California  Voter	Juvenile Justice in California
	Addressing Issues Surrounding Child Abuse and Neglect

In this section... ADDRESSING ISSUES SURROUNDING CHILD ABUSE & NEGLECT Little Hoover Commission Dependency Study Wraparound Services Health Care Issues Home Visiting Court Appointed Special Advocates Adoption Mediation Court Reform A Court Reform Effort Targeting Parental Substance Abuse TABLE OF CONTENTS

This section gives an overview of many of the issues involved in reducing child abuse and neglect, and the responsibility of the state to care for foster children and to prepare them for independence when they reach adulthood. In this section also are descriptions of some efforts at system reform and some promising new programs.

Little Hoover Commission Dependency Study

The Little Hoover Commission recently studied California's Dependency System and published a series of findings and recommendations in its report, Now in Our Hands: Caring for California's Abused and Neglected Children.

The Commission noted that, "The purpose of public policy ... should be to reduce the abuse of children, to protect and care for those children who are abused, and to provide for abused children a nurturing and permanent home." In 1997, the latest data available, there were 105,000 children in foster care. Over the last 15 years, since the Commission first studied the issue, the proportion of children in foster care has more than doubled. The absolute number has tripled. Children are entering foster care earlier and staying longer. Children are cycling through the system more often. Sociologists attribute the growth in the foster care caseload to several socioeconomic factors: More children are living in poverty. More families are headed by single parents. And more parents are abusing drugs and alcohol.

The Commission found the following:

• "Policymakers should affirm the extraordinary obligation that the state has to care for abused children and the imperative to prevent abuse by helping troubled families. This affirmation should be expressed as clear goals for public agencies to pursue. Among them:

When possible, children must be spared the trauma of abuse through targeted prevention efforts.

When prevention fails, the state must intervene quickly to protect the child, treat the trauma and provide high quality care.

When it is in the best interest of the child, intensive efforts should be made to safely reunify the family. Otherwise, intensive efforts should be made to permanently place the child in a family-based setting that satisfies the child's needs.

When children leave foster care, assistance should continue to help them secure their footing on the path to adulthood.

"Despite the difficulty of this task, there are reasons for optimism. First, federal, state and local child welfare agencies increasingly agree on how the system should conceptually work. Second, previous initiatives provide a foundation for implementing comprehensive reforms. Finally, there is broad agreement that incremental change is no longer acceptable.

• "The Department of Social Services is responsible for child welfare, foster care and adoption programs, but dozens of state and county agencies provide essential services to abused children. Similarly, programs are funded from several federal and state sources, each with separate restrictions on how the money can be used. These artificial barriers thwart efforts to address the multiple problems inflicting these families, especially drug and alcohol abuse. The diffused authority and narrow funding streams leave gaps in the safety net—as a result, more children are abused and more abused children receive inadequate care.

• "The state does not focus enough resources on preventing child abuse in the first place. Researchers have found that prevention, early intervention and family preservation programs can reap immense benefits—to children, their families and the public at large—if the programs are targeted at high-risk families. The success of these programs—and the ultimate safety of children—rests in part on the assessment tools used to determine when children can safely stay with or be returned to families.

• "The decision to keep children in the care of their parents or remove them should be determined by what is in the best interest of the child. Which county the child lives in should not affect the decision. Nor should children be subjected to repeated abuse because of inadequate assessment.

• "The foster care caseload is growing because more children are entering the system, they are staying longer in foster care, and too many children return to foster care after a failed attempt to reunify them with their families. The time lines created to prevent children from languishing in foster care are inadequately enforced. [It is important to note that federal and state law require that] `reasonable efforts' must be made to help parents safely reunify with a child in foster care. When parents do not receive these services, judges cannot terminate parental rights and free the child for adoption.... [W]hile children wait in foster care for their parents to resolve their problems, the parents are often waiting for the services intended to help cure their ills. The state must fully live up to its obligation to care for and nurture abused children in its protection. By healing the traumas maltreatment, the state can speed these children toward successful adulthood.

• "Child welfare advocates, judges, child welfare administrators and academics estimate that drug and alcohol abuse is a significant factor in up to 80 percent of foster care cases. The Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs reports 59 percent of the women in prenatal substance abuse treatment have an active child welfare case, and 21 percent of their children are in foster care. Other studies indicate as much as 66 percent of child fatalities involve parents or caretakers who abuse alcohol and other drugs. Yet treatment has not been integrated into child welfare programs.

• "While children in foster care are eligible for services, they often do not receive the help necessary to treat their trauma or meet their developmental needs. These children are eligible for an array of services—such as health care, mental health counseling and educational assistance. But the system that provides these services is so fragmented, anemic and disorganized that it regularly fails to meet the needs of these children.

• "To reduce the number of children returning to foster care, the state needs to develop adequate support services for children leaving the system. The Department of Social Services reports that between 6,000 and 8,000 children return to foster care each year. A study of children exiting foster care indicated that almost one-fourth of the children returned within three years. A significant portion of the foster care caseload could be eliminated if foster care reentry could be prevented.

• "The state puts its investment and foster youth at risk by failing to help children `aging out' of the child welfare system to successfully transition to self-sufficiency. In California, foster care eligibility is generally terminated at age 18 and is extended to age 19 under limited circumstances. Aside from testimony at public hearings, case studies offered by social service agencies and a few academic investigations, little is known about what happens to foster youth after they leave foster care. Still, the consensus is that many of these youth are ill-prepared to take care of themselves. A study of Wisconsin foster youth found that in the 12 to 18 months after leaving foster care, most youth experienced significant problems managing their lives. Many fell prey to victimization and abuse or ended up in the criminal justice system. The state and the foster youth would be better served if these youth were assisted in the transition to independent adulthood, as has been proposed by recent legislation."

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