[background noises] [inaudible conversations] [background noises] the committee will come back to order. I now recognize mr. Buchanan from florida. Think it mr. Chairman appreciate the opportunity we also want to thank our witnesses by note ms. Hilton a lot of other offices on the helper you are relentless grandfather 10 children nine and under. I read the country is made up of 25 are kids. They make up one 100 the future so that your work and the Committee Work is huge. I just ask you what i think i tu been involved with nine different states the potential impacts and we can help you and others get the best return for that tax a pair have the biggest impact in terms of the kids in the country. To push in one direction or another. You would be a couple of big things we can make a big difference to weigh in on . Thank you so much. I appreciate your kind words and i appreciate your question. I work at the federal and state level to enact change. At the federal level will be reauthorized and Data Collection. To outlaw abusive practices like restraint and seclusion by a single requirement with an unannounced visit. An increase of private communication with families and child so they can report abuse if it is occurring. All of this helps reforming facilities and i will not stop until all use are safe. Thank you. Let me ask you youve been involved for a lot of years. As you look out there or what more can we weigh in . I mentioned her biggest takeaways for us today in terms of policies or practices or things it made a difference in various states and here in washington. The big thing we can do is invest in the alternatives to what we know is not good for children. Which is residential treatment when it is unnecessary. We need to start investing and n keeping Families Together. For the relatively small number of children who do need to be removed and willing to invest in family which includes kinship caregivers and non kin foster care. Ms. Peterson you have an incredible story. All of your do. You said you had a mentor. You must have at other people who were supportive that made a difference in your life along the way. How does your faith make a difference in you getting through this process . I think my faith gives me purpose to continue. So many youth in foster care struggle with muzzle health issues. Faith is not ala bandaid that slaps on and heals all. I do believe faith gives me purpose to continue and to npersevere when might Mental Health has been hard. When the trauma comes back and when theects of foster care play out in adulthood. I think a continuous purposes what myy faith offers me. Thank you kneeled back. Irmr. Doggett. Thank you,y, mr. Chairman. Certainly the storage of toll today are compelling and they focus new attention on this problem. The work youre doing is advocates the work youre doing is very touching unfortunately the stories you are telling may be unique. Theyre not new to this committee. What we will do about them. What kind of resources we will devote to solving problems the committee has left unsolved in the past. So much of the abuse i believe results primarily from the failure of states like my home state of texas to provide either Adequate Funding or appropriate oversight and enforcement of the foster care system. Residentialreatment facility and other youth based settings. Texas has a truly disgraceful distinctionld the highest ratesf neglect fallacies. Children die because estate is negligent but little oversight in texas today is mostly the result of United States district judge janice jack determined obstruction of the Abbott Administration in the perry administration. For over a decade judge jacked is penalized texas reviling the Constitutional Rights should be free from unreasonable risk of harm. Thanks to continue interference by the fifth circuit who is responsible for so many wrong decisions has been a more limited than she would have liked them to be told texas accountable for a week and time restrictions again and again. Appointed Court Monitors have reported little improvement in the foster care citizen. Ongoing litigation and supervision for earlier this year she ordered 100,000 per day fine against the state of texas for routinely neglecting and respond to allegations with neglect. One outrageous examplele identified during a complaint during this past a staff of accused of raping a young girl under his care for a residential facility. The girl has remained exposed to the worker for over a year until she was dumped into an emergency room alone with her jaw broken into places. That keeps reoccurring these events when states fail to do the job. Arrest with the states come this committee could do much more. When i personally served about a decade ago was then called the Human Resource subcommittee. I strongly advocated for much stronger federal funding for the safety of the children Foster Parents need more support particularly when caring for the special needs ofhe children ande must strengthen our caseworker workforce to increase the visits and these council. Ultimately robust investments were approved in the community. The long tradition to insist any improvements in the foster care system. Other children are the w jurisdiction of the Human Resourceen subcommittee. Even a proposal advance would not raise taxes but simply have required the filing of the tax form for alimony payments generated 2 billion to protect our children was rejected for the state of texas ultimately obstructed the approach was later advanced. We know in more recent times states because of pandemic funding we provided have done some Creative Things in st. Petersburg, florida, youth opportunity grants for youth are aging out. At madison, wisconsin more housing for foster children. I would like to ask with limited resources with the battle we will have over them again with that many things you and the w other witnesses have identified where it can we do the most good with the most amount of money thats going to be available . Thank you for the question, congressman. Youre asking a central question for this committee which is how to turn around a system and decline or not functioning without investing and the alternatives to what yourema doing now . It is impossible to dismantle one part of the system without at the same time increasing the supply of alternatives. You mentioned two areas of incredible need for investment. One is that workforce but nothing can be done without quality workforce. Every reform that you want to see requires we have a strong workforce. As part of the strong workforce must include Foster Parents. Kin and non kin Foster Parents. One of the outcomes most critical children is stability and care. It is not good to remove a child. We should be doing much more to prevent it. When a child is placed in a foster home and they have stability of the outcomes we care about are better. So how do we support kin and non kin fosterr parents to give kids that stability . Thank you, thank you to all the witnesses and he yelled back. Thank you, mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman certainly thank you to our entireel panel for compelling perspectives. They experience insights that you bring. This could very well be one of the most important hearings we have for a long time. I was honored to chair the hum reurce subcommittee that was just mtioned. We were able to complete the work on the bipartisan act. In 2018. Its been a while already. Even though we did that i think it is important to note when it comes to Child Welfare we have not done enough. I would argue wavent done anything in many respects since in many ofar theldren currently in foster care were even born. So theres much we need to do. Certainly respect and pointing out the need to listen to those of the lived experience and im, very happy to introduce as my colleague and representative gwen moore that youth and Family Engagement and Child Welfare act. Just introduce that this week. This is something that i think is part of the solution of moving forward and certainly appreciate i think a bipartisan approach on that and a bipartisan hearing such as we are having right now. Mrs. Peterson, i really appreciate you sharing your perspectives. Search and let your reflection on your faith basedas perspectie as it is. Nc and you can speak from your lived experience. We want to empower more use to give us their perspective. It is important that we at the federal level of government do not become overly prescriptive for State Government. Rather than having expectations of doing positive things and replicating that. Perhaps one state to another. I am just wondering if you could reflect a little bit on how we have foster care judgment kids in foster care. Adolescence who then age out. Given the fact i believe our country is more opportunity than any other country in the world it iss inexcusable that we have foster care youth aging out and not linking with that opportunity that we know exist across america. We are not linking up here. What do you think we can do too have better results shall we say . Thank you for your work on this policy. One of the things that i do in my work as i take former foster youth and youth have come from hard places on trips with me from a public speaker as i mentioned. I bring them to speaking engagements with me. I believe they need to see other people who have had backgrounds like them best successful. Foster care is so isolating. These kids need more opportunities. They need more exposure. The need to see other people growing up like them do what they could possibly do. They need to see what is anpossible be on their experiene and care and have relationships in the process form those relationships. Okay, thank you. I am wondering if you could perhaps add some perspective here as well. Ed what is most appropriate for the federal level to go too far as it way too often happens. And yet have the expectation states produce positive results. F young people who age out of care come in as teenagerses. We have this feeling that they come in as a babies and they spend long periods of time in care, but thats not actually true. And so we have adolescents coming into care, and many of them are not coming in for abuse and neglect. Theyre coming because of conflicts with parents, theyre coming in because parents are desperate if to find services and supports to meet that Young Persons needs. And so the best way the best way to prevent children from never aging out is to prevent themhe from ever coming into care and that is central to what title iv is trying to do. On the opposite end of the many states have that option and federal law. Unfortunately many have not ntaken up that option and even n states that have, a small percentage of young people decide to stay in care and events because foster care doesnt sound all that good so how do we create an option for young people still in foster care but treats them like settles rather than children. Is there a state that stands out to you as best practices in that state. Othis may be the best example f the wonderful people throughout all of our district that arewo doing great work that is incredibly beneficial. A significant federal funding to target the root causes of the mistreatment of children and provide Critical Services to help kids and families in need. These funds help states provide a lifeline to kids and those that have experienced or are in imminent risk of experiencing foster care problems and to help supportmm communitybased servis for struggling families from hiring and training caseworkers and improving Family Court Services this makes a huge difference in the lives of children. According to the california is, which is the answer to your question according to the legislative analyst in california, the average monthly caseload for our states Child Welfare system is overwhelming. Everything from in person investigations, maintenance support, Reunification Services and permanent placement. In my district, theres over 1200 children currently living in foster care and 800 families involved in Dependency Court cases and many counties are struggling to find bids and services for transition age youth. So i look forward to this reauthorization in a bipartisan way so we can provide the Critical Resources for our most at risk constituents. I want to thank you for your compelling and courageous testimony and the work youve been doing not only to highlight the problems that you face but the problems that many others face on a daytoday basis is to rutledge bullying and we need to do everything we can to change that. What do you think this committee can do in our reauthorization legislation that would best help not only making the facilities more transparent but ensuring that if children are at these facilities they receive the proper care and services that they need. Thank you so much. I appreciate what you just said. And i think its important for there to be oversight and regulation people need to know they are being watched and what i experience in these places was inhumane and do something that would affect me for the rest of my life and after speaking to thousands of survivors whove been through these same experiences i think its important to listen to survivors because we have the lived experience and i just want to say again im grateful to be sitting here in front of all of you who could help make a differencece in so many childres lives and i think its just continuing to do that to pass this. You mentioned the y capacity issue. I cant imagine being satisfactory and anybody else whos and certainly not in mine. What do we need to do to increase that capacity. It seems we just lost a great facility in my district and that was not enough. Lets be clear the testimony of those lived experiences doesnt move you the research is clear children do best in families, clearly. There will always be the need for children to have different forms of care. That means there will be children going into foster care. It also means it will require a shortterm intervention that may be residential. Its not a replacement or a place for each child to stay for a long time. But we need those very limited facilities to be exceptionally highquality, to be therapeutic. The purpose of that intervention is for the child to go home and succeed in a family. This is about a success for these kids. Mr. Buchanan was spot on when he said this is the future. Firstst of all, i first read about yourr story in vanity fair. I dont usually read that magazine. My wife does. She said youve got to read this story and you wont believe what happened to her. Your presence here, believe me we had a lot of briefings that we dont this get this kind of crowd and we dont get that many people that come in from the media and want to get pictures. You telling what happened to you is incredible and opens up a whole new vision for the rest of us to say she has the courage to stand up and talk about this and relate what she went to and we should look at our own lives and communities and to say why he also cant we look at that and make sure. I cant tell you how much you were able to do and how you did it and i know it was selfless but its had a great impact. Thank you so much. Thank you. I have tears in my eyes. Tell your wife think you so much as well. It is an honor and a pleasure to be able to do this for the children that have no voice and to be the hero that i needed when i was a little girl terrified in these places. Theres thousands of children in these places right now and for so many years, nobody has been believed or listened to. So i feel that may be god put me through this and gave me this special gift so one day i could use it to help others not go through what i did and turn my pain into a purpose. Thank you all for coming today and everyonene because this is o important for the world to know whats happening and the children there to know we are all here today to help make a difference in their lives. I am one of five and we were blessed with four children and ten grandchildren and there is nothing in the world more valuable to us than those kids, so thank you for your work youre advocating for. I think it is the worst thing that could happen to america. Weve been so blessed for so long and sometimes take it for granted we are always going to be that way. You cannot, and every night we pray that our kids and grandkids will have a future. Why would the story that you have coming out of the college that you have come from if people dont want to hear your story because you are talking about the force of faith in your life that actually does absolutely transformed it i think your story is incredibly and i want to thank you for being here. W i dont understand why its taken this long to get to this point glory to god for what youve done in my life and i have felt t at times that my voe has not been welcomed because of my faith and i felt at times ive been pushed out of spaces that look a lot like this because i love jesus and i want to tell people about him. James 127 calls christians to secure for the infant and the widow and urges us to not show favoritism when a poor man comes to our home so we are given the command to care and we are given the instruction to not show favoritism and it says we mustan put them in the same place that we would aid at this is what we are supposed to do so as the childd ages out like i did, communities need to step up like minded and i urge anyone listening to this communitybased organizations,s, people of faith, if there is a kid that you know in foster care no matter what theyve been in, believe in them as much as you what your own child, fill the rules they are missing out. My community isnt perfect. They didnt fill every aspect a mother infant child shed and they will never be able to make up for what i did not have. We need more communities who will open their doors and living rooms and go out of their ways for kids and care. Thank you for being here. And of my colleagues should be on this panel ive got to tell you ive been with his family and kids and its been a difference thank you so much. All of those in the 98, 99, there is no. Thank you for being here. I want to thank the panelists as well for your insight today. I want to associate my remarks with mr. Neil yet focus a little bit on Socia