The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA): Background, Programs, and Funding

Summary

Child abuse and neglect is a significant social concern. Children who experience abuse and/or neglect are more likely to have developmental delays and impaired language or cognitive skills; be identified as “problem” children (with attention difficulties or challenging behaviors); be arrested for delinquency, adult criminality, and violent criminal behavior; experience depression, anxiety, or other mental health problems as adults; engage in more health-risk behaviors as adults; and have poorer health outcomes as adults. Further, data from a nationally representative sample of children in families investigated for abuse or neglect show that as a whole—and without regard to whether a child protective services (CPS) investigator determines that abuse or neglect has occurred—children in families who come into contact with CPS agencies are at higher risk for poor development and behavior outcomes than children in the general population. In addition, that survey shows that these children live in families that often face challenges to their ability to care for and nurture their children, including trouble paying for basic necessities, low social support, and only one supportive caregiver in the family. In FY2007, states reported an estimated 3.5 million children were in families investigated or assessed by CPS workers and some 794,000 were identified as victims of abuse or neglect.

In 1974, Congress enacted the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247) to create a single federal focus for preventing and responding to child abuse and neglect. As a condition of receiving state grant funds under that act, states are required to have procedures in place for receiving and responding to allegations of abuse or neglect and for ensuring children’s safety. Further, they must define child abuse and neglect in a way that is consistent with CAPTA, which defines the term as “ 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.”

Since its enactment, CAPTA has been reauthorized numerous times, most recently by the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-36). Currently, it authorizes formula grants to states to help improve their child protective services; competitive grants and contracts for research, demonstration, and other activities related to better identifying, preventing, and treating child abuse and neglect; and formula grants to states for support of community-based child abuse and neglect prevention services. Funding authorization for these CAPTA programs expired with FY2008. However, Congress appropriated $110 million for CAPTA in FY2009 (P.L. 111-8) and a similar amount has been proposed for FY2010 (H.R. 3293). In addition, CAPTA authorizes grants to improve the prosecution and handling of child abuse and neglect cases. These formula grants to states, commonly referred to as Children’s Justice Act grants, are funded via an annual set-aside of up to $20 million from the Crime Victims fund.

This report begins with discussion of the issue and scope of child abuse and neglect, followed by a discussion of the manner and scope of the work of the CPS agency in receiving and responding to allegations of child abuse or neglect, and then looks at some identified risk factors for poor child and family outcomes among all children in families investigated for abuse or neglect. Finally, it provides a detailed description of the current programs and activities authorized under CAPTA and discusses funding authorized and provided under CAPTA. This report will be updated as warranted.