Chapter VIII:Protective Services 1400- PURPOSE AND PHILOSOPHY

V. A BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES

In 1874, in New York City, Mrs. Wheeler, a church volunteer, became aware of an eight year old indentured servant girl named Mary Ellen, who was being mistreated by her father and stepmother. Mrs. Wheeler's attempts to get protection for Mary Ellen were initially unsuccessful. This was due to the fact that the laws established for the protection of children at that time were not systematically enforced. Finally, Mrs. Wheeler was able to get some action from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In 1875, its Director, Henry Bergh, helped found the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children because so many maltreated children were being referred to this Society.

By the early part of the twentieth century, society began to recognize children as people who had the right to protection. Orphanages and adoption programs were established throughout the United States. Initially, all efforts to protect children were instituted by private organizations. Children received little governmental attention of any kind.

In the United States, the first White House Conference on Children was held in 1909. In 1917, Congress passed the Child Labor Law. In 1935, the Social Security Act was passed. This Act contained several sections that addressed the welfare of children. During the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, there was a public movement to better the conditions of minorities, women, and children. During this time child abuse was identified as a separate issue that should not be confused with children who were in need because their caretakers lacked the means of providing for their basic needs. As a result, child abuse reporting laws were enacted in all states. In 1980 Public Law 96-272, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act established the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance programs with the Social Security Act. The requirements of P.L. 96-272 had ramifications for all of children's services, including Child Protective Services, especially in the establishment of Title IV-B funding for Child Welfare Services. In 1993, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act extended the range of children's services to include family preservation and family support services. These services were designed to strengthen and support families and children in their own homes.

P.L. 96-272 established the requirements of "reasonable efforts" to maintain the child in the home or to reunify children removed from their families. Since the law did not adequately define "reasonable efforts," agencies sometimes continued efforts to reunify children with their families of origin long after it was reasonable to stop. This resulted in the very outcome that P.L. 96-272 was intended to correct: foster care drift. In other situations, children were left in family situations that were highly volatile, resulting in further injury or death.

In 1994, the Congress passed the Multiethnic Placement Act (MEPA) which was later amended by a section of the 1996 Small Business Job Protection Act, section 1808, known as IEPA, the Interethnic Adoptions Provisions. This act was intended to assure that permanence through adoptive placement was neither denied nor delayed on the basis of the race, color or national origin of the prospective foster/adoptive parent or the child.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (P.L. 105-89) is the first broad-based child welfare reform legislation passed since P.L. 96-272. The legislation seeks to provide States with incentives to achieve the original goals of P.L. 96-272: safety, permanency, and child and family well being. The law clarified some of the “reasonable efforts” language of P.L. 96-272. DSS is required to make reasonable efforts to maintain the child in the home if the child’s safety can be assured. If the child is removed from the home, DSS is required to make reasonable efforts to reunify the child with the family from which s/he was removed, unless the court determines that reunification efforts are not required. The law specifies some general and specific conditions in which the court can immediately relieve the agency of reunification efforts. If reunification efforts are discontinued by the court, the DSS must demonstrate reasonable efforts to locate a permanent home for the child throughout the time the child is in agency custody until permanent custody or guardianship is awarded or the Decree of Adoption is final.

All NC General Statutes can be accessed on the General Assembly website http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/Statutes/Statutes.asp. Chapter VIII of the Children’s Services Manual outlines the requirements and policy guidance associated with the delivery of Child Protective Services.