The Children's Bureau Legacy: Ensuring the Right to Childhood

The Children’s Bureau Legacy ENSURING THE RIGHT TO CHILDHOOD The Children’s Bureau Legacy: Ensuring the Right to Childhood Published by the Children’s Bureau, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services This book is dedicated to the thousands of child welfare workers across the Nation who work tirelessly to improve the lives of children and families. Public Domain URL: http://cb100.acf.hhs.gov/CB_ebook For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402-0001 Available in these eBook file formats: ePub ISBN: 9780160917226 MyiLibrary ISBN: 9780160917240 PDF ISBN: 9780160917257 For more information about the Children’s Bureau, visit http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb. For more on Children’s Bureau history, visit https://cb100.acf.hhs.gov. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau Contents Foreword Chapter 1: America’s Conscience Gives Birth to the Children’s Bureau Chapter 2: Saving Babies and Restoring Childhood (1912–1929) Chapter 3: The Great Depression and Social Security (1930–1939) Chapter 4: Wartime and Recovery (1940–1956) Chapter 5: A Growing Government Shrinks the Children’s Bureau (1957–1973) Chapter 6: Sharpening the Focus on Child Welfare (1974–1992) Chapter 7: Partnering With Families and Working to Improve Outcomes (1993–2012) Afterword Acknowledgments Foreword On April 9, 1912, the U.S. Children’s Bureau became the first national government agency in the world to focus solely on the needs of children. During the past 100 years, the Children’s Bureau has played a critical role in addressing vital issues affecting families—from reducing infant mortality and eradicating child labor, to preventing child maltreatment and promoting permanency for children and youth. The Bureau’s tasks were originally limited to investigation and reporting, and it fulfilled this responsibility valiantly. Early research and data collection efforts shed much-needed light on the incidence and causes of infant and maternal mortality as well as treacherous conditions for children working in mines, fields, and factories. However, the Bureau’s responsibilities quickly grew beyond its original mandate. In the following decades, the Bureau was called upon to administer groundbreak- ing public-health programs and some of the Nation’s earliest social service grant programs. It also developed and promoted forward-thinking standards and model legislation in areas such as the operation of maternity and foster homes, juvenile court procedures, provision of day care, and adoption. In all of these activities, then as now, the Bureau worked to forge strong partnerships with States and Tribes, advocacy groups, and nationally recognized experts to help guide and support its efforts. Bureau initiatives have laid the foundation for a multitude of today’s Federal programs for children and families. Some of these, having outgrown the resources of a single bureau, live on within other agencies across the Federal Government, including the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Family Assistance, Administration on Develop- mental Disabilities, Child Care Bureau, and Family and Youth Services Bureau. Programs focused on child abuse and neglect, foster care, and adoption are still administered by today’s Children’s Bureau. These carry on the Bureau’s longstand- ing traditions of: Strengthening families. As early as 1919, child welfare standards recognized the importance of keeping children in their own homes whenever possible. Since then, the Children’s Bureau has worked to preserve and strengthen families— through advocacy for “mothers’ aid” programs in the 1910s and 1920s, support for homemaker and day care services to bolster struggling families in the 1950s, and today’s in-home services grant programs and community-based child abuse and neglect prevention efforts. Fostering child well-being. The Children’s Bureau’s emphasis on “the whole child” has ensured that our programs address multiple aspects of well-being (e.g., health, educational, emotional and social development). Throughout our history, physical-health programs have included PKU diagnosis and treatment to pre- vent mental retardation, vaccination initiatives, and comprehensive medical and dental care for urban children. Beginning as early as World War II, however, Bureau programs and publications recognized that children’s emotional well-being was as important as their physical wellness. Today, this focus on the whole child con- tinues, evidenced by the Bureau’s support for improved health and educational services for children in foster care. Supporting positive youth development. Taking an interest in juvenile delinquency from its earliest days, the Bureau was quick to look beyond court procedures and treatment to the causes and prevention of delinquency. During the Great Depression, for example, Bureau staff documented difficulties facing older youth and advocated for special work and training opportunities. In the 1960s, the Bu- reau’s new Youth Development Unit created publications and further expanded programs for youth. Today’s Children’s Bureau promotes positive opportunities for youth through our National Resource Center for Youth Development and grants supporting independent living services for those in foster care, among others. Promoting permanent homes for children. Under the Children’s Bureau’s lead- ership, the child welfare field has evolved considerably from the days of orphan trains, orphanages, and “black market babies.” From its earliest days, advocating for family foster care rather than institutions for dependent and neglected children, the Bureau has done much to advance the standard of care. More recently, our efforts have focused on encouraging recruitment of foster and adoptive families, increasing permanency options (including subsidized guardianship and kin- ship care), enhancing professional training for child welfare workers, and moving children to permanency more quickly with adoption subsidies and incentives. As you will see in the following chapters, although today’s Children’s Bureau has a narrower scope than the Bureau of 1912, the child welfare work at our core is deeply informed by our earlier work in related disciplines. Everything we do today builds on what has come before, and we are delighted to share our history with you in these pages. Of course, none of our achievements would have been possible without the involve- ment of countless partners, past and present, who work together in myriad ways to support our Nation’s children, youth, and families. Thank you for all you do. Sincerely, /s/ Joseph J. Bock Acting Associate Commissioner Children’s Bureau Early poster urging parents to register their newborn Chapter 1 babies (Maternal and Child Health Library) Chapter 1 America’s Conscience Gives Birth to the Children’s Bureau Introduction Today, the Children’s Bureau is just one branch of a collaborative network of Federal agencies attending to the needs of American children. This group works together to support States and local communities in their efforts to safeguard the physical and mental health of mothers and their infants, ensure every child’s right to an appropriate education, shelter children and youth from unsafe and un- healthy labor practices, reduce juvenile delinquency, protect children from abuse and neglect, and find permanent families for those who cannot safely return to their own homes. Just 100 years earlier, when the Bureau was established, the picture for children was quite different. Children of the early 1900s were born into a world that threatened their very existence. High infant mortality rates, inadequate health care, back-breaking labor, and routine institutionalization were the norm for many children, particularly those in working-class, minority, and immigrant families. Despite these dire conditions, not a single agency of the Federal Government was tasked with speaking up for children’s needs and rights. Yet turn-of-the-century children were not entirely without advocates. Women of the growing middle class, inspired by a new, idealized view of childhood, were beginning to organize the country’s first “baby saving” or “child saving” efforts. In keeping with the Progressive Era’s emphasis on government as a solution for social ills, the idea of a Federal bureau devoted to child well-being soon gained popularity among these women’s groups and other social reformers. After a 6-year legislative battle led by the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), Congress established the U.S. Children’s Bureau in 1912, the first Federal agency to “investigate and report … upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children.” Industrial Revolution: A Mixed Bag for Children At the end of the 19th century, large numbers of families left small farms and family-owned businesses for urban areas, where they took work in corporations and factories. This Industrial Revolution led to an increasingly stark division be- tween the upper/middle and working classes—one that was particularly poignant in the lives of children. In the new middle-class families, fathers went to work, leaving mothers home to raise the children. For the first time, large numbers of children were freed from responsibility to contribute to the family’s survival through their work and chores. With large families no longer an economic necessity, family sizes shrunk; children, fewer in number, seemed more precious. These conditions led to a growing sentimentality toward family life among the middle and upper classes. Home became idealized as a shelter from the outside world. Fam- ilies were more affectionate, directing more love and attention toward children. Childhood came to be seen as a uniquely innocent time, one that should be devoted to play and education. Chil- dren’s literature, toys, and published information about child-rearing all became more prevalent. The advent of modern A prosperous family enjoys a quiet evening at home, ca.

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