Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) in urging the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to speed up their implementation timeline for new reporting requirements that cover at-risk children in foster care.
“Children in the foster care system remain some of the most vulnerable to Adverse Childhood Experiences such as neglect and abuse as well as human trafficking and other forms of exploitation, and youth who runaway are at unique risk. By expediting the implementation of the new AFCARS data and therefore the collation and distribution of data, lawmakers and child welfare providers will be able to respond to and care for foster youth,” the lawmakers wrote.
The new guidelines require the ACF to report all placement settings a child has experienced during their time in foster care, including children designated as “runaway” and a new designation for “whereabouts unknown,” to better capture the range of placement settings. Doing so will help better determine how common runaway and missing foster youth are.
“We are glad to see this change in data collection of foster youth experiences, and we strongly suggest you accelerate the update as quickly as you can to the extent possible and relay the new data to Congress once the system is up and running. Our children are our future, our shared interest, and we have an obligation to provide them the best chance possible to exact their full potential,” the lawmakers concluded.
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