The Health-Education Program of the Children's Bureau, with Particular Reference to Negroes

Abstract

PURPOSES AND ORGANIZATION OF THE CHILDREN'S BUREAU Twenty-five years ago, on April 9, 1912, a bill was signed by President Taft, establishing in the Department of Commerce and Labor a Children's Bureau, which was transferred in 1913 to the newly formed Department of Labor. The law was the result of 6 years of effort to obtain for the mothers and children of America a center of research and of information comparable to that furnished farmers, business men, and wage earners through various agencies of the Federal Government. The new Bureau was directed to investigate and report . . . upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life, among all classes of our people. Except for the brief period when it administered the first federal childlabor law (1917-18) and the 7-year period of cooperation with the states in maternal and child-hygiene work, which came to a close in 1929, the Children's Bureau until 1935 was an agency for research, publication, demonstration, and consultation. With the enactment of the Social Security Act, approved August 14, 1935, and the appropriation of funds to make it operative, February 11, 1936, a farreaching, specialized undertaking for safeguarding the health and welfare of American children through federal and state cooperation was inaugurated. For the administration of three parts of the act, relating to maternal and child-health services, services for crippled children, and child-welfare services, the Children's Bureau is responsible. As organized at present, the Children's Bureau has five major research divisions (Research in Child Development, Industrial, Social Service, Delinquency, and Statistical Research), three divisions charged with the administration of the three parts of the Social Security program (Maternal and Child Health, Crippled Children, and Child Welfare), two units (Public Health Nursing and State Audits) serving these three divisions, an Editorial Division, and an Administrative Section. The staff of more than 200 persons includes representatives of the fields of pediatrics, obstetrics, orthopedic surgery, public-health nursing, medical social work, nutrition, social service for children, industrial economics, and social statistics. In accordance with the philosophy underlying the creation and development of the Children's Bureau, namely, that of a unified approach to the problems of childhood, the services of these specialists are closely interrelated. The work of the Children's Bureau has always been carried on in collaboration with other agencies of the Federal Government, as well as with state and local organizations.