[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Child welfare
Despite passage of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, which was designed to give states incentives to expedite adoptions, more flexibility to conduct child-welfare demonstration projects, and ensure safety for children, the child-welfare statistical picture looks worse than it did before 1997. (Pecora, Whittaker, Maluccio, Barth, 2000)
- In 1996, approximately 520,000 children were in foster care; by March 1999, 547,000 children were in foster care,
- In 1996, 11 percent had been in foster care for three to four years, and 10 percent had been there for five years or longer. By March 1999, 15 percent had been in foster care three to four years and 18 percent had been in foster care for 5 years or longer,
- In 1996, approximately 54,000 children were legally available for adoption; by March 1999, 117,000 children were legally available for adoption. (Fromm, 2001)
More children continue to languish in foster care despite an overall decrease in child-abuse victims. In 1998, based on data reported by the states, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimated that child protective service agencies received about 2,806,000 referrals of possible child abuse or neglect. Of the 66 percent of those referrals investigated, states found that an estimated 903,000 children were victims of abuse and/or neglect. In a trend that began five years ago, the number of children abused and neglected has decreased approximately 11 percent from a record 1,018,692 in 1993. The incidence of children victimized by maltreatment also declined to 12.9 per 1,000 children, the lowest record in more than 10 years.
Everyone involved with the child welfare system recognizes that states face serious challenges in the administration of child welfare programs. At the meeting on flexible funding that there was broad consensus that the current federal financing system disproportionately funds the deepest and often least desired end of the system-out of home care-that.....
