Indiana Child Welfare:
The State of Our Children-1997
by
Tracy Williams
Indiana Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations
· Indiana's population younger than age 18 has remained relatively unchanged at 1.48 million from 1985 to 1995; the total number of child abuse and neglect reports has increased more than 105 percent.
- In 1995, there were 70,822 children reported as abused or neglected in the state of Indiana. Slightly less than two-fifths of the investigations into these reports resulted in substantiated or indicated dispositions.
- The number of reports of child abuse and neglect in the United States increased nearly 59 percent from 1985 to 1993; in Indiana, reported incidents increased by 82 percent.
- While Indiana's percentage of substantiated or indicated reports of physical abuse (22 percent) and neglect (47 percent) are similar to the distribution for the United States and contiguous states, the proportion of sexual abuse cases was higher (Indiana, 25 percent; contiguous states, 14 percent; United States, 12 percent).
- From 1985 to 1994, the typical demographic characteristics of sexually abused children were: 85 percent Caucasian, 10 percent African-American, 1.5 percent Hispanic, and 3.5 percent of the children were classified as belonging to an "other" racial group. These proportions are similiar to the racial characteristics (distribution) of children in Indiana. On average, about 80 percent of the victims were female.
- In 1994, 56 Indiana children died from some form of abuse or neglect. The mean age of the children who died as result of abuse was two years old, with 55 percent of the fatalities occurring to children less than one year old.
- In fiscal year 1995, statewide child welfare expenditures, including adjudicated delinquents and child welfare wards, reached $217.4 million. This was $170 million more than was expended in 1985 (in 1995 dollars).
- From 1991 to 1995, foster care expenditures increased more than $30 million (constant dollars) or 742 percent (from 3 percent of total child welfare expenditures to 15 percent).
- Child welfare expenditures, reported by FSSA increased at least 30 percent every two years between 1986 and 1994. From 1994 to 1995, child welfare costs increased 13 percent; during the same period, all other welfare expenses decreased 22 percent.
- In 1995, FSSA child welfare programs were largely the fiscal responsibility of local governments, with more than three-quarters of all funds coming from Indiana's counties. Federal funds supported 21 percent of all expenditures and the state provided funds for 3 percent of the money expended.
- In 1995, five counties were forced to borrow money to support child welfare expenditures. To meet the needs for the child welfare programs, 55 counties, including three of the five borrowing funds, had to increase their welfare property tax rates.
- The Family and Children's Fund, created in 1995 to fund Children in Need of Services (CHINS), accounted for 61 percent of the $281 million in County Welfare Property Taxes levied in 1995.
- Approximately 15 percent of the 12,671 child welfare wards in 1994 were placed in residential care, with 37 percent placed in foster homes, 20 percent assigned to relatives' homes, 2 percent placed in adoptive homes, and 20 percent remaining in their own homes.
- The cost of out-of-home placements for CHINS ranges from $42 to $600 per day, or from $15,330 to $219,000 per year.
- In 1995, 53 percent of the total county Family and Children Fund's in Indiana was used for the care of child welfare and delinquent wards in institutions.
- Indiana is one of 21 states to have started some form of the Healthy Families America Program focusing on early intervention and prevention of child abuse and neglect.
