Background
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the challenges facing child
protective services (CPS) in protecting children, focusing on: (1) problems
confronting CPS units that affect the system's capacity to protect children
from abuse and neglect; (2) state and local responses to these problems; and
(3) opportunities for the federal government to assist in improving the
system's capacity to respond to the needs of abused and neglected children.
Findings
GAO noted that: (1) the CPS system is in crisis, plagued by difficult
problems, such as growing caseloads, increasingly complex social problems
underlying child maltreatment, and ongoing systemic weaknesses in day-to-day
operations; (2) the states GAO visited have experienced large increases in
maltreatment reports in recent years, thus increasing the CPS caseload to an
overwhelming level; (3) in addition, states report that families are entering
the system with multiple problems, among the most common of which is an
increase in substance abuse; (4) experts consider this increase to be a
significant factor in maltreatment, which has caught all parts of the CPS
system unprepared; (5) CPS units have been plagued by long-standing systemic
weaknesses in day-to-day operations, including difficulty in maintaining a
skilled workforce, consistently following key policies and procedures
designed to protect children, developing useful case data and recordkeeping
systems, such as automated case management, and establishing good working
relationships with the courts; (6) in response to this crisis, states and
localities are testing new strategies for service delivery; (7) given the
increased volume and severity of the cases, CPS units find that using
traditional approaches, they can no longer handle all reports alleging abuse
or neglect; (8) as a result, states and localities are also focusing on
forming partnerships with families, churches, and community organizations to
help keep children safe from maltreatment; (9) these partnerships enable CPS
units to share responsibility for intervening in various types of
maltreatment cases; (10) these new strategies, however, are not without
certain challenges, such as: (a) adapting to new caseworker roles, required
by new responsibilities; and (b) the underlying systemic weaknesses that
diminish day-to-day operational effectiveness; (11) as state and local CPS
units experiment with new strategies aimed at better coping with rising and
complex caseloads, units will need more focused support and improved
technical assistance from the federal government; (12) previous federal
research has concentrated on the causes of maltreatment and on ways to treat
abused and neglected children and their families, rather than on topics that
support the states' community-based response to the CPS crisis; (13)
similarly, federally provided technical assistance has also been limited in
helping the states develop new strategies to address this crisis; and (14) in
addition, dissemination of federal research findings and practical
information is lacking.
Key Recommendations:
None
Non-Key Recommendations:
1. Recommendation: The Secretary of Health and Human Services should use the
current research agenda, allowed under the Child Abuse Prevention and
Treatment Act, to facilitate better targeting of future funding for those
areas that support local efforts to explore collaborative partnerships with
other community agencies.
Addressee: Department of Health and Human Services
Status: Action in process.
HHS regularly reviews its research agenda and the priority areas identified
as important or cutting-edge issues in child abuse and neglect to determine
how limited discretionary dollars could be used to explore the full scope of
child abuse and neglect within the child welfare and child protective service
arena. As a result of this process, HHS has recently begun funding a cadre of
research projects that emphasize building community partnerships to respond
to child abuse and neglect as part of its overall research strategy.
For more information contact:
Fagnoni, Cynthia M. (202)512-7215