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May 2003Vol. 4, No. 4Bipartisan Commission Launched to Address Foster Care Outcomes

Launched May 7, the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care will develop practical, bipartisan recommendations to improve outcomes for children in foster care. The commission will focus on two key issues:

  • Improving federal financing mechanisms to reduce foster care entries and move children more quickly from foster care into safe, permanent, and nurturing families.
  • Improving court oversight by providing State and local courts with tracking and management tools to help achieve safety and permanency for foster children.

"The Pew Commission will develop very specific policy recommendations to improve foster care and related services, so that these vulnerable children can live safely in permanent homes and have a better chance to grow to be successful adults," says Commission Chairman Bill Frenzel, a 20-year veteran of Congress and former Ranking Minority Member of the House Budget Committee.

Chairman Frenzel, currently a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution, is joined by Vice Chairman William H. Gray, III, currently President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Negro College Fund and former House Majority Whip and House Budget Committee Chairman. Additional members of the Commission include some of the nation's leading child welfare experts, heads of State and local child welfare agencies, prominent judges, social workers, foster and adoptive parents, and former foster youth.

The Commission is supported through a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute in Washington, DC. It will convene its first meeting in May 2003 and issue its final report and recommendations in 2004. For more information about the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, visit http://pewfostercare.org.