Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622

Outside of government institutions and organizations. We also have a client using it rapidly to get research and knowledge workers to be able to level up more rapidly. Because as you are doing inside especially in the Consumer Product, the entire community is learning as you learn. So what we have been able to do is create a platform that doesnt require assistance. In assessments. In fact when weve gone beyond assessments so that the community is able to. Hispanic and now when you say the community, is that into giving using analogies, but is it similar to facebook where i am letting im letting various people into the community . You can have a closed Community Like here im having a conversation with somebody or i can have an open community. Or have multiple communities. I have some people that im working with on the nanotechnology who are phd students at stanford mit. So i can bring in these experts to help you learn more and i can help guide their learning as well. So this is an open learning platform. The basic level is you can manually bring in the content leveraging and curate your own content so a lot of people are doing their own searches and bringing in their own content or we have robots that go out and look at what people are trying to learn and we pull in the content. You can do both. And the third is to create the collective intelligence from the community because that is where the transformation will happen probably over the problems for the realworld problems. Once youve you figured out and dive into it how does your Business Model work given that this may be more depth and topics then it would jeer towards the mass consumer which means either youre charging a premium or youve got advertising for the business side of this thing for subsidizing the consumer side how does it work . A little bit of both. So, we have a subscription per user in the enterprise product and about product is very robust and that business is robust. The Consumer Product we are at our infancy because people in these Different Companies have set up i want my Digital Certificate of my knowledge to travel with me from one company to to do next with an organization to the next consider so that forced us to create a consumer of space so that they become the owner of the Digital Knowledge and by doing that, they are able to bring knowledge from outside of the world to inside and to be able to have that context so if you are doing it for the personal knowledge or for your work knowledge, now we have the ability for you to be a lifelong learner in any way. What is your background . I am a narrow scientist narrow scientist. I was inspired to do this because i was hit by a drunk driver after he served in the marine corps and spent 18 months in a coma and i was blind for ten years. But when i left the hospital i ended up in a nursing home, so the hospital gave up on me and asked my lifeless sunsetting these Senior Citizens helped me summarize and taught me everything so thats where i was introduced to the personalized learning. If you see my eyes are different colors, this one is gone. And you were a marine. Yes. Now im a sweet titanium. You look pretty solid. Thats an amazing story. Congratulations. Good luck to you. I appreciate your service to the country. Thank you. We try to solve the riddle of how you get to and energy cell to make out a scalable platform and we did the math so we are simulation people by origin we are doing simulations and determined that we be the best way is to have batteries on equipment that he bought on ebay that was cheap to use for things like food packaging. Last summer we demonstrated over 1100, about double what is available right now in the market. Everybody get a picture of the president of the United States . This particular Battery Technology application is for everything from cars to devices. We just had an investment from dyson and after that the sky is the limit. We started the company to get into electric vehicles. Thats been a passion of ours for a long time. How do we cut the cost and size and longevity. That is the big stumbling block. Have you solved it lacks we have to scale it up but this was after working on the incumbent technology for a long time. We came after ten years so it came out of my laboratory. And a surprising thing happened. The first prototype that we made worked and was based on the funding. So, we saw this for the company. Thats great. What are the barriers to scaling up . What do you have to figure out for this to become the standard . The usual Engineering Work every time you make a larger so you deal with the flaws and you have to make them faster and you get a bigger equipment. You make them at a higher rate and so we go through all of those development steps and you have to test and build again. Well im very excited. [inaudible] happy birthday. Thank you. What do you have here . Student loan genius. Duotone be where i can get the cheapest Student Loans. We invented the four o. One k. It helps them find the best plan and then the Company Finds a matching contribution to repay it faster. So i graduate and i go work for shopkeeper and my parents didnt pay for college so i have 50,000 worth of debt. So what do i do they say to they save you have any student debt and i say yes. Theres three things we do. They would use our tool that we built similar. You came out of school with over 100,000 of debt and so did i. For those people thats confusing to figure out which programs they are eligible for. This analyzes your loans and we built an algorithm to show you every single repayment plan that you qualify for and about you to see them sidebyside now and in the future and once you choose a plan plan to help you fill out the application if you want to do refinancing we hope you figure out the process but another cool thing that you can see is the impact of the Company Providing the contribution so once you choose a plan b. Then integrate to pull money out of their paycheck and into the next company once they can provide a match. Its having a massive impact and you can see the average impact we can have on people of companies provide a match. Is this a onetime purchase by the company were are you managing this and then its like a Monthly Service pack the company can decide if they want to provide a Monthly Contribution or annual. Ive been here for 12 months and we give you 5000. With our system we enjoy the biggest of the highest interest loan to make sure they are being paid off efficiently. Given the algorithm youve already developed why just do the sale to business because the concept presumably would apply to somebody who is selfemployed who could go directtoconsumer on this. The reason we want to go at this point is because you get a match from the employers the employers ability and incentive for the company to use it for the retention tools. That is smart. Once you have this established then we are launching our First University this month to open up to all of their alumni. So they will not receive the match but they can use the platform. To make the calculations quickly. Four out of five are choosing to switch the plan they are currently on. So its like people want this in front of them. Are you plugging in things like the incomebased Repayment Program and things . Absolutely. This is all here. Its incomebased and contingent how did you get this idea of it and having a lot of debt tax before this company i started the First Company from a lineal is for people in their 20s and 30s and it was through that company the sole it impacting peoples lives and i had the idea that companies are helping people save up for retirement but our generation is getting crushed by Student Loans so we provide to those matching dollars for something that we actually care about is having an impact on our lives. How did you find it lacks we just closed the biggest Financial Service company in the world that we we cant announce until later this month. But we are always looking for Strategic Partners and investors, just to throw that out there. Congratulations. In a Senate Hearing on the foster care systems to state welfare officials a parent advocate and former foster child talked about ways to reduce the number of children living in group homes. They looked at how oregon and utah are using federal papers to try alternatives to the traditional foster care system. Senator orrin hatch chairs the finance committee. This is an hour and a half. Dot committee will come to order. Robert frost once wrote home is the place you have to go when they take you there. Unfortunately for far too many children in the foster care system, that is not a capable. Today the Senate Finance committee will hear testimony on alternatives that could reduce the reliance on Foster Care Group homes. Ive been pleased to have worked on this hearing with the Ranking Member. Ive been working with him on everything. Keep it up. We dont have to keep it up. This is a bipartisan hearing and i appreciate the senators efforts as well as those of the staff. The basic premise of the hearing is simple. Whenever possible, children should grow up in a home with their family. When problems arise attempts should be made to keep children at home safe. Efforts should be made to place them with caring relatives and children should only be placed in group homes for short periods of time. The effort to place them in a family setting has been exhausted. They spend years confined in foster care homes. This past may the Committee Held a hearing on the need to safely reduce the reliance on Foster Care Group homes. We heard a powerful testimony from about the negative experiences in a Foster Care Group home. The Committee Heard testimony how expensive and inappropriate and untimely death threat for placement editor of the placement can be for many children and youth. I think we should do whatever we can to reduce reliance on Foster Care Group homes. There is a point that we should refuse to spend the scarce taxpayer dollars for the replacement that we no result in negative outcomes. Not only for children but they use as well. As i said in the past no one would support allowing states to use federal taxpayer dollars to buy cigarettes for the foster youth. In my view continuing the taxpayer dollars to fund the basement in Foster Care Group homes is ultimately as destructive. However it isnt sound Public Policy to work to reduce their reliance on good homes without addressing the need to support a family placement for children and youth currently in the risk of entering one of the facilities. The purpose of the hearing is to examine alternatives to Foster Care Group homes. Such alternatives include allowing the states to use their federal foster care funds for the purpose of providing services and interventions that can result in allowing children to stay safely at home. Currently the federal government devotes the highest proportion of its federal foster care funding to the least desirable outcome and then placing them in stranger care or any Foster Care Group home. Current federal foster care walls prohibit the states from using certain federal funds to provide the services that could ameliorate the conditions of the family home. Some states like utah for example believe they can reduce the need for foster care if they use certain funds to provide the services to families. In 2011 we drafted legislation that allowed up to 30 states to get waivers to innovate and use the federal foster care dollars to provide these up Front Services and today we will hear from an official from my home state of utah towards improved outcomes for children and families reducing the reliance on foster care. We should extrapolate the image as a model for all states. When you ask a child that has been in foster care how we can best improve often the answer will be you could hope for helped my mom so i dont have to give in the first place. In the act of 2008 they allow the states to get federal reimbursement for the certain kinship placements and other decision enacted in the last congress the states are not allowed to get federal incentives for increases in the kinship placements and dished wrongly signaled the states the kinship placements should be a priority but i have to say it still remains and suggestions to make the placements were prevalent. I know the senator is planning to introduce legislation that will allow them to be used. On the legislation that will reduce the reliance on Foster Care Group homes that allow the states to use their federal funds for these prevention services. I hope they have a Committee Markup of the legislation in the fall. This hearing is part of a bipartisan process to improve the outcomes for Vulnerable Children and families and i hope the members will listen carefully to the testimony of policy recommendations presented here today. Lets return to the senator for his opening remarks. Thank you mr. Chairman. I want to take note of the fact that you have spent decades keeping Child Welfare issues bipartisan here in the United States senate, and i commend you for that and look forward to building on the partnership. She has carried that which for many years as well and i think once again the finance committee can work in a bipartisan area on this issue. It is likely to be a single mother with two kids multiple parttime jobs and one really big worry. Even then it is a struggle to pay the bills to keep food on the table and because the work schedule changes week to week. A neighbor might place a concern called to the Child Protective Services and once that happens social workers have to choose between the two not very good options. Breaking up the family or doing nothing at all to help. And that has to change. Whenever you ask anyone whos been through the Child Welfare system about what could help them the most, the answer is often helping my mom helping my dad cut helping my family but thats not in the cards when social workers have nothing to offer but foster care. Today kids predominantly wind up in foster care because of the families like that single mom that are caught in these enormously desperate circumstances. Maybe mom or dad needs help covering the bills for a month. Substance abuse treatment connections to child care. Its good for breaking the family apart. In fact it might save the resources in the long run without compromising on safety. There was a big debate about what we are going to talk about this morning. A lot of the seniors and the church is had been talking about how a grandparents might be able to step in. When their child the parent the secondgeneration effect was having a problem they were out of work with Substance Abuse. And i learned older people grandparents, aunts uncles had an enormous potential that could make a big difference. Immediate relatives and and uncles were grandparents but thats the necessary standards for caring for a child would have the first preference under law when it came to caring for any sign if you and in effect was the First Federal law that had been enacted to promote kinship care so here we are in 2015 and i think we have an opportunity as the chairman suggested going even further to help these youngsters arrive. It begins with letting the states run with fresh policies when they are fallen on hard times. There is already proof that leaving states out of the oldfashioned federal system to produce results. My home state of oregon has a program im very pleased with. And we call it a differential response because it basically is all about signaling that every child and every family may require a different type of support. The old two option system basically says its either foster care or nothing doesnt cut it. And what we are going to talk about is how oregon has taken a more tailored approach to help the families out. Finance committees are lucky to have him in the department of Human Resources and i think my colleagues are going to be interested. Our new proposal on the family stability kinship act will make sure that the states are in a position to adopt fresh strategies like oregon and also provide more opportunities to tap that extraordinary potential thats out there with grandparents, uncles and family members to step in to the kind of circumstances where otherwise a child may just have one of two options they dont care for. I will close by saying i want to make it clear. We know kids for which foster care has been a lifesaver. It was a safe place to grow up and strive. Its about creating as many good choices as we can for youngsters to grow up in a safe, healthy environment that means keeping Families Together. I said at the outset the chairman and that the chairman has put in decades to steer this Child Welfare debate in a bipartisan way and i commend him for it and i want the chairman and the colleagues on both sides to know i think we have an opportunity to race to the occasion again and i look forward to working with the chairman and all of you. Let me introduce to the panel first we are going to hear from saundra a wellrespected advocate and single mother who has raised two sons that are now 20 and 18 years of age and as we will hear she experienced firsthand problems in the foster care system when her eldest son was removed for one and a half years due to behavioral issues. Technology. She is currently the direct of the Child Welfare project. Next we will hear from rosaline burton who is a former foster youth from california. She went through 23 different placements and numerous School Changes during her 12 years in foster care. Now at just 23 years old, ms. Burton enjoys working as a Mental Health working at a residential facility for foster youth in san dieogo. She is attending Community College where she will get her bachelor degree and work toward her masters. And donna butts who served as the execute director and now runs the program. She received her undergraduate from mary hurst and later graduated from stanford university. She is a recipient of the jack and sea berry awards and has been recognized twice as one of the top 50 and most influential nonprofit leader in the United States. And i will let senator wyden introduce the last guest. Mr. Nyby i touched on your work in the response making sure there is not a onesizefitsall approach for helping the youngsters and has been doing it for the past 13 years going from case working to supervisor and now chuck nyby is introducing these programs. He is a graduate of Eastern Oregon university. Mr. Chairman i will not filibuster here but we have three oregon connections on the panel. Not only chuck, but ms. Donna butts we just mentioned and i guess i am showing my age i remember jack and his good work and butts as roots in oregon and ms. Rosaline burton is a trans transplant to oregon for the summer. So we run the table. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Last but certainly not least we will hear from ann williamson. Ms. Williamson completed a masters in social work from Louisiana State university and has gone on to receive distingiushed awards from both schools. She served as president and ceo of the nonprofit for louisiana and cabinet director for louisianas social services. Ms. Williamson has helped the state of utah obtain a federal title 4e waiver and the launching of a Child Welfare demonstration project that aims to reduce the use of foster care child abuse and neglect, and the need for services and intervention. I welcome each member to the committee. I urge you to keep your remarks to the allotted five minutes if we good morning. Thank you chairman hatch and members of the committee for the invitation to be here today. I am a divorced single mother who raised two sons who are now 22 and 20 years of age resided new york city and am currently employed at the Child Welfare organizing project its selfhelp Advocacy Organization of parents who have been affected by new york city Childrens Services. Today i and here to share in sight from my own experience as a parent from the child protective system as well as of perspective from hundreds of parents that i have worked with with a coalition of Child Welfare finance reform. And other parents and organizations. Some are here with me this morning and day did not have the luxury that i had to come here last night but they got on the bus 3 45 a. M. To be here to be in time for the hearing so thank you to all those parents who have taken the journey with me. But those do pertain choose Child Protection live of parent affected by the Child Protection system it has forever changed my life as well as my sons life. This is a system that you already heard the opening that has strayed a Stable Family and left our family traumatized. As a single mother i relocated to new york city from Atlanta Georgia there were young and we relocated due to financial hardship. All of my Family Support was idi york city. It was difficult for my two boys who left their data travel back and forth from atlanta. My oldest son witches one whom generated the contact his name is tracy was raised with his dad and it was a disruption of the family i sought help and support for my family challenges. We were attending billy counseling ever getting support that we needed but i can tell you the move to new york city was challenging thereby generating some aggressive behaviors from my son which i continuously sought help with. Those were not available immediately for we could get off of the waitlists there was an altercation an altercation with my son at the age of 13. Before that actually occurred, i will tell you the outburst that we could retreat to the bedroom with my youngest son is in fear of what would happen. But the altercation did occur. At the time of this incident , i a did reach out to Childrens Services for assistance. I did not receive the assistance but instead an investigation into my house all that was very intrusive and i say and investigation. That is what was the was ask questions that are not necessary my sons wrasse questions about how parents hid them and i will tell you this i found this out later when they told me i was surprised there were not interested in what occurred or how i came into their office for assistance. What i would like to do is highlight three recommendations on how to approve services for vermeil address to have communitybased prevention and services to keep the Families Together and promoting a supportive on punitive approach can help families at risk to keep the children at home in partnering with parents before and during any involvement to help families stay strong and safe i believe that most parents want to be good parents but need help and assistance so long though way for all children at risk to be protected to ensure that the children grow up in a healthy and safe and nurturing home. The key for allowing me to share my feelings and the voice of many parents who have come in contact that i bring into this space with me. And unless you really know what it is like to be separated from your family that bonding is for ever broken between mother and child and siblings and extended family and having a grandparent of not being able to see their grandchild because they have not been cleared by a system for to have the overnight stay with a niece and nephew were not being able to get input into the growth and development of your child is an enormous symptomatic experience for every Single Family that goes through its. Also we have come through it and we are coming through with. There are good days and bad days i will tell you i still hear families today that talk about the experience the horrendous experience they had with the foster care system that does not understand who they are as a family or were they come from in a community or the burden put upon them to do things that no other parent or household could do to reunite reunite with their children also to have parental rights terminated at a point that is how often it is happening that they are actually losing there rights to their children. I implore you to listen to us but i think there has to be an action of how we feel about family is to get in contact and i would like to say i have tied remaining but they use so much with the Child Welfare system to be strong and safe and nurtured in his own communities. Senator hatchs remember and to talk about the issues of people and the foster care system. Them 22 years old in the Mental Health worker but i was with the clients for 40 months i spent most of my a childhood did the foster care system experiencing 12 years didnt care in 23 different placements. I am still hoping to find a life forever family. At three years old my mother had her eighth and final child my six siblings and i were removed for the first time after grandmother went away to receive treatment for addiction and my father was charged with neglect we were taken to an Emergency Shelter then my sister and i were placed with my maternal great aunt living with her give me a sense of stability and beloved normalcy that knife unfortunately never experienced again. Eventually we were unified with my parents but over the next several years my siblings and i would have rand of reunification with my parents at some point this siblings had Different Cases in different social workers and things got confusing we no longer went to the same plan or the same court dates going to read family was never brought up as an option again and have a bigger extended family. I felt close to them and then through groups homes but once the environment changed history became obsolete by the time members 13 i worried if a sibling would pass i did not even know who they were any more. With reentry into foster care that they did know how to keep me safe in entering foster care is a traumatic experience because my father was raised what happens in the home stays in the home but my mother felt victimized her own troubles with the abandonment broker abuse and lack of addiction lead to multiple reentry into care. , a mothers battle with Mental Illness to support a kid this made it particularly impossible to take care of us. My parents rights are terminated and tavis 15th by a the time the mother figure out how to maintain her sobriety and a house so her children would return the damage was done up was no wonder the kid that just wanted to be at home. Belong to play a huge role and therapy with the Substance Abuse treatment helped her identify childhood trauma that affected her parenting also had she receive Preventive Services from those understood Mental Illness my siblings and i may not have a spent so much john foster and foster care. And they could stage with their families. And the time away from each other could hardly relationship for those of the to be removed from their home but today i worked in a group home but as hard as they tried they can never give the you things a loving family cayenne been family should be forever. Thank you. Ms. Butts. I am donna butts and i am from home of the National Center on grand families. I am pleased toprovide testimony and applaud chairman hatch, Ranking Member wyden and Committee Member for the leadership on holding this hearing on preserving families and reducing the need for foster care. Every child deserves to grow up safe stable and loving home but for 7. 8 fam children that headed by a uncle, aunt or family friend. The issues are complex but unit united by the belief of the importance of family and believe children fair better when raised in a family not a system. Despite the challenges facing the grand families children farewell in the care of relatives. They are more stability and likely to report feeling loved. Federal law affirms and Research Confirms relatives should be the first choice. Kinship families are deiversee diverse but the way they are tide is the way they common. Children outside of the foster care system receive little to no services or benefits compared to children in the form of the system. All children and relative care should receive the support they need to thrive regardless of the circumstances that brought them to live with a caring relative. Congress enacted several provisions to insure an increase relative placements and allow waivers allowing grand families to be supported. We salute these and encourage strength in them. Today i will focus on four areas that are more much detailed in my written statement. Notice to relatives, licensing, prevention and trauma inform supports. First, notification. We recommend changes to help insure relatives receive notification with clear information and assistance so they can digest their options and make the best decision for children. Recent law requires states to identify and notify relatives when a child is removed from the home. They are to be told their options under the law including any options that may be lost if they fail to respond to the notice. We hear caregivers know little about the requirement and for those who do many say it was presented in a confusing and even threatening way. Second licensing. We direct congress to assess and make changes to the existing license standards using the new model from the association of regulatory administration. Until now there have been no National Family licensing home standards so they vary from state to state and pose unnecessary barriers that result in appropriate relatives denied license causing the children to be placed in Group Settings or foster care. Jj and his Little Brothers and sister went to live with their grandparents when their fathers drinking was out of control. The family struggled to make the changes to their home so they could meet state requirement and be able to continue as a Stable Family. Jjs grandparents had to file for bankruptcy because of the cost to make the home comply. It was filled with love but not enough bedrooms. We recommend ways to find practices. For every child with a relative in foster care there are 23 outside of the system being closed by relative or family friend without a parent presence. These families save 4 billion each year and under current financing laws these families receive little or now preventive supporters to keep them together and out of foster care. Fourth trauma support. Generations united recommends urging states to make sure kinship families have access to the same level of therapy. Many grandparents report awards coming from living with the children but experience challenges and they can be daunting when caring for kids that experienced trauma. To many kinship families they are not offered support and left to manage serious Mental Health needs on their on. Flexible Funding Services are needed to fill the gaps for kinship families outside of the system. Social Services Block grant and other services in supporting children in relative care must be recognized. Poet maya an fullgelu who was raised by her grandparents said people who know their grandparents have trees and roots and cant be mowed down. All of americas children deserve to stay with the roots of the family to grow strong productive and contributing citizens. Thank you for allowing me to offer testimony and i look forward to your questions. Mr. Nyby i will turn to you. First of all express appreciation to chairman hatch, Ranking Member and the committee. I plan to talk about my experience of working the Child Welfare system 13 years, what i experienced and where we are at. When i started working for Child Welfare out of college i was absolutely not prepared for the challenges. When you listen to the testimony, part of what i found my job included and not just learning rules and procedures but how to overcome the perception of the system with the family and kids in the communities i worked with. And i had a variety of experience with the foster care systems. Early in my career it seemed like foster care was a solution for kids when they were not safe in their homes. What i observed was it felt like a consequence. I was really naive and thought when kids were experiencing abuse and neglect in their home they would want to leave and i thought they would not want to go back until things changed. But what i found is that kids would run away from foster care and live on the streets, they would go back to homes where they came from, because they preferred that. It was a huge learning experience for me as a caseworker to understand the impact foster care had on kids even when experiencing abuse and neglect at home. I started to question the work i was doing. In 2007 oregon adopted a model of using foster care as a last resort. Change in any system is show and i found it has been a process in oregon since that time and i have experienced this inside and outside of the Child Welfare system. That same year i became a supervisor and worked that for the next five and a half years. You work late hours, evenings weekends, and as a supervisor i had to be available. One of my biggest challenge was helping them make decisions for work i wasnt doing. I found fear was common in those decisions and fear that something bad would happen to a child, fear we would intervene when we didnt need to fear of ending up on the front page of the paper. That fear is real. I supervised high profile cases and it was challenging in the field not to let 12 percent of had cases we see affect our work with the families. During my time as a supervisor i saw services coming into place. More upFront Services were available, we were able to work with families and keeping kids safe at home but there were gaps and without filling those gaps the challenge remains for Child Welfare to work with families in a way that keeps kids safe at home if families are not getting the support they need. In 2013 i took the operation and policy analyst job to help with the different responses. It is supported by legislative services we call strengthening and unifying families. I have felt more excited about the work i am doing than ever before. The Practice Model provides flexibility to help families in a way we never have. Foster care is slowly becoming what it was intended to do which is a Safety Service used as a last resort. Change takes time. I think we are making progress. But it is my opinion in order to continue that progress with Child Welfare reform changes need to be made in the way the Child Welfare systems are funded. They need flexibility just like families. Oregon has a title 40 waiver for a number of years allowing the state to spend federal foster care dollars more fluidly and we match and finance and expand Service Array and allowed oregon to increase services in communities and the array available for families. I understand it is set to expire in 2019 and i worry without that our ability to invest in the Front End Services will be reduced and funding Child Welfare through foster care placement doesnt support families in the way the system is trying to reform and change to. I want to close by saying that my journey as a caseworker and supervisor, i would not change. Working at that level helps me understand the challenges family and children face that interact with the Child Welfare center it trained me to find solutions, see possibilities and look at things differently. I understand working for Child Welfare will always be a challenging job and stigma involved in the system but it comes with great reward when we can be successful. I want to thank everyone for the opportunity to speak here today. Thank you very much. Ms. Williamson, we will finish with you. Chairman hatch, Ranking Member wyden, and member of the finance committee. Thank you for letting me appear before you recommending the utah family services. In utah we value what is in the best interest of children youth and their families but what is costeffective. Several facts about utahs Child Welfare model shows the strength of our approach. Withing thf highest percentage of minors per capita utah has one of the lowest entry rate into foster care. 3. 1 child for every 1,000 and the National Average is 6. 1. The avrnl length of stay is 10. 4 months and the National Average is 13. 4 months. Changes allowed utah to make an agreement and we were touted for success. We had family meetings rigorous process reviews, established an independent office and a fatality review panel. In recent years, we identified the need to build equally affective in home support to safely keep children with their families reducing the need for foster care. Regardless of how well a foster care system operates the fact remains that children are best served in homes with familyiesfamilies, familiar schools and community. The brace of one woman who aged out of foster care underscores the opportunity we have to do better. Beth was removed from her mother care from the neglect that resulted from her moms untreated Mental Illness. Instead of remaining in her home this parent was swept into a journey between multiply foster homes, the juvenile Justice System truancy, and homelessness. When asked why she continue to run away from foster care homes beth plainly said it was to get back to her mother. She expressed feeling out of control and without a voice. The positive influence of her final foster father and caseworker resulted in beth graduated from high School Getting a job with Child Welfare and now enrolled in law school. Hers was a rare success story. Her insights are profound and motivating to us today because we know we can do better. We can avoid this kind of human cost and as measured results of the Current Practice prove we are doing so. Poet mayu described utahs commitment to serve. Do the best you can until you know better and when you know better do better. With Research Social science discovery and evidence of trauma inform care utah believes we can better serve the needs of those in need of Child Welfare supporting safe care in their homes without separating them from their families is less traumatic and less costly. Multiply generation approaches is more effective in breaking cycles of dependent on prolonged expensive government programs. The opportunity to apply for the 4e waiver was ideal for utah. Our program call homework was implemented in 2013 and being used across the state. We invest federal funds toward support with greater value. Not only to keeping children safe with their family but to the taxpayers receiving greater return on the dollar. For the average cost of serving one child in a foster care home for one year we can serve 11 families through homework. For the average cost of serving one child in a Group Setting for one year we can serve 34 families through homework. These are compelling proofs of the sound business of this practice while the humanitarian merit of investing to keep children safe with families make this approach essential. We worked with a family of jim who was on track to enter foster can failing in middle school and behavioral outburst at home. Applying a model in his home offering peer parenting, additional family engaged and his School Counselor and behavioral therapist is helping him. This helps us assist multiply families for longterm behavioral change that reduces the risk of repeat maltreatment and ongoing involvement with government intervention. Structured decision making, consistent assessment and more staff time with families and community support. Earlier results are positive. We respect the temporary nature of the waiver and the time limited opportunity we have to learn. Utah is focused on shoring up what we have begun. Therefore thank you, senator wyden, the family stability and kinship act proposed is an encouraging measure. The key proponents of the bill reinforce utahs experience. Federal statute that folks on Early Intervention and Community Ownership will strengthen the system. We seek to finance a system that strengthens family and is accountability for child safety, wellbeing and permancy. We look forward to helping for the Greater Public good. Thank you. This has been a great panel here today. Let me start with you, ms. Burton, thank you for appearing today and for your compelling testimony here. You are remarkable young woman and i am impressed with what you have overcome. I am so sorry the foster care system failed you and your brothers and sisters. You were in the foster care system on and off for 12 years as i understand it. Is that correct . I spent a total of 12 years. My question is what are your suggestions for congressional action that can improve the foster care system . I think that a i think a plan it should be required that states are required to have a plan for a child bride away. So if they believe the situation can provide services before they enter care if possibles so they can return home in a short of merit amount of time they have too much time in limbo than the damage affects the whole family. Does that answer your question . That is fine. Thank you for appearing today and for your testimony to abolish the great work done by to extraordinary members of your team. Absolutely. Thank you. We have worked with you for many years and your team we are deeply indebted your professionalism and willingness to read gauge. One of the offers of of legislation to allow 30 states to receive the Child Welfare waiver you said one of the very for states to apply for that but all waivers expire in 2019. We should build on what we have already learned to kraft policies to benefit multiple states. But using certain federal dollars to provide services you could realize considerable savings. Can you elaborate how you talk care and target resources . It is my pleasure. What utah recognized was the expense costing taxpayers on averages only 2,400 to keep a family stable in the home for one year to serve a family and keep the children safe to facilitate longterm behavioral change where the average cost per year for one child is over 83,000 in the congregate care facilities so to focus on services and the efforts has naturally allow us to have the dollars go farther because we have reduced reliance on longterm congregate care. Bills are startling figures. They give for appearing before the committee and your thoughtful testimony as well. But to reduce blood dash reducing alliance of foster care and group homes we must try to keep them safely at home to strengthen the placements for children when they cannot remain safely in the home. Corrigan has one of the lowest rates of group homes can you share how you have managed to safely reduce the reliance on group care . To one of the strong commitments we have made is to reduce foster care across the board. Not just group homes but across the board and the way that the train our case workers and supervise them is to really use foster care as a the last resort to use relatives as a first choice with the prior day of relative says well ingrained in our practice in relative placements is what we prioritize for foster care or group homes. They are a last resort options and theyre not used as a solution anymore for kids. Thank you very much. But to share his comments with respect with what you are doing is astounding to get that rate of return and i just want to be clear with your work with the legislation and stability stability, the whole point of that is to say once and for all the flexibility you were talking about will be permanent. That is the point for the future with our challenges we appreciate the good work you are doing. With the couple of good points in effect in terms of your services in this field you have run the gauntlet but what services do you think are most important . Because we will have to find our way to say there are choices to be made here and these are the showstoppers to make the big difference what are those services . Those that would help our services prevent or avoided intervention from Child Welfare iran and i dont have statistics that share but i can tell you that drug and though paul and substanceabuse is an important service. Lot of families, the system is set up to help them they need help understanding where to go for help and how to get their to navigate the Transportation System so with the general challenges around poverty and give an organ one of the price very services we have navigators or parent advocates that help them navigate the system it is a complex system and they have to navigate multiples sometimes end Domestic Violence is a challenge for women pronator of a experiencing Domestic Violence those are some that i can think of. You were doing a terrific job every look forward to partner with you in the days ahead. Talk about kinship care because i think of the 1990s there and the threat than was they thought that would make the big difference we were of skeptical it we could not get that law passed to give them preference but by any bettys calculation that first kinship care law has far exceeded what people thought was possible and you have the extraordinarily role that kinship care plays so the question is if you could name one big step on this side what would that be . Because i have us set of choices and not the year earlier hearings be heard about an older parent or grandparent to wanted to take care of a child but there were told even though they had a wonderfully comfortable place to stay even though not the exact number of bedrooms there were disqualified. Could we get rid of mindless bureaucracy but if you get one choice on kinship care through your work what is your next up . Step . We have been through those battles together to see in the change for the country club grandmother only doing it for a few dollars but to realize they want to support the family options and real also know that is why we believe it is important to look at licensing standards because i grew up in a family of six with three bedrooms i shared a bedroom with my sister my entire life to think their relatives cannot figure out how to make do with less space does not make any sense we need to take that into consideration. The bill they will be introducing those a long way to hope to understand that grandparents need those Supportive Services to be successful and that is why you have advocated for 80 to know what exists to find through those navigator programs or Health Services because of the children who come into their care they need that support to a understand just because they are family we leave them on their own we need to support them and provide for them. Thanks for your good work of a bike tour note under your leadership to work on this the idea is you have offered, they are not big expensive proposals nobody will say this will break the bank or a huge type of bureaucracy. You have been a terrific panel it is a deal for us to go for word. Thank you very much Ranking Member for york kinship care that is my pleasure to your cochair the you costs caucus with senator grassley and to each of you for being here it takes a lot of courage to tell your story and i am appreciative. I have worked on these issues a long time i was in the michigan and legislature in the 80s fostered dr. Foster care reform with the stub and now bill put into lot to move the system more quickly so i am extremely frustrated. But when the system fails to it just plain failed you and we have a situation where people are caught up in the system and cannot bring the Children Home and then very serious abuse and neglect that is also called a. So i am concerned one way or the other foster care should be temporary to move people back home ideally never leaving the home but if they are in foster care or to a permanent family so theyre not caught is in limbo like you were over and over. Thank you for your eloquence but i do want to say as we listen to all of this with the cost effectiveness, we know these dont cost a lot of dollars but were going through a debate on the budget there is great willingness for the department of Defense Budget were not at a bipartisan agreement about our family is a and this seems low we could do to make a tremendous difference. I hope the rigo in june to discuss issues of appropriations be remember what we have heard. The senator and i were very pleased to offer a Pilot Project for a Mental Health and Substance Abuse to allow eight states to dramatically increase what they do. Eight. Not 50 you wouldnt take much to make that 50. I appreciate we could vote on a pilot but my frustration is what we can do or should do and hope to help us to want to do that. I do have a question regarding one piece of this that i have been working on and cosponsoring a bill on family day Foster Care Services with the whole question of therapeutic foster care dash and what can be done on the front might you speak more about that . Senator, i cannot say i cannot talk directly to therapeutic foster care but if my son had received actually in home intensive therapy which i guess you could call it therapeutic therapeutic, he would not have been is in foster care that is the intensive therapy that was needed but therapeutic in foster homes you would say they need to be thoroughly trained of the you for the young person they will be receiving into their household to know what is going on and where they come from and how that has impacted them. In something as simple as removing a child from a home to place them in another home is a dramatic impact. They may not have had any type of issues sometimes with the parent or not but then they come into the system they develop behavioral issues. I would have to go back i plead again that for my household that was a stable household we were secure and we knew exactly what was necessary and needed for my family. We did not get that and because of that the taxpayers pay an enormous amount of money to go through the criminal court system in Family Court System with an attorney and an attorney for my child to remain in foster care and still not getting any services that we needed as a family, could destroy a sibling relationship in which the younger brother becomes withdraw now he has to go into therapy. If i could say i know you asked about therapeutic but if that foster home does not get the things that i needed in my home were looking at the same thing so essentially across the board families need what families need and i can echo every single thing that was said across the board for those that come in contact with and what they share with what they need we work with parents and foster parents and youth the system is not kind to anyone. My time is up for our hope we will have the political will to do the things you are talking about because it is not Rocket Science but being committed to do it. Thank you. We appreciate you holding this hearing today there is a lot of work for us to do. We have to find a way to reduce these care settings to encourage states to adopt best practices to find families for the children one of the keys that what this means is we need to look comprehensively to reduce the number of children in care and investing in families to prevent children from ending up in foster care to begin with in Group Settings as well for by introducing a bill today the all kids matter iraq that gives all states the ability to invest on the familys front and before they end up in the foster care system there are 400,000 in and out we have additional transparency measures for states to reduce the number of children in group homes in reno they do best when placed with individual families or their own families to live for to working with the committee to produce a bipartisan product to elevate the conversation to the nations most vulnerable. I am grateful for the attention. But can iran you describe the committee with the Education System as you go through the foster care system, how did you do with schools . Cry question ago and to merge teetwo with my siblings but half graduated the other half didnt one graduated from ucla now he is a Campaign Manager said he is doing really well for himself. [laughter] if you guys need anybody. [laughter] into a was are in college and education was very hard i went to six different elementary and five different middle schools and five different high schools though it was hard tuesday focused and motivated. I heard at the end of your testimony the last couple years you could discover flexibility that you have not had in the past ted to explain that in more detail and that has resulted in prevention efforts. The flexibility comes from differential response so when a family is reported read dont treat them all the same way. Essentials a the more severe allegations the more traditional manner but reports that involve less or moderate severity with the family it is not done to them but with them really tried to partner with them to let them drive the assessment so that in both scenarios we have the ability to provide Services Without formally getting involved in opening a case a with that Early Intervention the family still has to be reported to provide that but we can connect them to new the support in their communities so they dont have to come back to Child Welfare it is fairly new but before that the only way they could offer services was to open a formal case in the system this allows us to provide services to fill the gap without having to do that. It sounds that Early Intervention system was in place you may not have faced the things that you had to contend with. Absolutely. One of the things is communitybased Resource Services is really the way to go for families i should have been able to walk into any Community Based program without having an investigation at all. 8q all for your testimony and mr. Chairman for your attention to this issue. I want to reiterate my appreciation for the hearing and your work in this area and in particular the legislation and which focuses on prevention that is the set of services in the process for bader was dropped by the first two witnesses both using the same word traumatized and dramatic which i know for some people depending on how difficult these issues are for families but that involves policy to but the two things we have examined with severity but we appreciate your own personal stories to stock rally you have been through it is easier to talk when they are theoretical or policy oriented because without that personal testimony i am not sure we can sit here to really understand it unless we have gone through read ourselves. That you also mentioned as one of the strategies on page six of your testimony but to focus on the immediate need and with Early Intervention rehabs seen bill whole range of testimony and we are grateful there is some measure of anonymity with the strategies. We spend a lot of time in this town focusing on National Defense strategy and terrorist could even end the tax code that is part of the work that this committee does, what is the best way to improve the tax code for a strategy to create jobs but we dont spend nearly enough time of the strategies that will work to make the life of a child better or what will work for those standards for families. I need to get to a question but we need a strategy for our kids and families. The last two witnesses were practitioners doing the policy were my question is for ms. Williams said but in oregon that with a whole works is an organ tell us what works in both the white you would hope we would derive from those samples states. You heard consistency evidence based assessments. There was the mention to evaluate redskin to be purposeful in structured Family Support that is directly tied and the other element is consistent that is family engaged in listening to the family with day have a voice and children included and they have a voice with a vested interest in their success and with the case plan that allows them to achieve that that, we will realize those outcomes much more efficiently. I would echo what she said with the different parts the only thing i would attic is in order for to support the families you need a workforce that has those tools available to support the families. To get it to work to engage with the sister of the of system has to offer will realistically hope that family and the support with the community depending on which one that has an impact to help to unities. The key for your great testimony this morning it is of fascinating hearing for the long time advocacy for ith foster care and kids who are facing issues at home. This is not in easy issue but with therapeutic care for parents makes a lot of sense then the cost savings are very interesting because there is the assumption there it will be a lot more expensive for that type of care for kinship parents and other care givers as well. I have a couple of questions and want to get your input i have been very fortunate to have Congressional Coalition of adoption in this summer and carry richmond debated a terrific job in she has had experiences go into the system with a lot of abuse with foster care and adoption but she has come out incredibly strong young woman and has helped us to look at policy issues we also have a group back home as a youth the Advisory Board made up of people who have been through the system and that makes sense. But here is what is bugging me. There was a sting operation in 2013 nationwide on child sex trafficking we had the caucus started here were doing work garnet but here is the amazing and sad statistics but 60 percent of the victims they recovered nationwide from over 70 cities were from foster care or group homes. 60 in such trafficking. Sexual trafficking so does this go to what you talk about . But to be at the other end as a mom with professionals is there something we should be talking about . Is a less likely they will end up to be victims to be vulnerable if they are not in the car market share homes . Thank you for the question this death of a part of a convert it care because theres not someone looking for the science there is too many children they get lost it is just something that happens bin they try to fill a void because they dont know why of where they are and they want to be loved so much more we could talk about in depth about pilot others talk about that. You are right that child care and age out of the system but not out of the family but somebody who can watch them and that makes all the difference in the world is so easy for young people to get lost and caught up in that sex trafficking worldwide used to work with Homeless Youth to talk about the suitcase which was a garbage bag and them being kicked out of i have is a garbage bag and nobody cared where they were going but with the family there much more likely to forgive or take them back or let them sleep on the couch. So that family to notify them is important. We talked earlier about the legislation we have introduced called the family based Foster Care Services acted and what we are trying to do is to create a National Standard for what is therapeutic foster care because each state does a little different and my question is how can that uniform promote the quality of care and more accountability of training of staff and parents. Does that make sense . Could you give us a response quickly but also if you dont mind to send me a written response to tell us what you think about this idea of a uniform definition i dont have a uniform definition but i would like to say i would like to followup with a written response because that would require a lot of thought. Would you do the same . They view mr. Chairman and of members of the panel for your rich testimony your incredible asset to South Carolina. God bless you. We will talk later why you left. We will get to that later. [laughter] but i will say that this is a blue thing topic and a hard topic to digest and oftentimes to put 1 million through one program but if we try to find a way that every American Experiences their full potential i had an opportunity last year to visit one of the foster care homes in South Carolina and going into the week a thanksgiving to talk to the kids about their goals and dreams and expectations a and one of the points that rings true with the goal is to get back home. And it does not reappear that the home from the outside the key is they want their mom. But i always hear that same conversation in a matter how difficult the situation was they still have a yearning for their family and their blood line. I appreciate the sacrifices of the difficulty for so many singleparent i know my mother probably wanted to encourage me why brother was the better of the two of the asset was rambunctious sand difficult and challenging growing up but talking to the kids i have learned they are brilliant with so much potential i did have an intern i am not sure where your brother is day Campaign Manager but but i digress. Not really. [laughter] but i had an amazing interned just this summer who has gone through the Foster Care Program im a adopter one day. But she will teach english in china before she becomes a doctor but she remains focused than of way that very few of us could. To learn their stories is it important part questions. You can see in the tearing families apart it seems to be important in finding the path back it up to hear your comments on that. It. Theres a program in greenville South Carolina called Serenity Place thats doing remarkable things for the treatment of the 120 pregnant women and Young Mothers each year with 86 of the children still living. It was directly linked to the childhood of being in foster care that she never dealt with without and no one provided the services that she needed to deal with peter and maybe she had to ask for them. I dont know what happened but i believe she had the services defined what are the triggers but then she could end up back there. So it was the staying clean. And i also, understanding her illness, so that then i didnt hold that against her, her addiction it could have been helpful so i think its providing a cubic services for the whole family to understand the situation and support each other to keep strong ties. And to that one of the questions that keeps ringing in my my ears is the system hinges on the the caseworkers assessment and seems to be such a powerful part of the analysis. What can be done and should be done to make the caseworker better prepared to focus on family cohesion coming and when i think about the family cohesion and the point on the opportunity for the inhome intensive therapy i would love to hear your comments. It is on the key workers and what we might do to think about it from that actual level of the transaction and the caseworkers assessment being perhaps the most in four most important key. Its going to be figured out on the states and in the programs but i think that eliminating illuminating what should be done would be helpful to all of us watching this and paying attention to the issue. For the representatives at the table for stakeholders and the success of the changed outcome. The efficacy of the family is involved and its not such a point in time but im happy to say that theyve taken a National Standard in the assessment and created a utah family child assessment that is an engagement tool throughout a lifetime of the case so that when a parent says i really could use the system and Mental Health i could use the system with the Substance Abuse disorder a Substance Abuse disorder that is consistently revisit it because perhaps the initial intervention is not successful but still they seek the changed result. My concern in asking the question about the caseworkers assessment and the tearing apart of the families is the ultimately. For the fear of the breakdown of the family my time is actually up. I want to thank each one of you as the witnesses here today youve been really good, each one of you. Its somewhat of a little important perspective to this end we are going to see what we can do to help here. So i just want to thank the witnesses for appearing today and i want to thank the senators that participated this has been a compelling discussion and i do appreciate everyones participation. Any questions for the records should be said that no later than tuesday august 18 and i hope that you will get your answers back as quickly as possible. Im grateful to each one of you for taking time out of their schedules to be with us. Weve had a variety of perspectives here today but all of you seem to agree that we can do a better job than we are doing right now. And i would like to see that we do. God bless all of you. Thank you for being here. With that we will recess until further no give detroit took that 1. 5 billion that was offered read the stock market went down and invested in the and ducks index fund it is now almost three times what it was that only would that have tripled their money but pay the pensions in full and it could have gone back at the end of the year they could have had a 13th check they could have fixed themselves of there was sober of management just like any organization if you have strong leadership you can resolve these problems but it takes a lot of effort. S one hour and 20 minutes. Good afternoon. Fate you for coming out were from the policy program with my colleagues on behalf of all of us have brookings including our new Vice President to talk about afghanistan United States remains in afghanistan with uniformed personnel as well as brave dedicated civilians as an operative that is entering the 14th year it is an operation now only 10 percent the size it had been so with 10,000 americans by way of a couple of points but in this season you are aware that afghans are doing most of the fighting if you try to quantify there doing 85 but not just the numbers with 330,000 between army and police but it casualtys theyre fighting extremely hard that bad a time when american vitales were in the single digits, perhaps for. That could change but not garwood is a dramatic reduction but as your also aware the current plan of the president to reduce forces starting again next spring to move forward a very Small Mission by the end of 2016 although they do remain subject to reconsideration. So to proceed over the next hour general campbell is being very generous with his schedule so were very lucky to have him i want to remind you about the files then quickly ask a couple of questions then we will go to all of you for some discussion as a 1979 graduate of west point coming from a military family landed has continued is subsequent generations. The first was the of curve ball put the kind of expertise we now have that the senior officer level with perspective of the other levels of command to was in regional command east in 2010 and 2011 that is part of some of the greatest violence in the area we lost almost 250 americans in that sector alone so there has ben dramatic change and also a deputy chief of staff including surveying is an iraq. Masher man has also been at this one of the most resilient and remarkably gifted committed american civilians and number of years did i iraq gather afghanistan one of his Favorite Book was called of forever war it it had already ben a forever war at that time but now he is a political advisor to your general campbell. So please join reid to welcome them to brookings. [applause] thinks for taking the time jube here to show interest in afghanistan. We are not in the headlines like we used to make a used to be but we will talk about how i see it. I have five for 10 minutes but then i would really like to go to new dialogue. This is my third tour i am going on one year of recovery have been there the Afghan Security forces continue to get better and better. They have challenges and issues we have identified like Close Air Support and intelligence and logistics and special operating forces but they continue to progress said be resilient. I talk about the number of casualties that has been a tough fight the season going from the military side with the civilian casualties has gone up as well i attribute most of those caused by a the taliban and we cannot ever forget that sacrifice. I have a very Good Opportunity to see the Afghan Security forces from all Different Levels says the colonel and Major General and as the general the key leader engagements were from our soldiers as they read it interact with police but i spend a lot of time working with the ministry and the National Security adviser and i am very honored to have the opportunity. As they continued to do progress they have challenges it is tough on casualties but there is a lot of reasons for that in recent have 80,000 Coalition Forces they dont have that same type of Close Air Support and pakistan has done quite well and to the afghans figure this out and they dont have that same type of support at the core level the only place tactically is the best in the region so ill look for virtue taking your questions about afghanistan of that is near and dear to read and has ben for a long time mumbai to tell you about it during question and answers. Alaska you specifics of the military dynamics but i would give a view of a chance to remind americans why this is important for our security i know it is complex and in direct and remote. I wear two hats u. S. Forces at and the nato had to bear really that is to codify the gains over the last 40 years. And two major to be a safe haven buffet a conventional and Afghan Security forces we have to build that capacity they want to be a regional partner that is committed jerubbaal International Committee as the commander in chief to visit hospitals and trading over the last 48 years of gains they have made for central asia that headstone on a opportunities they understand people want to change our way of life sometimes we have to play this away game that has prevented us and we are very blessed to have men and women who put their lives of the y in. We have a sweet spot right now actually was a loss from a soldier with day civilian that was killed with a rocket attack but that is not by happenstance but i