this will become immediately sent. at the end of the day the environment is going to suffer as a result. a lot of good lessons learned from approved the probably one of the most complex responses the coast guard has had to deal with. >> a freedom of information act lawsuit was recently filed to require that shall make public details of a state of their arctic drilling equipment. do you agree to should be made public, given the coast guard's mission to make the coast guard safe? ..

at some point come to stumble when i'm assembled leaders and you typed a lot about what is going to land in what is going to use. what can lose is for structure. all the service chiefs are grappling with this he dilemma. how do you modernize and made team for structure at the same time? 80,000, 31,000 of them are all volunteers, coast guard auxiliary. whatever you multiply by zero, you get zero. they provide millions of free man-hours sorting coast guard

missions that don't involve putting themselves at risk, mostly recreational boating community, but i can't come for structure. maybe make difficult decisions about operations do not cut appeared with always defined itself by love and statutory mission and some pages get rid of one of those missions. each one of those has a mundane line when you divest of omission, all you have at the end of the day is a smaller coast guard. 100 years ago was when the coast guard first came into being. the first commandant of the coast guard was under attack by the taft commission to strip away all of this in the fall of your authorities into the navy and realized it would cost the navy 40% more of what it costs at that point, the revenue cutter service to do with it it on a day-to-day basis. you are not going to find it and

many platforms are swiss army knives that cannot read in multiple domains including working side-by-side with the department of defense. people are the most critical asset that you may have to trim operations in you may have to slow down and acquisition as painful as it is you can recover from that. when you get rid of people it's difficult to bring back then absent a major contingent elected 9/11. my approach to her human resource capitalists to hold fast on the human resource capital we have an look at where there's opportunities for further growth in the cyberdomain. >> on climate change and how is it pricing a -- how is climate

change going to change the coast guard's job in the next few decades? >> that is a tough one. i used the open water verse ice cover water comparison. the clec expansion of open water. it is widely agreed that the water temperature is rising and sea level is rising. publishers going back in the phenomenon is to have more frequent and more severe typhoons. we are just clearing out a category to typhoon that just hit saipan. several assets here today. two years ago supertype said if the philippines with the highest ever recorded winds of nearly 200 miles an hour. if you imagine a tornado 60 miles across. if one of those hit the united states, we might be convinced of what is going on with the world climate today. rising temperature in a swatter

x enterprises as well. low-lying islands in the pacific islands are inundated with water. those are the challenges we need to look at. infrastructure built today is going to be around 100 years from now to factor in the rise of five seawater. an area that doesn't get attention as greenland. when you look at greenland as creatures and all common it is freshwater and it stinks. at the things that displays his former salt water to the surface. you've got cold case and you have this temperature gradient that usually causes more severe when it accelerates erosion, more isps released so you can't put this on a linear model. if you don't plan for that with the coastal infrastructure, but

when he did take those into account as we look at the challenges. you can't plan this and plan this in two, four or 60 windows of time. we need to think 10, 15 years out. it's very easy to delay the decision if it's not going to happen on my watch. am i watching it to make sure three commandants right now at the state attention to some of this. we are keeping a close eye on this. >> how much of navigable waters increased in the arctic? >> i wouldn't say it's increased. there's more activity appeared. it is running from the area and see to greenland carried over a thousand passengers next year through the northwest passage. there is no navigation up there.

as i said earlier, much of the area is 5% charger to go because 21st century standards. the charting void that is that there is of great concern is because it does fly pentacle does fly pinnacle. they receive not named after the coast guard because they found one and rises 10,000 feet. they found that, but that's a big concern right now is to look at charting common navigation. we also look at a traffic separation scheme and buried straight to assure you don't have collisions at sea as well. >> a couple similar questions. should the navy take possession of the coast guard skyscrapers, what would you say to giving up the mission, also how important is said to have more than just a few icebreakers modernize what

you have given russia's proliferation of military assets in the arctic region now. how is the arctic mission changing given russia's new build up? >> we may probably once a week see an attack. but the chairman and the other service chiefs and each year we have staff for fighters and like the discussions about the art and i am confident admiral greener does not want a nice break emission. what is the need to do in the 21st century? it needs to break ice. russia is militarizing the arctic in an area of access denial. if elected an icebreaker into the future, make sure you reserve power to put the suns in a nice environment to protect u.s. sovereignty and those are

the discussions we are having. not to pass this to one or the other. look at the future requirements of the heavy icebreaker. it's got to do a multitude of things. make sure that the modularity be used as an instrument. >> another part of the world of the south china sea. some of the coast never called this a success story. if you hear a lot about the asia-pacific, what specifically is the coast guard to locate in its limited resources, given its ranking budget, given it's trying to rob peter to pay paul. what is the role in the diplomacy in south china sea and anything else in that region?

>> next month i will be in the philippines. i will be in vietnam and ms. x-ray discussion five other nations including russia, including china, including japan, korea, canada will be at the table as well. china has created a coast guard was seagoing services and others for appeared for the services come under the auspices of the china coast guard. a lot of discussion we should deploy coast guard cutters to the eastern south china sea. our u.s. policy right now is non-intervention. now you've caught the bus. what do you do with it? if i send one ship over there, china can send to my one and japan can send six to one. a numbers game i'll never win. the one ship over there to me i look at the real opportunity cost. last fall we rode out a strategy

as the western hemisphere. the uss kaufman, the last of them to be decommissioned but with a perry class doing the lion's share of the lot of this drug interdiction activity we've seen in the western hemisphere with coast guard law-enforcement teams embarked on those. the navy is rebalancing some trade-offs being made as well. if they are vacating one region, i need to make sure i double down on the voip created by the navy. the opportunity cost is significant if i send one ship to the eastern south china sea. the dog that catches the pass, what is our policy going forward and avoid that have left behind as well. we have written a cooperative strategy for the 21st century navy, coast guard marine corps. i look at the coast guard is feeling some of those vacuum spots created as a navy

rebalances, where can the coast guard fill those requirements as a seagoing surveys? >> has the coast guard has a strong ability to share resources in real times with multiple homeland security part is that customs and border patrol another spirit if not, what does help improve? >> we've gotten great strides for the department and 1986 that goldwater-nichols came to the realization we need to witness. we do not have that goldwater-nichols act for the interagency partners. but we do have today is three task force. joint task force east is primarily maritime, west is at the southwest border and one for investigations committee until piece of days. each of the task forces have coast guard, cbp and immigration and customs enforcement working

side-by-side. within the department of security looks at joint requirements across in this case the army, navy and air force of the department of homeland security. so one of our isr platforms his minutes are that we are using a dod at a price that the coast guard is the military member saying this really works. cbp is putting that and so were also looking at interoperability and commonality of systems makes it more affordable, parts more liable than you can also capitalize -underscore houses as well. we've come pretty far in a short time and dhs across various components. >> to ever see a time the coast guard returning to the department of defense? >> publicly not.

we can go title x which means we are military service but we also do title for it team. if you look in any campaign plan, there's probably some provision written into that bed may require law-enforcement authority in which the coast guard can bring to the table. we can just as easily do that on the fly as well. systems are inoperable and that's a key part by systems that can't speak with dod systems. our new platforms have openly called navy owned but fully and are operable with our navy and service brethren. >> when it comes to migration, do they support the policy and how do i've heard in cuba are

likely to affect the matters in the region. all that you draw your conclusions but we have a new response platforms and the expectation that a migration policy will change around christmas. didn't that that was a perception in cuba. we had a spike in migration. we were able to apprehend almost everyone of the both destined for the florida coastline but then it takes about five days to go through a screening process before the folks are brought back to cuba. within the last two weeks we had two migrants have shot themselves and then before we met in fact to the united states. another 4000 bleach on the ship and drank it. others will self mutilate to do

whatever it takes to get their feet dry in the united states. meanwhile crews are trying to safeguard what they're picking up more with the policy. bizarre people at risk and others at risk. when you look at our policy versus what is played out off the coast of africa, we are saving lives. many folks are in unseaworthy that might have been built around it but it's a humanitarian mission as well and will go back again. the policy does make a challenge for those trying to better their lives and for those doing enforcement to be able to safeguard that until we have a clear wife to be able to repatriate them. >> just a few seconds left before i have to buy the question. golfers present you with the national press club mug.

[applause] and no country noting we are the leading organization for professional journalists and free press worldwide, i will ask you one little question. i then that's going all the way this year? >> 1969, dog and i meant, duncan bennett, a late acquisition was the mvp of the world series. the names have changed a little bit. they have already had the tom seaver is commensurate to his name, names like to crime and others. they've pitching staff in hating and the commandant of the coast guard for crying out loud. so when i threw the opening pitch tomorrow, if tomorrow, if i carry one burner and a half

smashers are in the shin and is taken out for the next two weeks, [laughter] i wouldn't do that. as you know, the mets are caught up in the burning made-up scheme and they auctioned off a good part of the team. i go back to 1962 when they had no place to go but up. when you look at the coast guard, sometimes you can relate to the mets. you've got no place to go but up. you've got the mets destined for the world series and the coast guard doing the same thing. [applause] >> how about another round of applause for admiral. [applause] will see you back here hopefully august 12 with wife reverend

john, i'd like to thank the national press club staff and broadcast center for organizing today's event. if you'd like a copy of today's programmer to learn more about the national press club, please go to our website, www.press.work. thank you. we are adjourned. [applause] >> today, bacon and data security experts discuss the secure credit and debit card transactions in the u.s. we will be live at the event hosted by the protect my data organization starting at noon eastern here on c-span2.

>> what the terrorist group will direct the to put their message out on platforms that they know are accessed by the largest population possible, hundreds of thousands of people accessing the website and then bombarded with thousands and thousands of messages every day as propaganda. the messages run across the board. we are all familiar with the shocking images and its despicable what they show a public executions. they are also bombarded the same ideas with micro-targeted message is the same by advertisers do. they would show a handsome young actor and one video handing out candy to children and it will be trimmed by will be trained for

this will be trimmed by at the same way it might be for some other television show or a brand. they will show the terrorists of the gun on one hand back the other other hand he is holding a cat and other messages showed images of bucolic life here in the caliphate. so they will look to see whether or not that the large-scale bombardment of images can make it someone on the hook and then start to dangle the man. >> tv in prime time continues to votes on immigration.

>> what are their origins, what do they believe? all those questions are important and addressed them in the boat. what is more important in some ways because it something they can do something about is but is the u.s. policy regarding isis? why isn't working? are we doing were wrong or is there for to say there should be

a war against terrorists of. those are the questions and in some ways are the most important and will be the most useful. >> next come the senate finance committee hearing on the foster care program. committee members heard from state health and human services officials of former foster child and an advocate for parents on ways to reduce the need for foster care programs. this is 90 minutes. [inaudible conversations] >> the meeting will come to order. a proper frost one route home is the place when you have to go there, they have to take you in. unfortunately for far too many children are foster care system that type of home is not available. today the senate finance committee will hear testimony on alternatives that can reduce the

reliance on foster care group homes. i've been pleased to have worked on this community with ranking member widened. i enjoy working with him on everything. keep it. this is a bipartisan hearing. i appreciate senator wyden suffered to make it so. the basic premise of the hearing is simple. whenever possible, children should grow up in a home with their family. when problems arise, tim should be made to keep children safely at home. if the child cannot be kept safely at home effort should be made to place them with fit and willing relatives. children in need should only be placed in group homes for short periods of time. normally when i first took place them in a safe family setting have been exhausted. too many children in you spend years isolated and confined in foster care group homes. this past may at the committee

held a hearing on the need to safely reduce reliance on foster care group homes. we heard powerful testimony from former foster youth about her negative experiences in a foster care group home. the committee heard how expensive, and appropriate and timely gesture meant a place many times can be for many children and youths. i believe we should do what we can to reduce reliance on foster care group homes. a fourth one we should refuse to spend scarce taxpayer dollars to subsidize placement that results in negative outcomes. not only for children but other youth as well. as i sat in the past, no one would support allowing states to use federal taxpayer dollars to buy cigarettes for foster youth. in my view continuing to use taxpayer dollars to fund long-term placement in foster care group homes is just as disturbed to.

it is not some public policy to work to reduce reliance on group homes about addressing the need to support a family placement for children currently and there are frescoes one of these facilities. the purpose is to examine alternatives to foster care group homes. such alternatives in clute federal foster care funds for the purpose of providing services and interventions that results in allowing children to stay safely at home. currently the federal government does the highest proportion of the federal foster care funding to the least desirable outcome for her marble families and removal of a challenge from his or her home and placing them in stranger care for a foster care group homes. current federal foster care laws prohibit states from using certain federal funds to provide services that could ameliorate conditions in the family home.

some states like utah believe they can reduce the need for foster care if they use federal funds to provide front and back services to families. in 2011, chairman baucus and i had legislation that allowed the states to get a federal foster care dollar to provide the upfront services. today we hear from an official from my home state of utah now the flexibility has improved outcomes for children and families reducing reliance on foster care. we should extrapolate utah's innovative hallmarks initiative as a model for all states. when you ask a child whose been in foster care how we can best improve the current foster care system, often the answer will be you could have helped my mom so i did not have to go into foster care in the first place. when a child cannot remain safely at home are assisting the parents to maintain guardianship

is untenable, another alternative is to locate a fit and willing relatives for the child. in recent years congress has taken steps to increase these types of outcomes. for example, the landmark legislation increasing adoption after two dozen eight, congress allowed states to give federal reimbursement for certain kinship placements and under legislation in the last congress, states are not allowed to give federal incentives for increasing kinship placements. in other words, congress has signaled the states they kinship placements should be a priority, but challenges remain. we remain. we will hear about barriers to placement and suggestions they make the place is more prevalent. senator wyden is aiming to introduce legislation to allow funds to be used for services to help families stay safely

together. i look forward to working with him and members of the committee on legislation that would reduce reliance on foster care group homes and allow states to use federal foster care dollars for prevention services. i hope to have a committee markup of the legislation in the fall. this here it is part of a bipartisan process to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families and i hope the members listened carefully to the testimony and policy recommendations presented today. i will now turn to senator wyden for his remarks. thank you, mr. chairman. i want to take note of the fact that you, mr. chairman has spent decades, literally decades keeping child welfare issues bipartisan here in the united states senate and i commend you for that, look forward to building on the partnership. i know becky shipp has here and has carried the torch for many

years as well and once again the finance committee can work in a bipartisan area on this issue. mr. chairman and collects chairman and colleagues, this morning in america there's likely a single mom with two kids, multiple part-time jobs and one really big worry. she works long hours to provide for her family but even then it is a struggle to pay the bills and keep food on the table and because her work schedule changes week to week, she is forced to leave her children unattended at times. a neighbor might place a concerned call to child services. once that happens, social workers have to choose between two not very good options, breaking up the family or doing nothing at all to help and that has to change. whenever you ask anyone who's

been through the child welfare system about what could help them the most common of the answer is often, and i quote here, helping my mom, helping my dad, helping my family. but that is not in the cars and social workers have nothing to offer but foster care. today kids predominantly wind up in the foster care because of their families have liked that single mom are caught in this enormously desperate circumstances that lead to neglect. most youngsters imposter care aren't there because of physical or sexual abuse. maybe mom or dad needs help covering those for a month. substance abuse treatment, connections to childcare. oftentimes the yonkers and, uncle or grandparents could step up if they had a little bit of assistive. and my gender trend in every

single one of the avenues that to be explored before breaking the family apart. in fact, you might save resources in the long run without compromising safety. back in the late 1990s there was a big debate about what we are going to talk about this morning. the gentleman at the name of newt gingrich said that the answer here was to put the kids in the orphanages. i remember hearing that and remembered from gray panther days that a lot of the seniors and a lot of the churches they went to had been talking about how the grandparent might be able to step in, might be able to step in for a short period of time when their child, the parent, the second generation was having a little problem, out

of fort, substance abuse problem i learned in that older people, grandparents, aunts, uncles were an enormous untapped potential of ken that could make a big difference in terms of how we assist these troubled youngsters. back then in the 1990s they offered to kinship care act which set immediate relatives, aunts, uncles or grandparents who meet the necessary standards for caring for a child would have the first preference under law when it comes to caring for a niece or nephew or grandchild. in effect was the first federal law that had been enacted to promote kinship care. here we are in 2015 and an

opportunity as chairman hatch suggested and going even further to help youngsters thrive. when they fallen on hard times or start a waving states out of the old-fashioned federal system can produce results. my home state of oregon has a program and very pleased chuck chuck nyby is here. basically it is all about signaling that every child and every family may require a different type of support. the old two option system basically saying it is either foster care or nothing doesn't cut it and that mr. chuck nyby will talk about is how oregon has taken a more tailored approach to help families out. the finance committee is like the finance committee is like a doctrine of love and fear and i

think my colleagues will be interested in where oregon is headed. strong families mean strong kids. that's the bottom line it tomorrow introduce legislation that builds on the first bill of the 1990s and kinship care. a new proposal will be the family stability and kinship care act and the bill will make sure more states are in a position to adopt fresh strategies like oregon's then also provide more opportunity to tap the extraordinary potential of baird to grandparents, aunts, uncles and family members to step in the kinds of circumstances rather with the child may have one of two options that they don't care for. i will close by saying i want to make it clear that this is in no way a condemnation of foster care. the fact is we know kids for which foster care has been a

lifesaver. kids for whom foster care was a safe place where they can grow and thrive. what this is all about is creating as many good choices as we possibly can for youngsters to grow up in a safe, healthy environment means keeping families together. i will close by way of saying that i said at the outset that chairman hatch has put in decades trying to steer this child welfare debate and a bipartisan way. i commend them for it and i want the chairman and colleagues on both sides of the aisle to know if that an opportunity to rise against and i look forward to working with the chairman and all of you on it. >> thank you, senator biden. first we will hear from sander, in new york city. they've raised two sons who are

not who are now 20 and 18 years of age as we will hear experienced a safe tan problems and the foster care system was removed from the system for one and a half years due to behavioral issues. after much perseverance she was able to be reunited with her son who is now pursuing a degree in architecture at the new york city college of type allergy. this call it crosshairs of the child welfare organizing project. next-line here from rosalinda burton, a former foster from san diego, california. ms. burton went through 23 different placements in numerous school changes during her 12 years in foster care. now a 23 years old ms. burton enjoys working as a mental health worker at san pascual academy, a residential facility for foster youth san diego county. she is also currently attending

palomar community college where she will attain her bachelor's degree in continuing to work towards a masters in social work and/or policy. we will next hear from donna butts is served for 17 years generations united before taking the home of generations united. ms. donna butts served at the national organization on adolescent t., parent teen and prevention. she received her undergraduate degree and later graduated from stanford university from executive program for nonprofit leaders. she is the recipient of this house key leadership awards and has been recognized twice by the nonprofit times as one of the top 50 most harmful an influential nonprofit executives in the nation. i would now like to get a chance to introduce a third witness in

the chuck nyby is representing the great date of oregon. >> mr. chairman, thank you. i touched on is extremely important work on differential response is trying to make sure there was no one-size-fits-all approach for helping youngsters than they spend doing it for the department of human services for the past 13 years from caseworker to supervise their and now would be fair to say chuck nyby is the guy who implements a fresh strategy people are looking to you. prior to his work at the department of human services with the youth authority and eastern oregon university. i won't filibuster here but we have three oregon connections on the panel i'm not on the chart but ms. donna butts and i remember jack ostrovsky and his good work.

ms. butts has roots in oregon and the transplant for this somewhere. we kind of run the table at the end of the day. thank you, mr. chairman. >> last but certainly not least in pleased that we will hear from and silverberg williamson, executive director of my stake on the utah department of human services. ms. williamson graduated in south carolina with a bachelors degree in theology. she then went on in social work has gone on to receive distinguished alum reward from both schools. october 2013 ms. lampson was appointed to current position after serving as president and ceo of at the louisiana association of nonprofit organizations and cabinet secretary for the museum is department of social services. less than two years in utah, ms. williams has overseen successful offers to obtain a

federal title for each waiver and the launching of the child welfare demonstration project homework which reduces recurrence of child abuse and neglect and the need for social service intervention. i welcome each of our witnesses to the committee today and as they proceed to opening statements i urge you to keep your remarks to the allotted five minutes if you can. we will start with you. >> good morning. thank you, chairman hatch, ranking member wyden members of the committee for the invitation to be here today. my name is sandra killett, divorced single mother who raised two sons who are now 22 and 20 years of age. i reside in new york city and am currently employed as executive director of the child welfare organizing project.

this is a self-help advocacy organization of parents affected a new york city children's services. today i am here to share and they come again from my own experience as a parent impacted by the child protection system as well as perspectives from hundreds of parents whom i have worked with and other organizations including the new york city coalition for child welfare finance reform. the parent national network and some other parent organizations. some of these parents are here with me this morning. i will tell you they did not have the luxury i had to come here last night, but they got on a bus at 3:45 a.m. to be here at the time for this hearing. but that does a thank you that

does take that does a thank you told his parents have taken a journey with with me. i would also like to say i am here on behalf of numerous, hundreds of parents across the jurisdiction pertaining to child protection as we would like to call in sepia child welfare system in true reality. i am a parent who's been affected by the child protection system. it has forever changed my life as well as my son's life. this is a system the authority heard in the opening that is really for me destroyed a stable family, forever left her family traumatized from this experience. as a single mother every located to new york city from authentic, georgia with my two boys. they were young and we've located due to financial hardship. all of my family supports were in new york city. it was difficult for my two boys. they left their dad, but their

dad traveled back and forth to new york city from atlanta to be there for them. my oldest son, the one who generated the contact with new york city children's services, his name is trade. he found it most difficult. he was raised at this data and if you can imagine it was a disruption in the family. i sought help and support from a family challenges. my son was attending family counseling and we were getting some support he needed. i can tell you to move to new york city and the separation from his father was difficult and challenging, thereby generating some aggressive behaviors from a sign behaviors from a sign of which i continuously sought help with. i began to ask every week about services, individual services for my son. i was told those services were

not available immediately. we were on a wait list. we stayed on the wait list before we could get off, there was an altercation that occurred between me and my son at the age of 13. before that altercation occurred, i could tell you the outbursts occurring in my household had me retreating to my bedroom with my youngest son in fear of what would have been. did i know what would happen? absolutely not. proving pushing forward an altercation did occur pursued. at the time of this incident i did reach out to new york city children's services for assistance. i did not receive the assistance. instead i received an investigation into my household in the investigation was intrusive and i absolutely same investigation because that is what it was. my family was asked questions i thought were not necessary. my sons were asked questions

about how i parented them, whether i disappoint them and how i disciplined them. i will tell you i found this out later from my son when they told me i was surprised they were not interested in what actually occurred or how i had come into their office for assistance. i know that time is moving forward for me. what i would like to do is highlight for you through recommendations how to improve services for families at risk are already involved with the child protection system. child welfare funding to be realigned to support community-based prevention and early intervention services to strengthen families and keep families together providing a supportive nonpunitive approach can help families at risk keep their children at home. partnering with parents to work in support of their families before and during any

involvement with the child protection system or the courts can help families stay strong and steve and cleve reunified. i believe most parents want to be good parents but may need help in assisting along the way. in conclusion i ask you to take action to make all children at risk of attack did in helping families and communities ensure their children grow up in a healthy and safe nurturing home. thank you for allowing me to share my experience and the voice of many parent who have come in contact with the system and for whom i bring to this space with me this morning on this very historic i believe for me time. i think unless you really know what it's like to be separated from your family, your children

and that on forever broken between not only mother and child but between siblings, between extended families, having a grandparent not be able to see their grandchild because they have not been cleared by a system, having to enter ron paul not be able to get or have an overnight stay with her niece or nephew, not being able to give input into the growth and develop and give your son or child is an enormous, true magic experience for every single family that has went through it. i will tell you bout dope we have come through it and i believe we are coming through it, there are good days, there are bad days. i'll tell you i still hear families today, every day based on the work i do in the organization i talk about the

horrendous experience they have with the foster care system that does not understand who they are as a family, does not understand where they come from in a community and does not understand the burden brought upon them to do things that no other household would have to do to reunified with their children. when i say to you also having parental rights terminated at a point is though that is water running, that is how often that is happening when parents are loose hair like children so i implore you to really hear us listen to us and i say that you actually have been listening and there has to be an action and the mindset of what we feel, how

we feel about families that come in contact with them might be in crisis should be seen differently. he has spent time remaining. i thank you so much for inviting me in hearing me and i hope this testimony does not mean for us to have a child welfare system that will impact families and children, help them to be strong and safe and nurtured in their own communities. >> thank you, ms. sandra killett. we will turn to you now ms. burden. >> chairman hatch, ranking member wyden, thank you for inviting me to share my story and talk about issues that i know affect many of people in the foster system. i am 23 are stored in the mental health and residential community. i was one of the clients prefer

to the clients are for 10 months and spend most of my childhood and the foster care system and was in and out of foster care experience in bloggers and caryn within 23 different placements. eventually aged out and i'm still hoping to find my forever family. the most memorable place that was at a great and which am i lived a year and a half. at this time as the result of my mother was pregnant with their eighth and final child. i was the fourth. my siblings and i have been a myth after my mother went to receive treatment for addiction to my father was acquitted for neglect. my siblings and i were taken to a shelter and one of my sisters and i were place i were place of my pitcher no great aunt. my great aunt was a woman living with her stability, love the normal say that i never experience again. eventually all of my siblings and i were reunified with my parents who relapsed shortly after. or the next several years my

siblings and i would reenter care several times after multiple failed reunification is with parents. at some point i siblings began to have different cases in different social workers. things got really confusing. we no longer went to the same court dates or had the same plan. and no point during any of my entries in the foster care was that hot up as an option again. i came from a great family. i'm one of a number you're part of an even bigger extended family. my father is one of nine. i saw my siblings and parents regularly. i felt close to them a desire to them to desire their presence in my life. after we were scattered throughout foster care group homes that closed the sibling group became strangers to each other. before entering care my siblings and i took care of each other because we had to. once the environment changed it became optional in the history obsolete. when i was 13 i were 13 i

worried if one of my siblings were to pass though not have anything to say that their funeral because i didn't know they were anymore. my reentry into foster care that they didn't know how to keep me safe and care for me and my siblings effectively. entering foster care is a tremendous experience for all parties involved. my father felt invaded because he was raising a family where that happens in the home. my mother felt we victimized, haunted by her and experience in foster care as a child. her struggles with the broken family ties and abuse along with lack of addiction and service by multiple array entries in the care. for many years my mother struggled to get and stay clean. her battle with mental illness and inability to support a kids with her dependence on an abusive man made a particularly impossible to take care of us. my life became a vicious cycle

of neglect and instability. my parents were committed when a stick in your soul. by the time my mother figured out how to maintain a house, her sobriety server children were returned to damage was done. i was no longer the kid that wanted to be home with mom and dad. i was a teenager suffering with depression and anger. mandatory individual and family counseling before financial assistance could have played a huge role in a successful unification. such therapy combined with substance abuse treatment by mother received could've helped to identify childhood traumas that affected her parenting and substance abuse. i imagine had my mother received preventative and ongoing services from professionals who understood mental illness and saw her as if it tonight drug addict, my siblings and i may not offended to spend to spend her childhood in foster care. support for preventative services such as intensive count

going in financial assistance and help kids stay with families continue to support services that are reunification. children and parents need help understanding and processing the damage time away from each other has had relationships once unified. support placements for children removed from home so they can be connected to families. today i work at an amazing group home but i recognize that part of group homes will not build a gift use everything loving homes can. definitely not your 30th earth day. group homes or temporary. families should be forever. thank you. >> aborted. donna butts, the national center of families and center of family finances to provide testimony and applaud chairman hatch, ranking member wyden for your

leadership in holding this hearing on preserving families and reducing the need for foster care. every child deserves to growth in a safe, stable and loving home. for 7.8 million children in families headed by ken. a grandparent, aunt, uncle or close family friend. issues facing families are varied and complex. they are united by one common factor. they believe in the importance of family and children fare better when raised in a family, not a system. despite the challenges, children fare well in the care of relatives compared to children in nonrelative care they have more stability and are more likely to report feeling love. federal law firms and research confirms the relative should be the first placement choice. kinship families are diverse in the degree to which they receive needed support and services tied largely to the way children come into relative care. children outside foster care system received little to no services and benefits compared

to children in the system. congress should act to ensure all care is given the support they need to thrive regardless of circumstances that brought them to live with caring relatives. the foster care system relies on relatives and congress has enacted several provisions to ensure and increased placements and provide waivers that allow federal dollars to support families and promote prevention. we salute these and encourage efforts to need them better support kinship families. jabal focus for areas more detailed in a written statement. i will focus on notice or relatives, licensing, prevention and trauma and firm support. first notification would recommend changes to ensure relatives receive notification with clear information and assistance so they can digest options and make the best decisions for children. we somewhat required states to identify and notify relatives in

a child is removed from home they are to be told their options under the law including many options lost if they fail to respond to the notice. anecdotally caregivers know little about the requirement in those that do are presented in a confusing threatening way. second, licensing. we recommend congress directs states to assess and make changes to their existing licensing standards using the new model family foster care standards and the national association for regulatory administration. until now there have been no foster home licensing standards set a dramatic late vary from state to state imposed unnecessary barriers. this results in appropriate relatives denied licensure causing children to be placed unnecessarily in group settings or foster homes. jj in his two brothers and little sister went to live with grandparents when fathers

drinking got out of control. his grandparents wanted to provide a safe and loving home but they struggled to make the required changes to their home to meet state requirements and continue as a stable unified family. jj's grandparents had a file for bankruptcy because the cost to make their home comply with foster care standards. a home filled with love but not enough bedrooms. third prevention. would recommend support. for everyone child in foster care with a relative there is 23 outside the system raised by relatives or close family friends about a parent present. families save taxpayers $4 billion each year by preventing children from entering foster care. under current job offer finance hamas, families receive little or no preventative or supportive services to keep them together and out of foster care. fourth, generations united recommends urging states to

ensure kinship families have access to the same level of therapeutic services to non-relatives. many families are part emotional rewards of caring for children and often experience as challenges. these can be even more daunting than caring for kids who've experienced, which often leads to complex mental health and behavioral issues. ..

a way to remain with the roots, the families that grow our country strong, productive and contributing citizens. thank you for this opportunity to offer testimony and i look forward to answering any questions. >> well, thank you so much. mr. might be bi, -- nyby, we'll turn to you. >> thank you. thank you chairman hatch, ranking member widen an the excite tie for opportunity to nokia if front of you today. i plan too talk to you about the my experience working 13 years in the child welfare system. where i've been, where we're at and where we're moving. when i started working for child welfare out of college i was not prepared for the challenges of the work and when you listen to the testimony previously provided, part of what i found my job included, not just learning rules and procedures but how to overcome the perception of the system with the families, with kids in the community that i worked in.

and i had variety of experience with the foster care system and systems around kids in foster care. early in my career seemed like we used foster care for solution for kids when they weren't safe in the home. what i observed it often felt like a consequence. i was really naive. i thought when kids were experiencing abuse and neglect in the home they would want to leave and would not want to go back until things had changed. what i found, that kids would run away from foster care. they would live on the streets. go back to homes where they came from because they preferred that. it was a huge learning experience for me as caseworker to understand the impact foster care had on kids even when they were experiencing abuse or neglect at home. i started questioning the work i was doing. in 2007 oregon adopt ad safety model which promoted least intrusive intervention, use foster care as last resort,

despite my personal excitement change in any system can be slow. i found it has been a process in oregon. i that same year became supervisor and supervised child protective services unit for the next five 1/2 years. that was a real challenging job. workers work late hours. they work in the evenings. they work on weekends. as a supervisor i had to be available to them. one of my biggest challenges to help them make decisions for work i wasn't doing. what i found a common challenge in those decision was fear. fear that something bad would happen to a child. fear we would intervene and take a child into care when we didn't need to. fear of ending up on front page of the paper or losing our jobs. that fear is real and i witnessed this i supervised cases that were high-profile cases t was extremely challenging in the field not to let one to 2% of the cases we see affect our work with

families, all the families that we interacted with. during my time as supervisor i saw services started to do come into place. there were more up front services available to families. we were able to work with families and keeping kids safe at home but there were gaps in those services without filling those gaps the challenges remain for child welfare to work with families to keep kids safe at home if families are not getting support they truly need. in 2013 i took a job as policy analyst in oregon to help differential response and i've been doing that since that time. in our state differential response is supported by legislative services that we call strengthening, preserving reunifying family service. i can say in the past two years i felt more energized and excited about the work i'm doing than ever before. the practice model now comes with a service array providing flexibility to help families in a way we never had. foster care is slowly becoming what it was intended to be, a

safety service that we use as a last resort but change takes time. i think we're making progress. but it is my opinion that in order to continue that progress with child welfare reform changes need to be made in the way child welfare systems are funded. like families, systems need flexibility. oregon had at title four waiver. allows the state to spend federal foster care dollars more flexibly. any savings are used to finance and expand the service array, and allowed oregon to increase services available for families. i understand that is set to expire in 2019. without that our ability to invest in front end services will be reduced and child welfare through foster care system doesn't help the way to system is trying to reform to. my journey as a caseworker,

supervisor i wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. working at that level helped me understand challenges that families and children face in our community. they interact with the child welfare system. it trained me to help families, caseworkers and supervisors see possibilities and look at things differently. i understand that working for child welfare will always be a challenging job. there will always be stigma involved in the system but it comes with great reward when we can be successful. i want to thank everyone for the opportunity to speak here today. >> thank you very much. mrs. women son, we'll finish with you. >> chairman hatch, ranking member widen members of the senate finance committee, thaw for the opportunity to appear before you represent the utah department of human service n utah we value not what is only in the best interest of children, youth and their families but also what is cost effective. several facts about utah's child welfare model illustrate the

strengths of our approach. with one of the nation's highest percentage of minors per capita, utah has one of the lowest entry rates into foster care. 3.1 children for every thousand. the national average is 6.1. the average length of stay for a child in foster care is 10.4 months. the flags average is 13.4 months. following changes that allowed utah to successfully exit a settlement agreement our system was touted for its effectiveness. we incorporated family team meetings, had rigorous, qualitative and case process reviews. established an independent ombudsman office and fatality review panel. in recent years we identify the need to build equally effective in-home supports to safely keep children with their families reducing the need for foster care. regardless how well a foster

care system operates, the fact remain that children are best served in homes, with families, familiar schools and community. the voice of one brave young woman who aged out of foster care prior to our recent changes underscores the opportunity we have to do better. as a young child, beth was removed from her mother's care for neglect that resulted from her mom's untreated mental illness. instead of remaining in the home, with parenting and behavioral support this child was swept with perilous journey between multiple foster homes, juvenile justice systems and homelessness. when asked why she left foster homes, she plainly said, to get back to her mother. fortunately the positive influence of her final foster father and caseworker influence resulted in beth graduating from high school, getting a job with child welfare after college and

is now enrolled in law school. hers was a rare success story in that era. her insights are profound and motivating to us today because we know we can do better. we can avoid this kind of human and financial cost and as measured results of our current practice proves, we are doing so poet maya angelou words concisely describe utah's commitment to serve. do the best you can until you know better. when you know better, do better. with research, social science discoveries and evidence of trauma-informed care utah believes we can better serve the short and long-term interests of those in need of child welfare. supporting safe care for children in their homes without separating them from their family and foster care is less traumatic and less costly. additionally multigeneration approach proves to be more

effective breaking cycles of dependence on long, expensive government programs. the opportunity to apply for title 4-e waiver was ideal for utah. our project was implemented in late 2013 around is being replicated statewide through this year. we're able invest federal funds towards support with much greater value not only keeping children safe with their family but also to the taxpayers, receiving greater return on the dollar. for the average cost of serving one child in a foster care home for one year, we can serve 11 families through homework. for the average cost of serving one child in a group congregate setting for one year we can serve 34 families through homeworks. these are compelling proofs of the sound business of this practice while the humanitarian merit of investing keep children safe with family make this approach essential. we worked recently with a family

of jim who was on strack to enter foster care. he was failing middle school and repeated aggression towards his parents with repeated outbursts. homeworks model safely in his home, pier parenting, extended family engaged and school counselor and behavioral therapy working to support jim. this is one of thousands of families we help through homeworks that the waiver allows us not only to assist a individual family but work with multiple families for long-term behavioral change that reap dues the risk of repeat maltreatment and ongoing involvement with government intervention. evidence based tools, decision making, caseworker training, precision assessment and more staff time with families as well as community support. early results are positive. we respect the temporary nature of the waiver and the time limited opportunity we have to learn from states practice. utah is focused onshoring up

what we have bee gun. -- begun. thank you, senator wyden, the family stability and kinship care act proposed is a encouraging measure. we would like to see financial investment in child welfare practice informed by evidence. the key components of the proposed bill reinforce utah's experience. federal statutes that emphasizes early intervention, family development and local partnerships that cultivate community ownership of a child's well being will strengthen this country's child welfare system and benefit our citizenry and total. we seek to partner with you to finance a system that strengthens families, is accountable for the outcomes of sustained child safety, well-being an permanency. we look forward to the alignment of child welfare policy, finance and practice, for the greater public good. thank you. >> well, thank you. we appreciate. this has been a very excellent panel here today. let me start with you, miss

burton. thank you for appearing before the committee today and for your extraordinarily compelling testimony here. you're a remarkable young woman and i'm very impressed with all you have been able to overcome and i'm so sorry this the foster care system so obviously failed you and your brothers and sisters. you were in the foster care system on and off for 12 years as i understand it, is that correct? >> i spent a total of 12 years between my reunification. >> what are your suggestions for congressional action that can improve the foster care system? >> excuse me. i think that a plan, it should be required that states are required to have a plan for a child right away. so if they believe that the situation can be mitigated, then to do that, provide the services before they enter care if possible or as soon as possible when the child enters care so

they can return home in a short period of time. kids are spending too much time in limbo and then damage is created that affects the whole family so that when they do reunify it is not a successful reunification. does that answer your question. >> it does. that will be fine. mrs. williamson, thank you for appearing before the committee today and your testimony. i would like to take opportunity to acknowledge the great work done by two extraordinary members of your team, brent and coset mills. >> absolutely, thank you. >> my staff worked with them and you for many years and we're deeply indebted to each of you for your expertise professionalism and willingness to engage. now i was pleased to have been one of the authors of the legislation to follow up to 30 states, to allow up to 30 states to receive a child welfare waiver. as you testified you told us one of the very first states to apply for a child welfare waiver

of the as you know all child welfare waivers expire in 2019. i believe we should build on what we learned through state innovation through state waivers to craft policies that can benefit all states. you've testified that because utah is able to use certain federal dollars to provide front end services utah is able to realize considerable savings. would you elaborate on how utah is able to target resources in order to achieve these savings. >> thank you so much, senator. it would be my pleasure. indeed what utah recognized is that the expense that it was costing taxpayers of utah for poor outcomes for youth, namely, long stays, extended stays in the foster care system, and too often in the deepest end of the fossor care system with residential congregate care. as mentioned it only costs about on average $2400 to keep a

family stable and together in the home for a year. $2400 to serve a family, keep children safe and facilitate long-term behavioral change. whereas the average cost for a year for one child in a congregate care facility is over $83,000. so the financial logic of focusing our services and our efforts on early, in-home intervention services has naturally allowed us to then have these dollars go farther because we have reduced our reliance on long-term intensive congregate care. >> well, thank you. mr. nyby. i think those are startling figures. mr. nyby i want to thank thank r appearing before the committee for your thoughtful testimony as well. as i indicated in my opening statement i believe strongly we should reduce reliance on foster care group homes. in order to do that we must improve universities to keep

children safely at home as well as strengthening more family like placements for children and our youth when a child can not remain safely at home. oregon has one of the lowest rates of children living in forter care youth group homes. can you tell us how oregon managed to safely reduce the reliance on foster care group homes? >> i think being from oregon one of the strong commitments that oregon has made is to reduce foster care across the board. you know, not just group homes but across the board and i know that, you know that the way we train our caseworkers and supervise them is to really use foster care as our last resort, to give priority of relatives, i think senator wyden's comments earlier about, you know, the priority of relatives is something that's well-ingrained in our culture and in our practice and relative placements

are something that we, we prioritize over foster care group homes. i think, you know, those are viewed as our last resort options and they're not viewed anymore as solutions for kids. >> well, thank you. my time is up. senator wyden. >> thank you very much. miss williamson, i don't want to make this a full bouquet tossing contest but, he can key chairman hatch's comments on the work you're doing. that is astounding to get the rate of return you describe. i want to be clear particularly with your kind words about the legislation, stability and kinship care act. the whole point of that is to say once and for all the flexibility you are talking about is going to be permanent. that's the point of where we ought to go for the future and in 4-e and our challenges. really appreciate the good work you're doing. >> thank you. >> let me see if i get a couple of points in.

mr. nyby, you in effect run the gauntlet in terms of your services in the field and i'm not sure we've given you a chance to say what services you think are most important. because that's what we're going to have to do here. we're going to have to find our way given the fact that resources are tight, all right, here are choices to be made. here are the ones that are the real showstoppers. these ones will make a big difference for families and kin. tell me, if you would, what you think those services are. >> absolutely, thank you. well i think the service that would help are services that would prevent or avoid further and more intrusive intervention from child welfare. what we see, and i don't have data or statistics to share but i can tell you that drug and alcohol, substance abuse is really important service. a lot of families, the system is set up to help them are complicated, bureaucracies are complicated.

they need help understanding where to go for help, how to get there, how to navigate court system, how to navigate a transportation system. services that at sis with general challenges around poverty and housing, child care. in oregon one of the kind of primary service west have through the strengthening and preserving unifying pham sy services we call them navigators, parent advocates that help parents navigate the system. it is a very complex system. they have to navigate multiple sometimes. we know domestic violence is sometimes a challenge. advocacy for people, women primarily, experiencing domestic violence. think those are some i can think of offhand. >> you're doing a terrific job and i look forward to partnering with you in the days ahead. miss butts, let me take to you about kinship care. i look back at debates in the

1990s, seniors said then they thought kinship care would make a big difference. we sort of unleashed them on some skeptical legislators. we were able to get the law that described passed giving in effect families and seniors the first preference. i think by anybody's calculation, that first kinship care law has far exceeded what people thought was possible and you gave some numbers as well about the extraordinary role that kinship care plays. i guess the question really becomes, if you had to name one big step for the future on the kinship care side, what would it be? because i've sort of got a set of choices, i know at one of our earlier hearings we heard about an older parent, really a grandparent, wanted to take care of a child and they were told because, even though they had a wonderfully comfortable place to stay, it didn't have the exact number of bedrooms.

so they were completely disqualified. i don't know if i can turn my last set of ideas into getting rid of mindless bureaucracy. when i write that and i see miss williamson nodding as well. say you get one choice for the next step on kinship care which has been, because of your work and work of seniors and parents are everywhere been a great success, what is your next step? >> thank you, senator widen. [inaudible] >> turn the mic on. >> we've been through the battles together and seen the change from country club grandmothers only in it for a few dollars to realize the family believed deeply in family and wanted to support those family options. we also know that that is one of the reasons why we believed that it is important to look at

licensing standards in states because i don't know about you, i grew up in a family of six with three bedrooms. i shared a bedroom with my sister my entire life. to think that relatives can't figure out how to make due with a little bit less space, with a little bit less, doesn't make any sense. we need to take that into consideration. i think the bill you will be introducing goes a long way in helping to understand that the grandparents need those supportive services to be successful. i think that is what you and many of us have advocated for, is that they need to know what services exist which they can find through navigator programs which have proven to be very successful in the states. they need mental health services because of children who come into their care, they have been through different trauma, different situations. so they need that kind of support. it is understanding just because they're family doesn't mean we leave them on their own. we need to support them. we need to provide preventative service. i think that is the next step. >> thanks very much for your

years of good work. i would like to note, mr. chairman, as we go forward under your leadership to work on this in a bipartisan way, the ideas that this panel have offered, these are not big, expensive kind of proposals that you're making. nobody is going to say this is going to break the bank. nobody is going to say some huge, new, titanic bureaucracy has to be built. you've been a terrific panel. i think really teed it up ideally for us to go forward to do legislating in this area around your ideas and i thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator. senator stabenow. >> well, thank you very much, mr. chairman, ranking member. thank you, senator wyden, for your efforts on kinship care. my pleasure to be co-chairing the foster youth caucus with senator grassley and to work with everybody on thep committee. and thank you to each of you for being here. tykes a lot of courage to tell your story. i'm very appreciative.

i actually worked these issues a long time. makes me feel old. i was back in the michigan legislature and in the '80s authored foster care reform was dubbed the stabenow bill that was put into law to move the system more quickly. i'm incredibly frustrated we're still talking about these issues because we have two sets of things. one is what happened, miss kill let. the system failed you, the system just plain failed you and miss burton. the system just plain failed you. we have people caught up in the system or can't bring children home or kids can't go home. there is no support for that. at other end we have see serious abuse and neglect where kids are caught up on both ends of these things. so i'm very concerned that one way or the other foster care

should be temporary and move people either back home. ideally never leaving the home but if they're in foster care, move back home or move to a permanent family one way or the other, instead of being caught in limbo, like you were, miss burton, over and over again. thank you for your eloquence. mr. chairman, i do want to say as we listen to all of this and cost effectiveness that miss williamson talked about, and we know these things don't cost a lot of dollars but we're about ready to go into debate about the budget where there is great willingness to add money to the department of defense but we're not yet at bipartisan agreement how to defend your families. and things that we can do that will make a tremendous difference. and so i hope when we go into discussions appropriations, we will remember what we have heard here.

senator blount and i were very pleased to be able to offer a pilot project to address mental health and substance abuse in the community that will allow eight states to dramatically increase what they do. it is eight states. it is not 50 states. it wouldn't take a lot to make it 50 states. so i appreciate we were able to move forward on a pilot but my frustration is that there's things we can do, we should do. we just have to want to do it. and i hope you will help us be able to want to do it. i do have a question on, for both ms. killlet? right. and miss burton, regarding one piece of this, that i worked on, pleased with senator baldwin and senator port man to could sponsor a bill on family based

foster services and working on therapeutic foster care what can be done on that front. wonder if you might speak a little bit more about that, in support of therapeutic foster care and family-based foster care service. >> so, senator stabenow, i can't say that i can speak directly to therapeutic foster care but this is what i can speak to. what i can speak to is that if my son had received actually in-home intensive therapy, i fest you could call it therapeutic he would not have went into foster care, right? that is the intensive therapy that would have been needed. so in therapeutic in foster homes you would say that foster homes need to be thoroughly trained about the the youth or young person they will be receiving into their household. so they would need to know what has been going on with the youth, where they have come

from, and how that's impacted them. and i will tell you, something as simple as removing a child from a home and placing them in another home is a dramatic impact. so they may not have had any type of issues, other than maybe something that was going on at home, sometimes with the parent and sometimes not, right? but when they come into the system they develop all of these behavioral issues. so i will have to go back and say, i plead with you, again, i will go back and say this. that from my household, that was a stable household. we were secure. our protective factors were in place. we knew, i knew exactly what was necessary and needed for my family. we didn't get that because we didn't get, you, me, taxpayers paid an enormous amount of money for me to go through the criminal court system, the family court system, an attorney, an attorney for my child, an remain in foster care,

and still end up not getting any of the services that we needed as a family, destroying a sibling relationship in which the young younger becomes withdrawn. now he has to go into therapy. i know you asked me about therapeutic and foster care but i can tell you if that foster home does not get the very things that i needed in my home, we will be looking at same thing. so essentially across the board, families need what families need and i can echo every single thing that was said across the board for families i come in contact with, what they share with me about what they need. we work with parents, foster parents and youth and i will say to you, the system is not kind to anyone. >> i appreciate that. i know my time is up, mr. chairman. i hope we will have the political will to do the things all of you are talking about

because it is not rocket science. it is just a matter of our being committed to do it. so thank you. >> thank you. senator bennet. >> thank you, chairman hatch. deeply appreciate your holding this hearing with senator wyden. there is a lot of work for us to do here. we have to find a way to reduce the use of congregate care settings and encourage states to adopt best practices to find families for our children. one of the key themes throughout the hearing to invest in prevention. what this means for us in congress i believe we need to look comprehensively to reduce number of children in congregate care and investing in families to prevent children from ending up in foster care to begin with and group settings as well. that's why i'm introducing a bill today, the all kids matter act, which will give all states the ability to invest in prevention efforts for families on front end before our nation's children end up in the foster

care system. for 400,000 children in and out of our nation's foster care system which built in additional accountability and transparency measures for states to reduce number of children in group homes. we know children do best, as panel said today, placed with individual families, when placed with their own family. in coming months i look forward to working with a committee to produce a bipartisan project to elevate the conversation about our nation's most vulnerable children. so i'm grateful for the attention that we're placing on this issue. miss burton, i wanted to start with you. wonder if you could de cribe for the committee the experience thaw and your siblings had with the education system as you were going through this foster care system. what, how did people, how did you do and your family do with schools? >> great question. i go into a little more detail about each one of my siblings. i have a lot of them. but about half of us graduated

from high school. the other half didn't. one brother who graduated from ucla and he is actually now a campaign manager. so he is doing really well for himself. and so if you guys need anybody. >> i want a little clarity on that one. >> two of russ currently in college. and education was really hard for me. i spent, experienced six different elementary schools, five different middle schools and five different high schools but i went back to some of them a couple times. it was really hard to stay focused and motivated. thank you. >> thank you. mr. nyby you mentioned at the end of your testimony in the last couple of years in your new role you were able to discover flexibility that you haven't had in the past. i wonder whether you could describe that in a little more detail for the committee and to the extent that flexibility has resulted in sort of prevention efforts with families we would like to hear about that too.

>> absolutely, thank you. well the flexibility has come from differential response. what that does redesign the front door of child welfare so when a family is reported to us, we don't treat them all the same way. so essentially the more severe allegations of abuse or neglect are assessed in more traditional manner and reports that involve, less or more moderate severity are assessed in, with the family. it is not done to them. it is done with them. we really try to partner with the family to let them drive the assessment. the other thing it brings in both scenarios we have the ability as child welfare now to provide services without opening a case, without formally getting involved with the family. so in oregon we call that early intervention. the family still has to be reported to our system for us to provide that but we, with the family's help can connect them to the supports in their communities so they don't have

to come back to child welfare. that's fairly new, but essentially prior to that the only way child welfare could offer services was by opening a formal case in the system. this allows to us provide services to really fill the gaps without having to do that. >> miss killlet, sound like, that if that early intervention system had been in place in new york you may have not have faced the kind of things you had to contend with? >> i think you're absolutely right. i think that one of the things mr. nyby mentions is that community-based resource services is really the way to go for families. so i should have been able to walk into any community-based program without having to enter that door at all, having an investigation. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you all for your testimony and thank you, mr. chairman, for your attention to this really important issue. >> thank you, senator bennet. senator casey.

hopefully go to senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to reiterate as well my appreciation for the hearing and your work in this area over many years and for chairman wyden's work and in particular his legislation, the family stability and kinship care act which focuses on prevention and getting, getting a set of services to families long before, or at least early in the process. i was struck by, for our first two witnesses, miss killlet and miss burton, both using the same word at some point in your testimony, traumatized and traumatic. which i know for some people might seem self-evident in terms of how difficult these issues are for families but there are a lot of things we do this

committee that involve policy, data and numbers but few things we examined here have the same kind of human gravity in them and severity. we appreciate you bringing your own personnal stories what you've been through. easier to talk about things when they're theoretical and polly oriented. we're grateful you were able to do that because without that kind of personal testimony i'm not sure we can understand unless we have gone through it ourselves. i also want to say, miss killlet, you also mentioned as one of the strategies you hope we would employ or part of the strategy on page 6 of your testimony in the bold headline, earlier intervention services and focusing on meeting the immediate needs of families and that idea of early intervention i think we saw in somewhere or another throughout the whole

range of testimony, all the way to miss williamson. and we're grateful that there's some measure of unanimity what the strategies must be. we spend a lot of time in this town focusing on national defense strategy, to focus on terrorists and to focus on broad er national defense strategy. even in the tax code, part of the work this committee does, some of the effort is the best way to amend or improve the tax code so it will be a strategy to create jobs. what we don't spend nearly enough time on this city what are strategies that will work to make a child's life better. what are strategies that will work to sustain and support families. and i will get to a question because i know i'm just talking.

but i think we do need a strategy for our kids and for our families. i wanted to, i guess in terms of two, our last two witnesses in terms practitioners who are in, along with others, in the trenches kind of doing the policy work. i know each of you are to certain extent but maybe my one question would be for mr. nyby and miss williamson, i guess for oregon, differential, i'm forgetting my terminology, differential response, right. homeworks in oregon. tell us about what works in both and what you hope we would derive from those two approaches in both states. i know we're limited on time but if you could just give briefly. >> if i may, thank you very much. you heard consistency, i would highlight. evidence-based assessments.

there was a mention of evaluating risk, being very purposeful then in structured, family supports. that are directly tied to the risk that was revealed. other element i highlight was consistent with between utah and oregon. as chuck mentioned. family engagement, listen to the families. when families have a voice, children included, when children and families have a voice and a vested interest in their success and in the case plan that allows them to achieve that sustained safety and permanency we'll realize those outcomes more efficiently and effectively. >> i know i'm overtime but -- >> quickly i will echo what miss williamson said in terms of the different parts. the only thing i would add, in order to support and sustain families, you need a workforce who has the tools available to

them to support families. to get it to work and support a family, to engage with the system, the system has to bring and offer something that is tangibly and realistically going to help that family. and so in addition to practice model and you know, the supports in the community because the depending on what community you live in, that has impact on what's available to you. so to fill those gaps in communities to help families. >> thanks very much. i will submit questions for the record for the other witnesses. thank you. i'm out of time. >> thank you, senator. senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you you all for your great testimony this morning. this has been fascinating hearing. i thank senator hatch for his long-time advocacy for kids and specifically foster care and kids who are facing issues at home and you you know, how do you find the right place for them and i know this is not an easy issue. i think one thing we learned

today, talking to all of you, idea of their puttic foster care and therapeutic care for kinship parents make as whole lot of sense. the cots savings we talked about are very interesting. there is assumption out there this will be a lot more expensive to have that kind of intensive care, not just for foster parents as miss killlet talked about but actually for kinship parents and other caregivers as well. irv a couple of questions that, you know, i've been just thinking about and since we have the extra panel here i want to get your input first. i've been very fortunate, and miss burton knows this, to have congressional coalition for adoption to lend us an intern this summer. kerry richmond did a terrific job. she, like you, shared experiences going through the foster care system. sadly in her case, a lot of abuse in foster care and adoption. she has come out of it incredibly strong, resilient, young woman. she helped us think through the

policy issues. we this group back home, which a lot of states have, foster youth advisory board. made up of young people been through the foster care system. i think that makes a lot of sense. here is the thing that really bugging me. i want to get your input on it. there was a sting operation back in 2013, the fbi did nationwide on child sex trafficking initiative. i worked on a lot. i start ad caucus here. it is by -- bipartisan. here is the amazing and sad statistic on that. 60% of victims recovered nationwide from over 70 cities were from foster care or group homes. 60% of the kids in sex trafficking. and you know, you think about that. does this go to what you're talking about? i mean not just the fact that in miss burton's case she has been through the system, miss

killlet's case she has been at other end as a mom for the professionals here, is there something we should be talking about in this regard? in other words less likely those kids will end up being victims of sex trafficking, being vulnerable if they're not in the congregate care homes in the group homes? maybe i will ask miss burton to start on this. then if you could respond miss butts. i know you had some thoughts on that earlier. >> i thank you for that question. it is definitely a part of it in congregate care because when you have a child in congregate care, not someone looking for the signs, aware of signs. too many children. the child gets lost. runaways are something that happens. don't think about what is happening on the street. a child is trying to fill a void because they haven't received therapeutic services to learn why they feel the way they feel. they want to be loved. there are some things we could talk more in depth about that go into a child ending up in sex

trafficking. i will let other people talk about that though. >> you're so right. what we say is, that a child can age out of the system. they don't age out of a family. so there is somebody who stays with them, who watches, who knows that they're missing. that makes all the difference in the world. it is so easy for young people to get lost and be caught up in the sex trafficking world. i used to work at covenant house with runaway and homeless youth. we always talked about the covenant house suitcase which was a garbage bag. you would see a kid homeless, being kicked out of their home, they all they had was garbage bag. nobody cared where they're going. with family, much more likely to forgive, much more likely to take them back, much more likely to sleep on the couch when they don't have a place to be. finding that phamly, notifying that family is critically important. >> thank you for that response. we talked earlier, in senator

stabenow's questioning about this legislation we introduced. it is senator baldwin, senator stabenow and myself. it is called the family-based foster care services act and one of the things we're trying to do here is to create a standard, a national standard for what is therapeutic foster case because our sense is that, you know, each state does it a little differently. and my question to you is, how can a uniform definition of their puttic foster care services promote their quality of care and also more accountability in the training of staff and foster care parents? does that make sense? since i'm getting quickened of my time, if you could maybe, mr. nyby and miss williamson, since you haven't responded yet, or miss killlet, give us a response quickly but if you don't mind sending me written response and look at legislation, i'm sure most of you have already, tell us what you think about the idea of

coming up with a uniform definition? >> so i don't have a uniform definition but i would like to say i would like to follow up with a written response because i think it is worth to do a lot of thought to give you that information. >> that would be great. >> mr. nyby, would you do the same and miss williamson? great. >> senator scott. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank members of the panel for your participation and certainly your rich testimony and it is good to know even utah find incredible assets in south carolina, well-educated at winthrop i think i heard. god bless you. we'll talk later why you left but we'll get to that later. not part of the hearing. i will tell you that i, this is a moving topic and a hard topic to digest and to confront.

know we often times $9 billion through one program. if we look at it through only prism of the finances we miss the point of the as far as which is to try to make a way for every american to experience their full potential. i had an opportunity last year to visit one of the foster care homes in south carolina and spent i think it was the week of thanksgiving going to a couple of locations and talking to the kids about their goals, their dreams, their expectations. one of the points that i believe, miss killlet, you made is important point that seems to ring true consistently, what their foal is, really to get back home. it doesn't really appear, doesn't much matter the home from our perspective on the outside looking in. what they want is their mom very often. dad too but always i hear the same conversation, no matter how difficult the situation was at their house, they still have this yearning for their family,

their blood line. as a kid growing up in a single parent household i appreciate the sacrifice, difficulty, road of some single parents and challenges that many of the single parents have is faced. i know my mother would probably want to encourage me in many ways at times when i was being a difficult kid. my brother was the better of two of us. he was a great kid. i was rambunctious, challenging, difficult kid growing up. when i learned through listening talking to the kids they're brilliant. so much potential, like yourself, miss burton, i believe it is i had an intern, i'm not sure where your brother is a campaign manager i want to talk about the psychology of campaign management with him at some point. hopefully for republicans. i digress, i apologize for that comment. not really. but i had to, i had an amazing intern just this summer who has gone through the foster care

program and she is just going to -- going to be a doctor one day. but before she become as doctor she is going to china to teach english. so in all of her moves and changes she was able to remain focused in a way very few of us have been able to focus. and learning their stories has been an important part of my questions. and, miss burton, the role of drug addiction in tearing families apart, seems to be really important, and in finding that path back. i would love to hear your comments on that. there is a program in greenville, south carolina a facility called serenity place, doing remarkable things for families dealing with addiction. provides comprehensive residential treatment to 120 pregnant women and mothers, with

80% of the children still living with their families one year after discharge. in my opinion that is a pretty powerful program with pretty strong results. i would love to get your perspective of the role of drug addiction, if you can, on that. and on the family being cohesive and staying together and role of programs that have that type of success in just a year. >> thank you for your question. >> yes, ma'am. >> i, in my personal experience at least, i believe that my mom's addiction was directly linked to her childhood being in foster care and trauma she experienced. she never dealt with that. no one provided services to deal with it either. she maybe didn't know how to ask for them. i don't know what happened but i believe that had she received services and therapy to find, you know, what are her triggers. what, she would get clean and end up back there. it wasn't getting clean.

it was staying cleaned. >> cycle, yeah. >> and, i also understanding her illness so that then i didn't hold that against her, her addiction. >> yes. >> could have been helpful. so i think it is providing therapeutic services for whole family to understand the situation and support each other to keep strong ties. >> good. to thats end, miss williamson, one of the questions that keeps ringing in my ears, the system so often hinges on a caseworker's assessment that seems to be such a powerful part of the analysis. what can be done or should be done to make the caseworker better prepared to focus on family cohesion? you know, when i think about the family cohesion and think about miss killlet's points on the opportunity for in-home

intensive therapy i would love to hear your comments on, what the prognosis is going forward on caseworkers and what we might do to think about it, from that actually level of transaction in the caseworkers assessment, being most important key to that transaction? i don't know i'm suggesting that we should figure that out here in washington. it will have to be figured out at states, in programs, but i think illuminating what should be done can be helpful to all of us watching this and paying attention to the issue. >> thank you so much. i have and encouraging response. indeed states have recognized importance of evidence-based approaches to these assessments and assuring that the assessments are not done in isolation of the family. in fact it is very much with the family, not just the family, the extended family at the table. community representatives at the table. stakeholders in the success of

the changed outcomes. so that as mr. nipple bimentioned we need to, evidence based research assessment tool and a key component of the efficacy is that the family is offed. not to set a point in time in utah, i'm happen to say we have a, as sensement. the canned assessment and create ad utah family and childs is assessment tool revisited as a engagement tool throughout the lifetime of a case. when a parent says i really could usies stance in mental health, i really could usies stance with a substance abuse disorder that it is consistently revisited. perhaps the initial intervention is not successful but they seek to change results. thank you. >> thank you. my concerns in asking the

question about the caseworkers assessment in the tearing apart of families as miss killlet spoke about is that, ultimately what we may see in the long run are fear of people calling for help when they need it because of the fear of the break down of their family, if you want to have any closing remarks on that, miss killlet. my time is actually up so. >> well, thank you, senator. >> thank you. >> i want to thank each one of you as witnesses here today. you've been really good. each one of you, for miss killlet right on through. each of you has brought a, somewhat after little, if not -- of a little, if not very important perspective of it i will see what which can do to help here. i want to thank all the witnesses for appearing here today. i want to thank all of the senators who participated. this has been a very compelling discussion. i appreciate everyone's

participation. any questions for the record should be submitted by no later than tuesday, august 18th, i though you get your answers back quickly as possible f you get the answers back, that helps us move forward with legislation that may be helpful to you. i'm grateful for each one of you taking your time out of your busy schedules to be with us. we have had a variety of perspectives here today. all of you seem to agree we can do a better job than we are doing now. i like to see that we do. god bless all of you. thank you for being here and we'll recess until further notice. >> thank you. >> tonight discussions from the aspen security forum. assistant attorney general for national security, john carlin,

talks about how isis uses the internet as a recruitment tool. here's look. >> what the terrorist group will do, they seek to put their message out on platforms that they know are accessed by the largest population possible. so hundreds of thousands of people are accessing this website. they then bombardment with thousands and thousands of messages every day of their propaganda. the messages run across the board. so we're all familiar with the shocking, images and despicable what they will show of public executions. but what they're also doing, they're bombarding that same audience with targeted, microtargetted messages, the same way that advertisers do. so what they will do, show a handsome young actor in one video. literally handing out candy to children. in the corner will be the brand, isil. the same way it might be for

some other television show or some other brand. in another video they show armed soldier, armed terrorist with a gun in one hand but other hand he is holding a kitten. the other messages, in addition showing handing out candy to children, images of bucolic life here in the caliphate. they will look to see whether or not they can with this large-scale bombardment of images can they get someone on the hook and start to dangle them in. >> today a look at national security issues including how isis uses the internet for recruitment. the work of u.s. special operations forces and threats to europe. that's 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. booktv in prime time continues tonight with books on immigration. at 8:00 p.m., margaret riege gain discusses detain and

deported, stories of immigrant families under fire. at 9:40 p.m. a family discussion on immigration reform featuring the daughter of noam chomsky and alberto gonzales, former u.s. attorney general. later at 10:20 p.m., ann coulter on her book, audios america. prime time 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. >> this sunday night on "q&a," institute for policy studies fellow and antiwar activist, phyllis ben nest on u.s. foreign policy since 9/11, rise negotiations with iran and war on terrorism. >> who are isis. what are their origins what they believe, why are they so violent. all those questions are porn. i address them all in the book. this something we can do something about, what is the u.s. policy regarding isis? why isn't it working? can we really go to war against terrorism? are we just doing the war wrong

or is it wrong to say, there should be a war against terrorism at all? i think those are the questions are, the most important and most useful. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's "q&a". >> next a discussion about pope francis ace upcoming visit to the united states. he will be in the u.s. from september 22nd through the 27th. he has events scheduled in washington d.c., new york city and philadelphia. including a meeting with president obama at the white house and an address to a joint session of congress and the u.n. general assembly in new york. . .