The Child Welfare Response

Abstract

Drug-exposed infants are having a profound impact on the child welfare system, increasing both the number of referrals to child protective services and the demand for out-of-home care. These children have created new problems for the child welfare system and exacerbated others. In many cases, already high caseloads have grown even higher. There is also increased uncertainty about appropriate roles for the various child service agencies and how to coordinate their efforts to provide an efficient and timely response. Drug-exposed infants and their families have new types of needs, such as parents’ needs for long-term treatment for drug abuse and addiction and infants’ needs for adequate parenting in a stable environment to overcome the effects of prenatal drug exposure. Meeting the special needs of these families requires new community resources. When these are not available, the requirements of current law cannot be met. This dilemma calls into question the wisdom and practicality of this law. Finally, this article discusses the challenges and the range of in-home and out-of-home service options necessary for an effective child welfare response. T he dramatic increase in the numbers of infants born exposed to drugs and of young children endangered by parental drug and Charlotte McCullough, alcohol dependency has stressed an already overwhelmed child M.Ed., is director of the welfare system. These rising demands, combined with inadequate human Chemical Dependency and fiscal resources, have created a system under siege. Legitimate areas Initiative of Child Welof disagreement, unresolved questions, and ethical and legal dilemmas fare League of America, Inc., Washington, DC. further complicate the situation. We lack clear direction regarding effective prevention and intervention strategies. Our policies for meeting the needs of this growing population need to be examined and improved. A System Forced to Change Again The child welfare system was dramatically altered in 1980 with adoption of P. L. 96272. For the first time, agencies were mandated to focus not only on the safety needs of the child but also on the broader needs of the child within the family. Underlying the law are assumptions that children develop best in their own families and that most families are worth preserving. State child welfare agencies are mandated to make “reasonable efforts” to prevent a child’s placement in foster care and, if foster care is necessary, to make efforts to reunite the family during specified time periods. The juvenile courts are required to determine whether or not the agency has made these efforts. In addition to the federal law, many states have passed their Some material in this article has been adapted with permission of Child Welfare League of America from Crack and Other Addictions: Old Realities and New Challenges for Child Welfare. Copyright 1990 by Child Welfare League of America, Washington, DC. 62 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN – SPRING 1991 own reasonable efforts requirements, albeit with wide variation in interpretation of the requirements. All have failed to allocate sufficient resources to meet the requirements of the law. Despite inadequate funding, child welfare agency policies and practices have advanced during the past decade. Workers acquired new skills and learned to make more accurate assessments. Families, previously thought to be hopeless, responded to a host of new family support services. The benefit from a policy preference for keeping the family intact seemed to outweigh the risk that in some cases a child would not be removed from his/her family early enough. Through intensive efforts and an attitude of empowerment, workers succeeded in maintaining at-risk children in their own homes. Courts and judges, for the most part, embraced the family focus. Policymakers applauded the results and the potential for containing costs as a result of family preservation techniques. And, most importantly, fewer children were referred unnecessarily to foster care or allowed to drift aimlessly from one placement to another without any efforts to find a permanent home. The numbers of children in the system were gradually but steadily decreasing. This trend towards fewer referrals was dramatically reversed when crack cocaine entered the scene in the late 1980s. The needs of a new generation of drug-exposed infants and of young children at risk of abuse by drug-involved parents forcefully challenged the current system and its laws. Some critics argue that it is time for re-examination and change. Impact of Drugs on the Child Welfare System The impact of drug-exposed children on the child welfare system is great. Referrals to protective services have skyrocketed. The need for out-of-home care has outpaced availability. In addition, cases involving drugs have introduced new needs for both parents and children, as well as new stresses on the child welfare system itself.