Statement of Linda E. Mouzon, Executive Director,
Social Services Administration, Maryland Department of Human Resources

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

Hearing on the Promoting Safe and Stables Families Program

May 10, 2001

The Maryland Department of Human Resources is a member of the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), an eighty-one year old association of over eleven hundred public and private non-profit community-based agencies that serve more than three million children, youth, and families each year across the United States.

The mission of the Social Services Administration in Maryland is to employ strategies to prevent child abuse and neglect, protect vulnerable children, support family stability and promote family independence. The Social Services Administration operates on the guiding principle that all children deserve to live in violence-free families where they are safe from physical and mental injury.

There are times when a child's needs cannot be met at home, or we determine that the child is not safe in the home. These children must be removed and placed in foster care. When a child is placed in out-of-home care (foster care) our two primary considerations are: 1) the child's safety, and 2) assurance that the placement meets the child's needs. The Department aggressively pursues concurrent permanency planning for foster children which include services for reunification and/or guardianship/adoption.

The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program is an important federal source of funding for an array of services for families with children. It is especially critical because it represents one of the few sources of federal funding which states can use to provide needed prevention and support services for families involved with the child welfare system. This program is also central to meeting the goals established by Congress and this Committee with the passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act in 1997, giving states additional capacity to provide preventive, reunification, and permanency services.

I am delighted to be here today to discuss the impact of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program funds for Maryland's children and families. These dollars enhance our efforts to support troubled families, to preserve families when possible, to provide services to achieve reunification, and to promote adoption. Without federal financial participation, critical gaps in service would exist throughout the child welfare continuum, not just in Maryland but in every state in the nation. The State of Maryland has worked diligently to develop community-based resources that serve children and their families. These initiatives use federal dollars to preserve families and serve needy families before they reach the child welfare system.

FAMILY PRESERVATION AND SUPPORT

Federal dollars fund Family Support and Family Preservation services through Maryland's network of Local Management Boards. These boards represent the community's priorities and are comprised of representatives from education, juvenile justice, health, local government, mental health, social services, and the general public. The unique aspect of board membership is its representation of the private sector. This includes representation by parents, advocacy groups, and private providers of children and family services. Although the programs differ from county to county, the goal remains the same: "Keeping Families Together."

One community's strategy for community support is The Family Junction in Allegany County. The parent education workshops are in their fourth year of operation and have engaged over 439 parents through September 30, 2000. The demographic data suggest that nearly one-half of these participants are at high risk to enter the child welfare system. Eighteen percent of these families already have a child(ren) living in an out-of-home placement setting, while 2% of the families are foster/adoptive parents.

The statistical findings from the Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP) Parent Survey suggest that the parent education workshops are effective at increasing positive parenting skills. By obtaining increased knowledge and practice of positive parenting skills, parents gain a greater competency and empowerment to take on the responsibility of ensuring that their families are safe, healthy, and nurtured. The participants themselves also noted some significant differences in their parenting styles. Listed below are two comments that were gathered from participants after a recent parenting workshop:

"You learn how to understand them more so you listen to each other instead of yelling."

I learned "different ways to discipline my child in a positive way."

Through the family enrichment workshops, partnerships have been developed among the Family Junction and agencies, families, and businesses throughout Allegany County. Together they create and foster a community which supports and enhances parent, youth, and child development.

Safe and Stable Families funding enables Maryland to serve children effectively in their own homes. Our success with these high risk families is demonstrated in Exhibit 1.

FAMILY PRESERVATION-KINSHIP CARE SUPPORT GROUPS

Maryland is one of very few states with an established Kinship Care Program and remains in the forefront of planning and developing resources that sustain and stabilize our kinship care families. There are 5.4 million children living with grandparents or other relatives. Despite the stability and permanence that relatives provide, children living with these families may be denied access to services they need.

Through Safe and Stable Families Program funds, we were able to expand our community-based kinship care support groups. Support services to kinship care families began with a grant from the Brookdale Foundation. Currently there are twelve support groups, including five that operate in community schools. These groups provide stipends for day care and respite care services. Our goal is to expand kinship care groups to all 24 jurisdictions in Maryland.

FOSTER CARE: USE OF TIME LIMITED REUNIFICATION FUNDS

Maryland's child welfare system promotes the "Family to Family Case Management Model" as the best practice of foster care services. This paradigm was developed by the Casey Foundation and is implemented throughout our State.

In the Family to Family model, the foster parent acts as a mentor to the birth parent and remains in contact with the child and parent for three to six months following the closing of a case. The Department involves community agencies and groups in the planning for families and children. A positive working relationship among the agency, the foster family and the birth parent leads to easier permanency planning for children. In our foster care program, birth parents and foster parents have responded positively to this model. Supports for foster parents and birth families include respite care to maintain families and prevent re-entries, home-based family therapy, crisis nursery clinics, and the use of community family advocates to coordinate services to the family.

Maryland used funds to provide time-limited reunification services in creative ways: for substance abuse services to parents whose children are at-risk of or in out-of-home placements; and addiction recovery groups to work with families. We have instituted community parenting classes and other activities that promote bonding between foster children and their birth parents. The Department has also used vouchers for securing housing and instituted effective absent parent and relative locators.

The Family to Family model has resulted in an increased rate of reunification. From 1999 to 2000 reunification rates increased from 39.1% to 42.3%. This represented a 3.2% overall increase in reunification rates. In addition, Maryland has used gatekeeping practices to reduce the number of children entering out-of-home care by ensuring that all alternatives to placement have been explored.

Time limited reunification services and extensive aftercare services have resulted in a leveling of Maryland's reentry into foster care. For FY 2000, the rate was 18.7%. Maryland expects to achieve our goal of 15% by FY 2004.

Exhibit 2 demonstrates the results of time-limited reunification services on our foster care system. Exhibit 3 shows Maryland's increase in planned reunifications and other permanency outcomes for children.

ADOPTION: USE OF PROMOTION AND SUPPORT FUNDS

Federal funds are used to support and enhance Maryland's aggressive campaign to find homes for our children who need adoptive families. Local departments receive Promotion and Support funds based on recruitment and other activities for adoption. Examples of the critical supports that federal funding provides include counseling to adoptive families and children, individual and family counseling for adoptive families, adoptive support groups, for children, adoptive family support groups. Maryland uses federal dollars to procure post-adoption support services, sponsor matching conferences, and adoption matching parties. We also use technology to break down geographical barriers to adoptions. The Maryland Adoption Resource Exchange is a web enabled tool that promotes adoption throughout the State.

As a result of our efforts, local department staff increased the number of finalized adoptions by 12% since 1998. The number of adoptions increased from 645 in FY 1998 to 682 in FY 2000. Exhibit 4 demonstrates Maryland's adoption success.

Maryland has also used adoption promotion money to develop partnerships with private sector and faith-based social service agencies. In February 1999 we began to contract with private adoption agencies to recruit and study prospective families. These agencies join with the public sector in the challenge of finding permanent homes for our most needy children.

Local departments use the incentive money for child specific recruitment, respite care and camping opportunities for adopted children, critical transportation to needed services, services that prevent disruption and in many other creative ways that help make adoption work for children.

ADOPTION PROMOTION AND SUPPORT
FAITH-BASED ADOPTION SUPPORT GROUPS

Through Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program funds, the Social Services Administration has forged new partnerships with faith-based organizations in the recruitment of adoptive families for children, particularly African-American children, waiting for a home and a family. Maryland's faith-based organizations have enthusiastically embraced this partnership and have already begun to produce results. Since 1987, Maryland has supported a partnership with faith-based organizations through the One Church One Child adoption recruitment program originated by Father Clements in Chicago in 1980. Faced with the daunting challenge to do something about the burgeoning numbers of black children in foster care without families, Father Clements made a plea to black churches for each to be responsible for finding a family for just one child. This unique program continues to recruit African-American families through places of worship for the thousands of African-American children in foster care systems across the nation. Many of these children are older, part of a sibling group, and have special medical needs.

Beginning in October 2000, using nominal amounts of Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program funding, Maryland developed partnerships with fourteen places of worship throughout the State for the purpose of establishing adoption support groups within each place of worship. It is recognized that supports are often critical to adoptive and prospective adoptive parents who care for children that have experienced the trauma of abuse, neglect, and the many disruptions of life as a foster child.

Each of the fourteen places of worship provides meeting space within the place of worship to accommodate a support group and monthly informational meetings, a child care area for parents who bring their children to the meeting, and storage space for adoption materials, supplies, and literature. Each officiating officer of the place of worship offers confidential counseling, as requested, to adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. Celebrations for new adoptions and special events are held by each group. Each place of worship appoints an adoption support group coordinator and child care assistant to implement the activities of the group. Since October 2000, over 15 prospective adoptive parents have been recruited through these faith-based adoption support groups.

Maryland's adoption support groups provide: 1) an opportunity for families and individuals interested in adoption to share and support one another at monthly group meetings; 2) an accessible and confidential location for adoptive families and individuals interested in adoption to meet to discuss similar parenting concerns and issues, and strategies to meet the challenges of parenting children with special medical and behavioral needs; 3) collaborations with community resources to supplement the needs of adoptive families; 4) access to information and experts in the area of adoption through informational meetings; and 5) an informal network for adoptive parents to establish buddy systems.

Currently, 14 adoption support groups are located in six jurisdictions of the state. The goal is to serve all 24 jurisdictions. Financial stipends ranging from $6,000 - $12,000 per year are provided to each place of worship.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND CHILD WELFARE

Although not a specific part of the Safe and Stable Families Program, this issue has recently received national attention. Maryland is taking steps to provide families with an effective array of services when substance abuse issues are present. Part of ensuring the safety of Maryland's children involves partnering with other agencies to provide needed services. One such collaboration is with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) to ensure an integration of Child Welfare and Substance Abuse Services. A protocol was developed that places substance abuse experts in each local department of social services. The courts are to order substance abuse assessment and treatment services for a parent at the time a child is placed in the agency's custody and concerns of substance abuse are noted.

A waiver under federal Title IV-E funds allows Maryland to purchase foster care services to cover the cost of substance abuse treatment. The project is designed to prevent unnecessary out-of-home placements and to reduce the length-of-stay of children in foster care. The project is conducted in three jurisdictions that experience a high number of foster care placements due to parental substance abuse. Substance abuse treatment services will be provided using three treatment modalities - inpatient treatment for women and their children, intermediate care (28-day residential facility) and intensive outpatient treatment.

Maryland is pleased with the President's budget request that would increase annual funding for this program from its current level of $305 million to $505 million this year. We believe that the President's proposal is an important vote of confidence in this program and the vast array of services and programs its supports across the country. It is also an important step in recognizing the need to increase our country's federal commitment to children in the child welfare system in all areas including prevention, supportive services and adoption.

We would like to recommend that Congress significantly increase funding for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program and that Congress also provide new federal resources to increase the availability of substance abuse treatment for families involved in the child welfare system.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 3

Exhibit 4