protection agencies in
1996 by the National Committee to Prevent
Child Abuse reported 969,000 children abused
and neglected. However, some experts believe that
as many as three times that number need help.
Indeed, 3.1 million children were reported abused
and neglected to public child protection agencies,
and a national incidence study that gathered data
from additional sources suggested that actual victims
may have numbered 2.8 million children in
1993.
The American Public Welfare Association estimates
that 502,000 children were in foster care on
an average day in 1996-about 25 percent more
than in 1990. Although a current national profJJe
of these children does not exist, an interesting picture
emerges from the 1997 Multistate Foster Care
Data Archive's examination of placement patterns
in six states (accounting for about half of all children
in foster care) from 1983 to 1994. The most
recent growth in foster care placements primarily
involved children placed with relatives. The study
also found infants and young children entering foster
care in greater numbers than any other age
group and remaining in care longer than older
children.
Of particular concern are children who become
long-term clients ofthe child welfare system.
Most reunification of children with their families
occurs within two years of a child's entry into foster
care, but more than one-third spend much
longer periods in care (see figure 5.2). Reentry into
care is a problem too. Of the children who entered
care in 1988, about 20 percent returned within fIve
years.
Children with serious emotional problems,
whose special needs too often go unmet and who
may be at great risk of entering foster care, are
another concern. The Center for Mental Health
Services in the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS) announced in 1997 that
between 3.5 million and 4 million children ages
9-17 have a serious emotional disturbance. The
center also reported that emotional problems are
especially prevalent among poor children. It has
published estimates ofthe number ofchildren with
emotional disturbances in each state, based partly
on the child poverty rate in the state.
Promoting Adoption and Other
Permanency Options
In 1997 considerable attention was paid to providing
permanent families for children, particularly
the 100,000 children living in foster homes
and group care settings who cannot return safely to
their birth families.
Federal and state action. Last year the HHS
secretary, responding to a December 1996 presidential
directive, announced a plan to double the
numbers of adoptions and other permanent placements
for foster children by 2002. Congress also
took action with passage of the Adoption and Safe
Families Act. Signed into law by the President in
November 1997, the act includes numerous provisions
developed with bipartisan support that are
intended to promote adoptions for children waiting
66 CHI L D R E 'S D E F ESE F U D