President Obama signed Public Law 111 - 320 on December 20, 2010, authorizing another five years of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). The fund source provides critical support to states and counties administering a child welfare program and has been a source for creative dependency court programs. Among the additions or modifications required from the legislation:
- Clarifies and specifies that anyone representing a child in court must have training in early childhood, child and adolescent developments. It goes further to add the same language as acceptable areas for caseworker training that is funded using CAPTA state grant funds.
- Creates a new eligibility requirement and modifies CAPTA language that mandates identifying and making appropriate referrals by health care providers to CPS and developing service plans for safe care of the child for newborns affected by prenatal drug exposure. The Act adds a new category of referrals and safe care plan requirements for newborns diagnosed with a "Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)." Different from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), it broadens the group of children that might be identified. Expected outcome is that more newborns will be referred to state CPS programs.
- Addresses states' efforts to reunite a parent and child when sexual abuse has occurred. Two provisions include: no reunification is required if a parent commits sexual abuse against a child, and no reunification is required if the parent is registered as a sexual offender.
- Aligns CAPTA mandatory "background check "requirement more closely to Title IV-E. CAPTA now requires that criminal background checks for "other adult relatives and non-relatives residing in the household of prospective foster and adoptive parents." This is broader than Title IV-E which does not require criminal record checks of these other adults in the home, although checking child abuse/neglect registries is required.
- Requires that every state have "systems of technology" that support CPS's ability to track child abuse and neglect reports from intake through final disposition. It is unclear how this might impact federally supported Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS). However, there are states that do not have a SACWIS that must figure out how to meet this requirement now as well.
- Identifies additional data to be submitted to ACF on the number of CPS personnel are responsible for intake, screening, assessment of reports and for investigation of reports, and the average caseloads for each and the state's caseload or workload maximum limits. In addition, data related to C{S staff qualifications, education, training and demographic characteristics. Data must also be submitted related to the number of children annually referred to CPS due to newborn drug exposure or new FASD diagnosis. Another data requirement is for states to provide the annual number of children substantiated as abused or neglected, under age three, which, pursuant to CAPTA, are eligible for referral for early intervention services under Part C of the Individual with Disabilities Education Act.
A few additional considerations were added for states to consider which are not required. The Act encourages greater family participation in case planning and placement decisions, collaboration by child welfare agencies and domestic violence programs and wider utilization of a differential response system in cases of maltreatment.
About Kay Casey
Kay Casey has over 20 years of experience in federal and state child welfare policy and programs, having worked for the federal Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Florida Department of Children and Families prior to joining PCG. She is responsible for the review and assessment of fiscal processing systems that impact a state’s ability to identify, document, and report expenditures for federal reporting purposes accompanied with the programmatic impact on the state’s system of care.
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