ATLANTA (AP) — Over the last decade, the federal government has withheld money from four states and the District of Columbia for the poor performance of their child protection systems.
The effectiveness of those federal reviews and the wisdom of penalizing cash-strapped child welfare agencies has been a matter of debate among experts in the field. That issue remerged in September when two child protection workers were arrested and accused of manipulating data so it would appear they were meeting internal guidelines related to the federal review process.
State child protection agencies are heavily funded by the U.S. government. Started around 2000, the U.S. Administration for Children and Families began reviewing state-run programs to determine how they were serving children. Prior reviews focused largely on whether federal money was spent correctly.
Penalties from that process have cost child welfare agencies nearly $11 million and counting in Georgia, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Washington, D.C., according to ACF spokesman Kenneth Wolfe. Sanctions against South Carolina and Rhode Island are ongoing, while the penalties against the other states have ended. The penalties are relatively small compared to overall agency budgets, but they still sting.
The budget for Georgia’s child protection system fell from $487 million in 2008 before the Great Recession to $395 million now, a cut of roughly 18 percent, according to estimates compiled by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
“In these economic times, it’s probably not achieving what it was originally desired to achieve,” said Alberta Ellett, a professor studying social work at the University of Georgia, who described the process as well-intentioned though problematic.
Other states had trouble too. Budget cuts and a foster home shortage hampered South Carolina in finding permanent homes for children and placing children in foster care with their siblings, according to the reviews. Rhode Island was faulted for not keeping children in their homes when possible and for not having enough quality caseworker visits to parents and children.
States must create improvement plans to deal with problems. In its last 188-page submission, Georgia acknowledged it sometimes focused too much on helping individual children without fully considering other factors present in a home.
Critics have argued that review teams examine too few cases to draw reliable statistical conclusions.
“Hopefully not to the point of malfeasance, but hopefully trying to figure out how we get another 20 kids home every month,” he said.
- Ray Henry, Associated Press