Child Welfare Experts Call for ‘Common Sense’ Reforms

Child welfare experts taking part in a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute Monday urged the Trump administration to take advantage of growing bipartisan support for instituting reforms such as more effective federal oversight and making the safety of the child the paramount goal.

“We need real solutions,” said Naomi Schaefer Riley, AEI Senior Fellow, who moderated the discussion, titled “Putting Children First: Child Welfare Priorities for the New Administration.

“The entire system from top to bottom is broken,” said Darcy Olsen, founder of the Center for the Rights of Abused Children. “Children are losing their lives and we can do better.”

Among the reforms panelists called for:

• Support and pay attention to statistically rigorous research, particularly when it comes to child safety.
• Support and train a workforce that understands the risks children face in the system and puts child safety first.
• Work to increase the number of foster families in our communities.
• Understand the role mental health and addiction play in at-risk families.
• Adopt policies of radical transparency, particularly in the case of fatalities.
• Eliminate policies that might exclude families with deep religious faith from being foster parents.
• Make clear that the goal of the system is the safety and health of the child – not to necessarily reunify families.
• Insure that children in the child welfare system have access to attorneys.
• Making the Adoption Tax Credit refundable to give lower-income families more of a chance to be part of the foster care system.

Jedd Medefind, president of the Christian Alliance for Orphans, noted recent polls that show a bipartisan consensus on more effective federal programs for families and children.

“There are just some really strong and shrill voices that dominate the discussions in policy circles in Washington,” Medefind said. “But if you look at the polling data, it really shows a strong consensus among Americans that there are some reasonable ways forward that can help us make things better.”

Panelists generally agreed that existing laws and statutes contain most of the necessary oversight requirements to force state child welfare programs to operate more effectively, but said Washington needs to do a much better job enforcing those laws.

“The question is, do we have the right processes in place at the federal level to send a strong message to the state agencies that you have to do it this way or you’re going to lose this funding,” said Tom Rawlings, CEO, Child Welfare & Justice Transformation.

“The federal government needs to require less of states, but what they do require, they need to follow through on,” said Medefind.

Rachel Morrison, a fellow at the Ethics & Public Policy Center, urged the Trump administration to eliminate a rule developed by the Biden administration that requires all foster care providers to promise to affirm a child’s sexual and gender identity. Responding to a suit filed by the state of Texas, a federal court last month blocked implementation of the rule.

Morrison said the rule would have a “massive impact” on the availability of those who want to work with children, particularly in the child welfare context.

When asked what she would like the message from the Trump administration to be on child welfare, Olsen referenced remarks by former President Ronald Reagan when he issued a proclamation designating April as Child Abuse Prevention Month in 1983.

“I would love to see a declaration from this president that this is America and in making America great again we will guarantee that every child has a safe family,” she said.