Children and Families through the ages

This May our blog is about the child welfare system through the years in the United States! In honor of our gala theme of Children and Families Through the Ages, let’s walk through the history of the US and how we have supported families and children. 

One of the first things to note is that, even as a colony, the US has had some kind of support for children. Before the American Revolution, the first permanent orphanage was established in Savannah, Georgia by Reverand George Whitefield. 

By the early 1900s impoverished children were taken into institutional care, given apprenticeships, or worked in factories. In 1906, legislation was introduced to create a federal children’s bureau. In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt held a White House Conference in support of the Mother’s Pension Movement. This movement became one of the first times the idea that “children should not be removed from their homes of origin due solely to poverty”. While this conference is a great start, the pensions that came from this movement were not available to women of color, mothers with children born out of wedlock, or divorced mothers.  

In 1912, the Department of Labor and the Federal Children’s Bureau were both established. The Federal Children’s Bureau dealt with investigating matters related to child and maternal well-being. This was the first major federal law in the United States focusing on infant and maternal health, and it provided money for health services. For the first time, charity organizations were no longer the main sources of welfare, and the federal government provided financial relief for families in need. The Children’s Bureau lobbied and campaigned for the passage of the Keating-Owen Act of 1916. This act prohibited the interstate commerce of goods manufactured by children. This is the first attempt to curtail child labor! Despite this act being supported by President Wilson, it would be ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in 1920. 

Let’s move on to the 1920s! The last Orphan Train leaves New York City in 1929. These trains of orphaned children would take children from the city to the countryside to families who could provide them with stable environments. These children were orphans or had living mothers who could not afford to raise them.

As we move to the 1930s we start to see attempts to codify the fledgling child welfare system! You will start to see the framework for our modern system. The Social Security Act of 1935. Amendments in 1939 added benefit payments to the spouse and minor children of a retired worker and survivors’ benefits to dependents of an eligible retiree who had died. 

In 1935, the National Youth Administration was established. This program aimed to train out-of-school youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five as well as provide funding for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students. 

In 1934 with the Indiana Reorganization Act and the Johnson-O’Malley Act, we see the federal government wade into tribal autonomy and the practice of funding Native American schools. Firstly, these acts established the principle of tribal self-determination which means the federally recognized tribes were given the ability to determine for themselves how their governments would run. Another component of these acts was the provision of federal funds to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This new funding was given for K-12 and vocational education in federal and locally administered public schools, as well as loans for Native American youth to attend college. 

In the 1940s we do not see as much legislation in regards to child welfare as we do in other decades. This author would argue this is due to a global conflict taking a lot of the US’s attention and resources. However, we do see more support provided for military families during this time. The federal government established the Emergency Maternity and Infant Care Program (EMIC) to provide free pregnancy and postpartum health care to the wives of military personnel in lower pay grades and to their young children. EMIC served approximately 1.2 million mothers, supporting the births of about 1 in 7 Americans born between 1943 and 1946.

In the 1950s we see consolidation and organization of the child welfare system. In 1953 President Eisenhower established the cabinet-level Department of Health, Education, and Welfare which encompasses the majority of federal programs affecting child well-being. President Eisenhower also establishes the President’s Council on Youth Fitness. This program is aimed at encouraging youth to lead active lifestyles. If you have ever run a timed mile in gym class this is where those standards come from!

We would be remiss not to mention the biggest change for children in the U.S. In 1954 the decision was made in the court case Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka. This decision made it so no public school could practice segregation of black children from white children. In a future blog post, we will discuss the effects this had on Michigan as a state. 

The 1960s were a time of great upheaval and societal change. There are few better examples than the changes to the child welfare system! In 1961 federal funds for foster care were provided for the first time. The 1961 Social Security Amendments established the “Flemming Rule,” creating a foster care component to Aid to Dependent Children (ADC). This gave states more money to support foster placements and children who have been removed from their homes of origin. 

In 1962 Henry Kempe coined the term “Battered Child Syndrome”, further drawing national attention to child abuse. Battered Child Syndrome is usually defined as the collection of injuries sustained by a child as a result of repeated mistreatment. By 1966, every state had passed legislation requiring better reporting and intervention in cases of child abuse. 

In 1962, President Kennedy successfully worked with the US Congress to create a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Subsequently, they set up training grants for teachers of deaf and “handicapped” children. These grants were approved in 1961 and 1963 and signed into law by President Kennedy. 

This decade saw legislative strides being made in terms of childhood nutrition! In 1966 the Child Nutrition Act made the Department of Agriculture send funds to states so they could serve breakfast for low-income students. A few years later in 1969, the Summer Food Service Program was established. This program helps to distribute food over the summer school break for children until they are eighteen years old. 

We see the change in the approach to social safety nets around mental health as well! The 1963 Comprehensive Community Mental Health Centers Act authorized federal funding to build public and nonprofit clinics for child and adult mental health. In 1965, Medicaid and Medicare were established! In that same year, we see the establishment of Head Start! This program serves children at or below the poverty line and gives them access to preschool that may otherwise be unattainable. 

The 1970s saw the passage of significant and rather famous legislation regarding to the child welfare system and supporting America’s families. The Supplemental Food Programs for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) was signed into law in 1971. It was created to provide food vouchers, commodities, and nutrition programs to pregnant mothers, postpartum mothers, and families who had children up to the age of five in their household. 

For those with experience in the child welfare system, this next law is perhaps the most significant and famous. In 1974, the Child Abuse and Treatment Act (CAPTA) came into effect. CAPTA gave federal funds to states to improve their responses to allegations of child abuse and neglect. It was key in connecting child welfare workers to early intervention services and developing plans with service providers to better support families and children. 

Following CAPTA came the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978. This law is one the most significant legislative efforts to honor a child’s community of origin. The goal of this act was to give tribal authorities and leadership a seat at the table in child welfare cases when it concerned a tribal family. In effect it helped keep children in touch with their tribal communities and extended family members. 

Speaking of significant legislative efforts on behalf of families, in 1975 the Child Support Enforcement (Title IV-D) Program was created. This program helped to establish paternity cases and help to secure child support payments when ordered by the court system of non-custodial parents. 

Next, we will move on to the 1980s!  In 1980, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act was passed. Its purpose was to establish a program of adoption assistance; and strengthen the program of foster care assistance for needy and dependent children. As well as improve the following programs: child welfare, social services, and aid to families with dependent children. Later attention would turn to teenagers aging out of the child welfare system. In 1986, the US Congress authorized the Independent Living Program. This program was geared towards teenagers and adolescents who were on the verge of aging out and did not have the skills necessary for independent living. It continues to support those aging out of the child welfare system! 

In the 1990s there was quite a bit of legislation put in place to address areas previous legislation had not addressed. In 1993, out of concern that states were focusing too little attention on efforts to prevent foster care placement and reunify children with their families, Congress established the Family Preservation and Family Support Services Program. Several years later, in 1996, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) is introduced. This program varies state by state but overall the program provides time-limited assistance to families. Several years later in 1997, The Adoption and Safe Families Act, created the timeline for the termination of parental rights at 15 out of 22 months post removal of the child or children. This act also requires a permanency hearing every 12 months to speed up the process of finalizing child welfare cases. 

The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 replaced the Independent Living Program with the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP). In addition to increasing funding, CFCIP expanded the existing independent living program to include services for both adolescents making the transition from foster care to self-sufficiency and former foster youth up to age 21. 

We will be lumping a few decades into one section! We will see the focus of child welfare legislation move to be more focused on keeping children in their home of origin. We see in 2000, The Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Courts Act of 2000. This act aimed to reduce the backlog of abuse and neglect cases that plagued child welfare courtrooms. It also passed the ability to automate case tracking and data collection. Imagine keeping all of that information not on a computer! 

In 2018 we see the passage of the Family First Preservation Act. This act provided funding for states and tribal authorities to expand available prevention services to keep children in their homes of origin. In our program, this saw us expand to provide more advocacy services for children who remain in their home of origin for the duration of their child welfare case! 

Learning our history is key for us here at CASA for Kids. We know that we must learn from our past, especially regarding systemic issues within the child welfare system. Our team is committed to learning and growing from our collective experiences, helpful and harmful; so we can best advocate for children and strengthen families in future decades. 

https://blogs.millersville.edu/musings/a-history-of-child-welfare-in-the-united-states/

https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/child-welfare-overview/

https://www.masslegalservices.org/system/files/library/Brief%20Legislative%20History%20of%20Child%20Welfare%20System.pdf

https://firstfocus.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Childrens-Policy-History.pdf ​