Federal Legislation Associated With Child Abuse

PL No.                         Short Name    Date            Brief Description

93-247                         CAPTA         1-31-74       To provide financial assistance for a demonstration program for the prevention, identification and treatment of child abuse and neglect, to establish a National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN), and for other purposes. Funding -- 15M for FY 74; 20M for FY 75; 25M for FY76; 25M for FY 77; total=85M. Funding was eventually extended through FY 1995.

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (or Mondale Act of 1974).

42 U.S.C. 5111 et seq CAPTARA 78

Child Abuse Prevention And Treatment And Adoption Reform Act. DHHS must conduct recruitment for potential adoptive parents.

95-266                         AOA              78               Extended the programs through FY 1981, expanded NCCAN's grant making authority. Required the establishment of research priorities and earmarked funds for the prevention and treatment of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA).

Adoption Opportunities Act

97-35                                                 81               CAPTA and Adoption Opportunities Act were extended through FY 1983 as action taken by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.

98-457                         CAA              84               Extended and expanded the CAPTA and AOA programs through FY 1987. Expansion included increased responsibilities for the NCCAN to include additional studies. Requires that States respond to reports of medical neglect in disabled newborns. Authorized new state grant program and other assistance for responding to reports of medical neglect. Authorized new State demo. programs regarding family violence.

Child Abuse Act; also Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (42 U.S.C. 10401, et. seq.).

98-473                                                84

Child Abuse Prevention Federal Challenge Grants Act (Title IV of subject PL).

Some states had created Children's Trust Funds to ensure funding for child abuse prevention preograms in years when money would be scarce. To encourage more states to participate, this program provided matching grants of $4,933,501 in FY 1990, and selled the number of participating staes from 33 to 47.

99-401                              CJA           8-27-86         To amend CAPTA to establish a program to encourage States to enact child protection reforms which are designed to improve legal and administrative proceedings regarding the investigation and prosecution of child abuse cases, particularly child sexual abuse cases, and to establish demonstration programs of temporary child care for handicapped children and crisis nurseries. Funding -- Approx. 110M for FYs 86, 87, & 88; total 330M.

Children's Justice and Assistance Act (or Children's Justice Act).

Also see: P.L. 101-127, Sec. 2-6; P.L. 102-295, Sec 202, 203; P.L. 104-235, title I, Sec. 142 (a)

100-294                                                87               Extended CAPTA through FY 1991.

Established a a new interagency task force and a newly constituted Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect.

100-505                    AIAA                  88              To provide help for infants, particularly those impacted by AIDS and crack cocaine.

Abandoned Infants Assistance Act (42 U.S.C.670 note)

101-126                                               89               Reauthorized the Challenge Grant program through FY 1991, and transferred it to CAPTA as title II.

State eligibile for the lesser of 25% of State prevention funds of previous year or 50 cents for every child living in the state.

Child Abuse Prevention Challenge Grants Reauthorization Act

101-226                     VCA                 90

Victims of Child Abuse Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 13004)

102-295                                             92                   Modified the program of P.L. 101-126 and changed the name to "the Community-Based Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Grants". Intent was to help states in supporting prevention activities. Funding was $5.3M-$5.4M for FY91-94

Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, Adoption, and Family Services Act of 1992

AOA (reauthorization)                          92

Most significant reauthorization was in 1992. Funding for FY92 was $30M.

42 U.S.C. 5116 et seq 94 Sought to establish and promote statewide networks of family support programs. The funding was meant to supplement other State funding. Consolidated 3 programs into the new Community-Based Family Resource Programs which was placed under title II of CAPTA. Two were part of CAPTA; Sec. 107a of CAPTA and the Community-Based Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Grants, and consolidated the Family Resource and Support Program which was part of the Claude Pepper Young americans Act of 1990 (enacted as title IX of the Augustus F. Hawkins Services Reauthorization Act of 1990).

Human Service Amendments

Section 107a of CAPTA                         94                Intended to provide for services for children whose parents were substance abusers.

For FY 1991-1994, funding was $19M to 19.5M annually.

Emergency Child Abuse Prevention Services Grants (program)

S.919                                                      95                Reauthorize and amend CAPTA 93-247, Family Resource and Support Programs, Adoption Opportunities Act, Family Violence Prevention and Services Programs, Abandoned Infants Assistance Act, Missing Children's Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5777), and the Children's Justice Act 99-401. Authorizes the Adoption Opportunities Act and family and violence prevention and service activities. Authorizes advisory board on child abuse and neglect. NCCAN is subsumed by OCAN, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect. Authorizes increased funding levels.

CAPTA Amendments of 1995

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Note that S.919 defines child abuse in Sec. 111 to mean, at a minimum, "any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm."

Use of the term "recent" may be a significant recognition of a need to treat "recovered" memories of abuse differently.

The following has been extracted from DHHS Publication No. (ACF) 92-30531.

P.L. 100-294 defines child abuse and neglect as the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitation, negligent treatment, or maltreatment:

o of a child (a person under the age of 18, unless the child protection law of the state in which the child resides specifies a younger age for cases not involving sexual abuse)

o by a person (including any employee of a residential facility or any staff person providing out-of-home care) who is responsible for the child's welfare

o under circumstances which indicate that the child's health is harmed of threatened thereby

The Act defines sexual abuse as:

o the use, employment, persuasion, inducement, enticement or coercion of any child to engage in, or assist any other person to engage in, any sexually explicit conduct (or any simulation of such conduct) for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct, or

o rape, molestation, prostitution, or other form of sexual exploitation of the children, or incest with children.

As a result of the Child Abuse Amendments of 1984 (P.L. 98-457), the Act also includes as child abuse the withholding of medically indicated treatment for an infant's life-threatening conditions. The Act defines this provision as "... the failure to respond to the infant's life-threatening conditions by providing treatment (including appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) which, in the treating physician's or physicians' reasonable medical judgment, will be most likely to be effective in ameliorating or correcting all such conditions..."

The four types of child abuse and neglect are physical abuse, child neglect, sexual abuse, and mental injury (also referred to as emotional/psychological abuse).