Michael Petit is President and Founder of Every Child Matters and the Every Child Matters Education Fund.

As Maine’s former human services commissioner, and as former deputy director at the Child Welfare League of America whose child abuse and neglect consultation work brought me to all 50 states, I’ve seen the problem of child abuse and neglect up close for 30 years. Despite the best efforts of many people, there still are nearly three million reports of child abuse and neglect each year, over 600,000 kids in foster care, at least 100,000 child sex abuse cases, and somewhere between 1,200 and 4,000 children (no one knows the true numbers) die each year from abuse and neglect. Recent federal reviews of 32 state child welfare systems found only five to be in “Substantial Conformity” with federal standards meant to ensure that “Children are, first and foremost, protected from abuse and neglect.”

Virtually all high-profile child abuse stories focus on the child, the child’s family, the social workers involved and the public child protection agency. Often, the parent is charged with a crime, the social worker and top agency administrator may be fired, and the Governor or another authority may launch a study of the agency’s shortcomings. And then another child is injured or killed and the story repeats itself. But, typically, neither the reporting nor the official investigation contains a word about Congress or the Administration, despite their critical funding and regulatory roles.

A Federal Framework for a Faulty System
While it’s true the states (or, through the states, counties) have day-to-day responsibility for administering child welfare, the statutory framework for child abuse has most of its origins in federal law. Further, in fiscal year 2000, federal funds represented nearly 50 percent of the estimated $20 billion in spending by the states on child welfare. Although a large sum, the $20 billion is inadequate—there are simply too many children being abused. This funding gap is worsening as states face plunging revenues and the federal government threatens to shrink its support.

Inadequate spending levels mean caseloads are too high, workers may be ill-trained, prevention services may be next to non-existent and it can be months, if at all, before a child gets the sex abuse treatment services needed for healthy recovery, or a parent receives substance abuse treatment. Improperly dealt with, child abuse leads to numerous other social problems, costing society more than $90 billion a year according to one study.

Promising Proposals, Going Nowhere
In response to all of this, federal legislation (Title VIII of the Leave No Child Behind Act [S. 448 and H.R. 936] and the Child Protection and Drug Partnership Act [S. 614]) was introduced almost three years ago that would give states vast new flexibility and billions in new resources to better protect children and strengthen families. More recently, the Child Protective Services Improvement Act (H.R. 1534) has been proposed.

To date, none of these bills has received a hearing or been acted upon by Congress. In fact, rather than provide additional funds to state child welfare systems that cannot possibly meet national standards with current resources, it appears that the Administration is about to propose a new funding scheme that may sharply reduce federal spending to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect.

The Congress’s failure to provide adequate funding is easily matched by the weak oversight function of the federal executive branch. There are only a small number of federal employees assigned to gather data about state performance and, even when grossly out of compliance, states have little reason to fear sanctions from the federal government. In the end, neither the White House nor the chairs of powerful Congressional committees are asked to account for their inaction on stopping the widespread victimization of children. Nothing short of embarrassing publicity and greater political accountability will cause them to act.

Resources:

• Visit the Every Child Matters Web site [1]
• Visit the Connect for Kids’ Child Abuse and Neglect [2] topic page

Talk Back

If you’ve got comments or questions about this story, we’d like to hear them. Send your response to Susan Phillips. [3]

Michael Petit is President and Founder of Every Child Matters and the Every Child Matters Education Fund.