Child Protection Legislation – Part 3

The Child Abuse and Prevention Act of 1974 was effective in bringing about national awareness of the problem of child abuse and neglect, and the adoption of state policies relating to reporting abuse, but the grants to states were too small to fund programs to help the children and families that were reported.

It wasn’t until 1980 that public law 96-272 was passed. This law attempted to establish a national child welfare policy, by tying federal foster care funding to the implementation of policies related to family preservation and permanency planning for children removed from their homes. The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act mandated that courts had to determine that reasonable efforts were being made by the agency to prevent the removal of the child from the family.

In the event that removal is clearly necessary to protect the child, the agency then has to make reasonable efforts to provide services so that families can be reunified. If reunification is not likely to occur after efforts are made by the agency, then the agency needs to explore alternative placements for the child. The trend lately has been to offer more timely preventive services to children and families and to protect the child in the least restrictive setting. There is then time to assess the actual risk to the child, based upon their age, family dynamics and nature of the injury.

P.L. 96-272 also mandated case review procedures to ensure every child in the foster care system has a case plan and that the case plan is being followed. However, due to the increasing numbers of children coming into care and the serious limitations on services in most communities, the law was seriously hindered. Not until 1993, with the passage of the Family Preservation and Family Support Act, did we finally have a federal planning and resource commitment to provide services to support and preserve families, not just to protect children.

In addition to federal and state laws, policy is established by case law. The Supreme Court upheld the rights of unmarried fathers to have custody of their children in the 1972 Stanley vs. Illinois decision. In Gault vs. Arizona, the Supreme Court made available to juveniles the same protection afforded to adults when charged with a crime.