United States Children's Bureau facts for kids

The United States Children's Bureau is a government agency in the U.S. It is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. This agency works to improve the lives of children and families.

When it was created in 1912, its main job was to study and report on everything related to children's well-being. This included topics like how many babies were dying, how many children were being born, and issues like child labour. They also looked into children's diseases and laws that affected children.

What made the Bureau special was that it was mostly run by women. This was very unusual for a government agency back then. The Bureau played a big role in using research to shape government policies. It helped bring new ideas about how to support mothers and children into federal law. Many of the changes supported by the Children's Bureau became part of important laws like the Fair Labor Standards Act.

History of the Children's Bureau

How the Children's Bureau Started

The idea for the Children's Bureau came from three people: Lillian Wald, Edward Thomas Devine, and Florence Kelley. They started talking about it around 1903. In 1905, they shared their idea with President Theodore Roosevelt. This happened during a time when many people were becoming more concerned about social issues.

Other groups also supported the idea. The National Child Labor Committee wanted a federal children's bureau to be its main goal. Women's groups like the National Consumers League and the General Federation of Women's Clubs also helped. The idea was even supported at the first White House Conference on Children and Youth in 1909.

The law to create the Children's Bureau was passed in 1912. President William Howard Taft signed it on April 9, 1912. This made the Children's Bureau the first government office in the world focused only on the well-being of children and their mothers.

President Taft chose Julia Lathrop to lead the Bureau. She was the first woman ever to lead a U.S. government agency. At first, the Bureau was part of the Department of Commerce and Labor. In 1913, it moved to the Department of Labor.

Early Years: 1912–1920

In its first years, the Children's Bureau worked to reduce infant mortality. This means they wanted to find out why so many babies were dying before their first birthday. They did this by encouraging birth registration and studying infant deaths in 10 cities. These studies showed that poverty was strongly linked to infant deaths.

The Bureau also supported "baby-saving" efforts across the country. They promoted things like prenatal care, health clinics for babies, and educating mothers. During World War I, they started a "Children's Year" in 1918. This was to protect children from food shortages and lack of nurses. As part of this, volunteers weighed and measured millions of children. This led to the first national standards for age, height, and weight.

The Bureau published many helpful booklets about caring for babies and children. These booklets were very popular. By 1929, they believed their information had helped half of all U.S. babies.

Around 1915, the Bureau also started focusing on child labour. They published 31 studies between 1915 and 1930. These studies looked at children's working conditions by visiting them at home and work. This helped show how common child labor was in the U.S.

In 1916, Congress passed the Keating–Owen Act to discourage child labor. The Children's Bureau was in charge of enforcing this law. However, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled it unconstitutional in 1918.

Growth and New Programs: 1921–1929

In 1921, Grace Abbott became the new Chief of the Bureau. The Children's Bureau played a big part in the Sheppard–Towner Act, passed in 1921. This law provided federal money to states for children's health programs. These programs included:

• Training and licensing for midwifes.
• Education for parents through classes and home visits.
• Rules for maternity homes.
• Collecting data on deaths of mothers and babies.

This program helped about 4 million babies and young children and 700,000 pregnant women before it ended in 1929.

Besides maternal and infant care and child labor, the Bureau also researched other topics. These included juvenile delinquency (young people breaking laws), foster care, and children's diseases. For example:

• In 1923, a Bureau committee set the first standards for effective juvenile courts.
• Their work on mothers' aid helped create the Aid to Dependent Children program in the 1935 Social Security Act.
• They studied rickets and found simple ways to prevent it.

The Great Depression and Social Security: 1930–1939

During the Great Depression, the Children's Bureau helped the government understand families' needs. They worked with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) to collect data. This data helped decide how to spend money to help people. The Bureau also helped create the Child Health Recovery Program. This program gave emergency food and medical care to children in need.

In 1934, Katherine Lenroot became the Chief of the Bureau. She worked with Martha May Eliot and Grace Abbott to create the parts of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Social Security bill that focused on children. These parts included:

• Aid to Dependent Children: Provided federal money for state programs that helped mothers.
• Maternal and Child Health Care: Funded clinics and medical care for children in need.
• Crippled Children's Services: Helped children with physical disabilities.
• Child Welfare Services: Provided money to states to help dependent and neglected children.

When the Social Security Act was signed in 1935, the Children's Bureau was put in charge of the last three programs. The Bureau grew a lot during this time, helping many more children and families.

The Bureau also continued its fight against child labor. In 1933, they helped set the first federal minimum age for full-time work. Many of these rules were later included in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

World War II and Beyond: 1940–1956

During World War II, the Children's Bureau worked to support U.S. children. They created standards for day care for children of working mothers. They also focused on children's physical and emotional needs during the war. The Bureau helped care for refugee children arriving in the U.S. by finding them foster families and setting care standards.

The Bureau's Emergency Maternity and Infant Care (EMIC) program was very important. It provided medical care for wives and babies of men in the military. This was the largest federally funded medical program at the time. It helped about 1.5 million women and babies between 1943 and 1949.

In 1946, the Children's Bureau became part of the Social Security Administration. It lost its power over labor-related programs. Martha May Eliot became the Bureau's fourth Chief in 1951.

The Bureau also started the Special Juvenile Delinquency Project in 1952. This project worked to prevent and treat juvenile delinquency. Their work in this area continued with a new division created in 1955.

The Bureau's programs grew after World War II:

• They focused on preventing premature births and helping fragile infants.
• Programs helped children with disabilities stay with their families and in their communities. They helped children with hearing loss, cerebral palsy, cleft palate, and other conditions.
• Federal funds started supporting children in foster care. They also focused on services to help keep families together.

Strengthening Families: 1957–1968

Katherine Oettinger became the fifth Chief of the Children's Bureau in 1957. During her time, the Bureau focused on making families stronger. They also worked for better protection for everyone involved in an adoption.

The Bureau started giving grants for research in child welfare. Early research looked at helping disadvantaged preschool children and selecting foster parents. In 1962, the Bureau started giving grants to colleges to train child welfare workers.

Maternal and infant health programs continued to be important. The Bureau helped with the diagnosis and treatment of phenylketonuria (PKU) to prevent intellectual disability. They also worked on prosthetics research, epilepsy treatment, and spreading vaccines for polio and other childhood diseases.

The Children's Bureau also helped raise awareness about child abuse. They held meetings with experts and created a model law. This law encouraged doctors and hospitals to report suspected abuse. By 1967, all states had some form of this law. The Bureau also funded research into the causes of child abuse and how to prevent it.

In 1963, the Bureau moved to the new Welfare Administration. This showed a growing focus on connecting child welfare services with programs like Aid to Dependent Children.

The Bureau's work on juvenile delinquency changed to focus on prevention and positive youth development. They created a Youth Services Unit in 1966 to help young people transition into adulthood. The Bureau also continued to study ways to improve juvenile court systems. In 1967, they released new standards for juvenile courts. These standards emphasized fair treatment for young offenders.

Focus on Foster Care and Adoption: 1969–1979

In 1969, the Children's Bureau moved to a new Office of Child Development. At this time, many of its responsibilities were given to other government areas. All health programs, including maternal and child health services, moved to the United States Public Health Service. Today, these programs are still part of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The Children's Bureau continued to do research but no longer ran direct service programs. Its focus narrowed to three main areas: increasing foster families, finding permanent families for children needing adoption, and preventing child abuse and neglect.

Because more children were in foster care, the Bureau gave grants to study in-home services to strengthen families. They also looked into finding permanent homes for children and reuniting families. The Bureau supported the growing foster parents' movement.

In adoption, the Bureau shifted its focus from finding children for families to finding parents for children. They paid more attention to children who were harder to place. These included children from minority groups, older children, children with disabilities, and sibling groups. The Bureau supported new types of adoption, like cross-cultural and single-parent adoptions.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 1974 created a National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) within the Children's Bureau. NCCAN helped centralize the Bureau's work on preventing child abuse, research, and state reporting laws.

Data and Prevention: 1980–1992

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act. This law gave the Children's Bureau new responsibilities. These included reporting to Congress on foster care, collecting data on foster care and adoption, and checking state child welfare programs.

During President Ronald Reagan's time, there was continued focus on family-based services, adoption for children with special needs, and preventing child abuse. The Bureau started the first National Child Abuse Prevention Month and National Adoption Week. They also created a National Adoption Information Clearinghouse.

The Bureau developed its current data collection systems: the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Better data helped them understand children and families affected by abuse, neglect, foster care, and adoption. This led to new laws and policies. For example, a federal program was created to help young people leaving foster care without permanent families.

In 1991, the Administration for Children and Families was created. The Children's Bureau became part of it. The NCCAN also became a separate entity within this new administration.

Modern Era: 1993–Present

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family Preservation and Support Services Program Act. This program, run by the Children's Bureau, provided services to help families in crisis. It also supported family reunification. The law also created the Court Improvement Program. This program gives grants to improve how state courts handle child welfare cases.

Growing awareness of child abuse led to better prevention and investigation efforts. In 1996, the Bureau created a new program to encourage public and private groups to work together on child abuse prevention.

In 1995, the Bureau started working on a new National Adoption Strategic Plan. President Clinton also wanted to double the number of adoptions from foster care. The Bureau helped create a plan to achieve this goal. These ideas became the basis for the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) in 1997. The Children's Bureau helped states follow this new law, which focused on finding permanent homes quickly, ensuring children's well-being, and making child welfare systems more accountable.

ASFA also required tracking state performance in protecting children. This led to the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) in 2001. These reviews helped the Bureau understand states' strengths and needs. This allowed them to create better support and data systems. Some examples include:

• Creating Quality Improvement Centers and Regional Implementation Centers.
• Launching AdoptUSKids, a program to increase adoption for children in foster care. This includes a website to list children needing adoption.

In 2003, the Bureau launched a year-long National Child Abuse Prevention Initiative. Support for child abuse prevention has grown, partly because home visitation programs have been shown to reduce child maltreatment.

More recent initiatives by the Children's Bureau include:

• Addressing the shortage of child welfare staff. They launched the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute in 2008.
• Funding a new National Resource Center for In-Home Services in 2009. This helps children stay safely in their homes.
• Holding the first Child Welfare Evaluation Summit in 2009 to improve how child welfare programs are evaluated.
• Funding a program in 2010 to reduce long-term foster care for children facing the biggest challenges.
• Partnering with the U.S. Department of Education in 2011 to improve education for children in foster care.

100 Years of Service: Centennial Celebration

On April 9, 2012, the Children's Bureau celebrated its 100th anniversary. A ceremony was held in Washington, DC. Many important people, including HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, spoke at the event.