Although it has the highest number of children per capita in the nation, the State of Utah has become known for having an extremely low rate of children entering foster care.
Due to this fact, lawmakers representing the rest of the nation are researching methods to replicate Utah’s success in this area. To that end, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senate Finance Committee chairman, convened a hearing of the committee on Tuesday to discuss Utah’s accomplishments and review methodologies used to reduce the need for foster families.
The hearing, titled “A Way Back Home: Preserving Families and Reducing the Need for Foster Care,” featured testimony from Ann Silverberg Williamson, executive director of the Utah Department of Human Services, on Utah’s successes.
“Currently, the federal government devotes the highest proportion of its federal foster care funding to the least-desirable outcome for vulnerable families: removal of a child from his or her home and placing them in stranger care or in a foster care group home,” Hatch said.
Hatch explained Utah’s model, called HomeWorks. The early-intervention program uses evidence-based strategies to maintain families and reduce the need for foster care.
Federal funding is used to provide in-home services that aid parents and at-risk children by involving extended family, skilled counselors and therapists for a long-term fix, instead of a temporary fix in the foster system.
“Rather than providing a temporary fix, we work with families to achieve long-term behavioral change that reduces risk of repeat maltreatment and ongoing involvement with government interventions,” Williamson said at the hearing.
“Some states, like Utah, for example, believe that they can reduce the need for foster care if they use certain federal funds to provide front- and back-end services to families,” Hatch said. “Today, we will hear from an official from my state of Utah on how this flexibility has improved outcomes for children and families, reducing the reliance on foster care. I believe we should extrapolate from Utah’s innovative HomeWorks initiative as a model for all states.”
Hatch has represented the state of Utah in the U.S. Senate since 1976. Born in Pittsburgh in 1934, Hatch was educated at Brigham Young University and University of Pittsburgh Law School. Hatch serves on the following committees: Finance (chairman), Judiciary, and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.