FAQ: Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2009
Frequently Asked Questions
What programs are covered by H.R. 911 (formerly H.R. 6358 in the 110th Congress)?
- Public and private residential programs that focus on serving teens with emotional, behavioral, mental health, or substance abuse problems. These programs include some wilderness camps, boot camps, therapeutic boarding schools, behavior modification facilities, residential treatment facilities, and certain other types of programs.
How will H.R. 911 help kids soon?
- Creates national standards for covered programs that provide for the basic health and safety of children.
- Requires states to promptly inform HHS of reports of child abuse and neglect and child fatalities at covered programs.
- Requires HHS to investigate all child fatalities and credible allegations of abuse at covered
programs and authorizes HHS to assess financial penalties for violations of the law.
- Creates a publicly available website with information on covered programs and the history of problems at them.
- Creates a toll-free hotline for reports of child abuse and neglect at covered programs.
What responsibility do the states have for keeping kids safe under H.R. 911?
- As a condition of receiving CAPTA funding, states have 3 years to develop standards and monitoring for covered programs.
- States must develop licensing standards, that are at least as strong as the national standards, for all covered programs.
- States must conduct unannounced site inspections of covered programs at least once every 2 years and implement sanctions against programs out of compliance with standards.
- State licensing must require applicants to disclose all child deaths and any substantiated reports of child abuse at previously or currently owned businesses.
- States must create a publicly available database with information on covered programs and any history problems at them.
What is HHS’s role once states have adequate standards and enforcement?
- The national standards remain in effect, but states will have primary monitoring and enforcement responsibilities for covered programs through their licensing requirements.
- States must report to HHS any child death at a covered program or evidence of a pattern of violations by an owner or program. The Department must then investigate to determine if there were any violations of national standards and assess penalties for violations, as appropriate.
- HHS must annually review a random sample of state investigations of child abuse and neglect at covered programs.
- States that are not appropriately addressing child abuse and neglect at covered programs must work with HHS to improve their performance.