PROMOTING ADOPTION AND OTHER PERMANENT PLACEMENTS HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES OF THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JULY 20, 1999 Serial 106±39 Printed for the use of the Committee on Ways and Means ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 65±697 CC WASHINGTON : 2000 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 VerDate 20-JUL-2000 08:56 Sep 11, 2000 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 K:\HEARINGS\65697.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS BILL ARCHER, Texas, Chairman PHILIP M. CRANE, Illinois CHARLES B. RANGEL, New York BILL THOMAS, California FORTNEY PETE STARK, California E. CLAY SHAW, JR., Florida ROBERT T. MATSUI, California NANCY L. JOHNSON, Connecticut WILLIAM J. COYNE, Pennsylvania AMO HOUGHTON, New York SANDER M. LEVIN, Michigan WALLY HERGER, California BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JIM MCCRERY, Louisiana JIM MCDERMOTT, Washington DAVE CAMP, Michigan GERALD D. KLECZKA, Wisconsin JIM RAMSTAD, Minnesota JOHN LEWIS, Georgia JIM NUSSLE, Iowa RICHARD E. NEAL, Massachusetts SAM JOHNSON, Texas MICHAEL R. MCNULTY, New York JENNIFER DUNN, Washington WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON, Louisiana MAC COLLINS, Georgia JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee ROB PORTMAN, Ohio XAVIER BECERRA, California PHILIP S. ENGLISH, Pennsylvania KAREN L. THURMAN, Florida WES WATKINS, Oklahoma LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas J.D. HAYWORTH, Arizona JERRY WELLER, Illinois KENNY HULSHOF, Missouri SCOTT MCINNIS, Colorado RON LEWIS, Kentucky MARK FOLEY, Florida A.L. SINGLETON, Chief of Staff JANICE MAYS, Minority Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES NANCY L. JOHNSON, Connecticut, Chairman PHILIP S. ENGLISH, Pennsylvania BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland WES WATKINS, Oklahoma FORTNEY PETE STARK, California RON LEWIS, Kentucky ROBERT T. MATSUI, California MARK FOLEY, Florida WILLIAM J. COYNE, Pennsylvania SCOTT MCINNIS, Colorado WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON, Louisiana JIM MCCRERY, Louisiana DAVE CAMP, Michigan Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records of the Committee on Ways and Means are also published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occur- rences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process is further refined. (II) VerDate 20-JUL-2000 08:56 Sep 11, 2000 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 K:\HEARINGS\65697.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 C O N T E N T S Page Advisory of July 13, 1999, announcing the hearing .............................................. 2 WITNESSES Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, Karen Spar, Specialist in Social Legislation, Domestic Social Policy Division ...................................... 8 Bliley, Hon. Tom, a Representative in Congress from the State of Virginia ...... 52 Children's Village, Nan Dale .................................................................................. 39 International Center for Residential Education, Heidi Goldsmith ...................... 13 Lewis, Hon. Ron, a Representative in Congress from the State of Kentucky .... 5 McKenzie, Richard B., University of California, Irvine ........................................ 20 North American Council on Adoptable Children, (NACAC), Joe Kroll ............... 35 Smyth, John, Maryville Academy ........................................................................... 48 SUBMISSION FOR THE RECORD Smith, Hon. Christopher H., a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey ....................................................................................................... 59 (III) VerDate 20-JUL-2000 08:56 Sep 11, 2000 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 K:\HEARINGS\65697.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 VerDate 20-JUL-2000 08:56 Sep 11, 2000 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 K:\HEARINGS\65697.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 PROMOTING ADOPTION AND OTHER PERMANENT PLACEMENTS TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1999 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:10 a.m., in room B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Nancy L. Johnson (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. [The advisory announcing the hearing follows:] (1) VerDate 20-JUL-2000 08:56 Sep 11, 2000 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 K:\HEARINGS\65697.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 2 ADVISORY FROM THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (202) 225±1025 July 13, 1999 No. HR±9 Johnson Announces Hearing on Promoting Adoption and Other Permanent Placements Congresswoman Nancy L. Johnson (R±CT), Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Sub- committee will hold a hearing on adoption and other permanent placements. The hearing will take place on Tuesday, July 20, 1999, in room B±318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 a.m. In view of the limited time available to hear witnesses, oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include Members of Con- gress, an adoption specialist from the Congressional Research Service, children's ad- vocates, and program administrators. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing. BACKGROUND: In 1997, Congress passed major adoption reform legislation, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (P.L. 105±89 ). Among other innovations, the 1997 law provided States with more flexibility to decide the particular circumstances under which reasonable efforts to reunify families could be terminated, required States to file a petition to terminate parental rights after the child had been in State custody for 15 months (with certain exceptions), and provided cash incentive payments for increasing the number of adoptions of children in foster care. The Subcommittee has been conducting regular oversight hearings of adoption and associated issues to track several issues including whether the new Federal requirements are being ag- gressively implemented by States and whether adoption rates are climbing. Several Members of the House and Senate have introduced legislation to encourage adop- tion. In announcing the hearing, Chairman Johnson stated: ``There is universal agree- ment that adoption is the preferred living arrangement for children who cannot live with their biological parents, but, many experts and administrators in the field of child protection are telling us that some children need living arrangements other than adoption or family-based foster care. We are looking forward to hearing both sides of this debate and to examine the strengths and weaknesses of these alter- native living arrangements.'' FOCUS OF THE HEARING: One focus of the hearing is to provide Members with an opportunity to explain their proposed legislation and to provide an opportunity to determine what action might be appropriate on the various bills. A second issue the Subcommittee intends to explore is what long-term living arrangements States are now making for chil- dren who are not in family-based foster care and for whom adoption is not planned. We are especially interested in hearing about group homes and residential edu- cation arrangements. The goal of this part of the hearing will be to learn about how these institutions operate, the types of children who are in residence, how long chil- dren stay, and whether there is information about their safety, permanency, and well-being. DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS: Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit six (6) single-spaced copies of their statement, VerDate 20-JUL-2000 08:56 Sep 11, 2000 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 K:\HEARINGS\65697.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 3 along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect 5.1 format, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Tuesday, August 3, 1999, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their state- ments distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may de- liver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Human Re- sources office, room B-317 Rayburn House Office Building, by close of business the day before the hearing. FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS: Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee. 1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be submitted on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette WordPerfect 5.1 format, typed in single