GAO finds states lag in child-welfare data collection

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Despite spending $2.4 billion over nine years, many states still have not gotten their child-welfare tracking systems online, a government watchdog agency recently concluded in a report to Congress.

"Most states continue to face challenges providing complete, accurate and consistent data" about child abuse and neglect, foster care and adoption, the General Accounting Office said in a report released last week.

Inefficient data tracking puts the 500,000 children in foster care at even greater risk, two congressional leaders said in an Aug. 11 letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.

"Are there many things more important than coming to the rescue of a vulnerable child before another tragedy occurs?" wrote House Majority Leader Tom Delay, Texas Republican, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican.

The lawmakers asked HHS to respond to the GAO report by Sept. 30. They also urged HHS to reconsider its policies about penalizing states with sloppy child-welfare records. HHS had assigned penalties to states, but rescinded them in January 2002, the GAO noted.

The child-welfare system is a sprawling network of courts, state and local agencies, group and foster-care homes, and therapeutic centers, which have the mission of sheltering and protecting children when their families cannot or will not care for them.

While some local systems work well, others routinely make headlines for losing children, assigning them to cruel caretakers, keeping them in the system too long or returning them to abusive families.

In 1994, to collect timely, accurate information about children in foster care, Congress asked states to create a Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. Since then, Congress has provided some $1.3 billion while states spent $1.1 billion.

In 1995, Congress began requiring states to provide child-welfare data to HHS.

The GAO found that five states, including West Virginia, now have a complete Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. Twenty-four states -- including Virginia and the District -- have the system operational. Another 18 states, including Maryland, are in the process of creating the system. Four states -- Hawaii, North Carolina, North Dakota and Vermont -- are not immediately pursuing such a system because of funding or other reasons.

Many states with an operational system told the GAO it has benefited children by shortening their time in the system and making it less likely they will be abused if they are returned home.

Having a computerized data system also improves case management, payments to caregivers and timeliness of abuse and neglect investigations, the GAO found.

However, many states cited problems with finding good technology, training overworked social workers and responding to confusing federal reporting rules.

In lengthy comments included in the GAO report, Wade F. Horn, HHS assistant secretary for children and families, said that "staff turnover" in child-welfare agencies was an overlooked but significant reason for poor data quality.

HHS has been and continues to be dedicated to assisting states in their data collection, he said.