January 17, 2014
The Honorable Dave Camp, Chairman, Ways and Means Committee
The Honorable Sander Levin, Ranking Member, Ways and Means Committee
The Honorable Dave G. Reichert, Chairman, Human Resources Subcommittee
The Honorable Lloyd Doggett, Ranking Member, Human Resources Subcommittee
Committee on Ways and Means
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Members of the Ways and Means Committee:
On behalf of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and its affiliate, the
National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA), we applaud your
leadership in releasing the discussion draft, Preventing Sex Trafficking and Improving
Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care Act. The proposal takes significant steps to enhance child
welfare’s role in addressing the growing concern of domestic sex trafficking of youth in foster
care and improve opportunities for youth in care to participate in extracurricular activities.
Additionally, the proposal reflects many of the principles our members embraced in our strategic
initiative we call Pathways:The Opportunities Ahead for Human Services. This initiative reflects
public human service leaders practice and policy vision for a transformed delivery system – one
that’s modern, integrated, person- and family-centered, and outcome focused. The Committee’s
proposals are consistent with several key Pathways priorities, including federal policies that
support the sustained well being of all children who enter foster care.
APHSA and NAPCWA members are supportive of the provisions to improve data collection for
accurate identification and screening for victims of trafficking, but are concerned that the cost of
the required changes to state computer systems would make compliance prohibitive. We also
support the Committee’s intent to enhance normalcy for youth in foster care. NAPCWA leaders
appreciate the measures that address these and other matters related to improving outcomes and
would like Congress to work towards enhancing the ability of all systems to reduce the risk of
child trafficking and respond to the needs of victims.
The child welfare system is an important partner in the efforts to strengthen identification,
prevention, and early intervention in cases involving victims of trafficking. The current
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congressional debate to address child trafficking seems to spotlight the child welfare system yet
fails to note the need for multi-system/interagency collaborative solutions that reflect the
complex, multi-faceted nature of addressing the needs of victims of trafficking.
Sex trafficking of children is a complex issue that cannot be successfully addressed solely by
improving child welfare programs. The bill recently reported from the Senate Finance
Committee, S. 1870, the Supporting At-Risk Children’s Act, contains two provisions that
recognize the need for a broader approach to the issue of sex trafficking. Section 232 of that bill
requires several federal agencies to provide recommendations to Congress on how best to expand
housing for youth who are victims of trafficking. And Section 241 establishes a National
Advisory Committee on Domestic Sex Trafficking. APHSA would support adding these two
important sections to the House bill before it is introduced. Together, these two sections
recognize that more needs to be done to address sex trafficking than just amending child welfare
laws.
In addition, APHSA and NAPCWA recommend allowing longer timeframes and more
reasonable implementation deadlines for all provisions. The bill recognizes states that require
statutory changes before implementing the provisions. However, even states that do not require
legislative action to comply with the new provisions have concerns about having to shift
resources toward federal compliance and away from child and family engagement.
We also believe the bill can be strengthened and enhanced by amending several of the proposal’s
provisions including:
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Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standards. NAPCWA members support the intent of
this provision. As currently drafted, the measure directs foster parents and designated
group home staff to make decisions about foster children’s participation in activities. Our
members note the potential conflict if a decision is made that other parties connected to
the case do not agree with. We believe encouraging responsible parenting goes beyond
this measure and recommend language to ensure agencies have a process in place to
support clear decision-making.
Restructuring the provision to identify, screen, and serve youth at risk of
trafficking. The draft language is not clear on whether current Title IV-E eligibility
standards will be applied for newly-identified youth, yet the proposal includes these
measures as a title IV-E state plan requirement. Federal support (through IV-E
reimbursement) will be needed to support these expanded activities.
Ensuring Foster Youth Have Certain Documentation (birth certificate, Social
Security card, bank account) Public child welfare leaders recommend increasing the
age for providing documentation and stipulating an appropriate length of stay in foster
care to comply with the requirement (noting many youth come into care for a short period
of time). Our members also recommend adding language that state agencies should
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help/work with youth to attain a bank account. There are many challenges associated with
this provision identified by agencies with recent experience in implementing the credit
reporting requirement. Problems include questions about who is the designated co-signor
on a minor’s account, potential fraud with some foster parents, and for youth who quality
for SSI, a potential risk for losing benefits under SSI’s asset limitation standards. We
encourage Congress to carefully review this provision and commission a GAO study on
implementation of the credit reporting requirement and identify any problems associated
with banking standards for establishing accounts for minors.
Expanded Data Reporting. Many child welfare systems are operating with twenty year
old technology. As noted earlier, our members are concerned that information
technology changes are costly and time consuming. Some states note that because of
outdated equipment and software, upgrading their information technology systems in
order to comply with the new data requirements contained in the bill would be
prohibitively expensive. One state estimates that any modification of their current system
would cost as much as $500,000. Even states that have more modern systems would
experience a high cost of compliance. We recommend Congress consider providing funds
to states to offset their compliance costs.
Penalties. As states experience decreased investments of federal resources for child
welfare services, our members alert Congress to provisions that further deplete the
shrinking pool of resources. NAPCWA leaders believe non-compliance should be
addressed through corrective action or reinvestment of federal dollars to make
improvements.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit our comments. Again, on behalf of state human service
executives and administrators for public child welfare, we applaud you for addressing the
growing national concern around sex trafficking, with particular emphasis on youth under the
care and supervision of child welfare. We also appreciate your work to improve the overall life
experiences for children in foster care. If you have any questions, please contact Christina
Crayton at (202) 682-0100 ext. 257 or [email protected].
Sincerely,
Tracy L. Wareing
Executive Director
American Public Human Services Association
Gregory E. Rose
Dep. Dir., Children and Fam. Services Div.
CA Department of Social Services
President, NAPCWA
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