II 

112TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1984 

To establish a commission to develop a national strategy and recommendations 

for reducing fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 13, 2011 

Mr. KERRY (for himself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 

Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To establish a commission to develop a national strategy 

and recommendations for reducing fatalities resulting 

from child abuse and neglect. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. COMMISSION. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect our Kids Act 

5 of 2011’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 

8 (1) deaths from child abuse and neglect are 

9 preventable; 


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1 (2) deaths from child abuse and neglect are sig2 nificantly underreported and there is no national 

3 standard for reporting such deaths; 

4 (3) according to the National Child Abuse and 

5 Neglect Data System, in fiscal year 2009 approxi6 mately 1,770 children in the United States are re7 ported to have died from child abuse and neglect, 

8 and many experts believe that the actual number 

9 may be significantly more; 

10 (4) nearly half of the number of children in the 

11 United States who die from abuse are under the age 

12 of 1, and more than 80 percent are under the age 

13 of 4; 

14 (5) in 2009, of deaths from child abuse and ne15 glect— 

16 (A) nearly 36 percent were caused by ne17 glect; 

18 (B) 23 percent were caused by physical 

19 abuse; and 

20 (C) more than 36 percent were caused by 

21 multiple forms of maltreatment; 

22 (6) each year approximately 6,000,000 children 

23 in the United States are referred to child protective 

24 services because of allegations of child abuse and ne25 glect; and 


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1 (7) increased understanding of deaths from 

2 child abuse and neglect can lead to improvement in 

3 agency systems and practices to protect children and 

4 prevent child abuse and neglect. 

5 SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF COMMISSION. 

6 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is established the Com7 mission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities 

8 (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 

9 (b) MEMBERSHIP.— 

10 (1) COMPOSITION.— 

11 (A) NUMBER.—The Commission shall be 

12 composed of not fewer than 12 and not more 

13 than 15 members, all of whom shall be ap14 pointed by the President. 

15 (B) QUALIFICATIONS.—Each member ap16 pointed under subparagraph (A) shall have ex17 perience in 1 or more areas consisting of— 

18 (i) State child welfare agency adminis19 tration; 

20 (ii) child welfare advocacy; 

21 (iii) child development; 

22 (iv) trauma and crisis intervention; 

23 (v) pediatrics; 

24 (vi) child psychology and mental 

25 health; 


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1 (vii) emergency medicine; 

2 (viii) forensic pathology or medical in3 vestigation of injury and fatality; 

4 (ix) social work with field experience; 

5 (x) academia at an institution of high6 er education, as that term is defined in 

7 section 101 of the Higher Education Act 

8 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001), with a focus on 

9 1 or more of the other areas listed under 

10 this subparagraph; 

11 (xi) law enforcement, with experience 

12 handling child abuse and neglect matters; 

13 (xii) civil law, with experience han14 dling child abuse and neglect matters; 

15 (xiii) criminal law, with experience 

16 handling child abuse and neglect matters; 

17 (xiv) substance abuse treatment; 

18 (xv) education at an elementary school 

19 or secondary school, as those terms are de20 fined in section 9101 of the Elementary 

21 and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 

22 U.S.C. 7801); 

23 (xvi) epidemiology; and 


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1 (xvii) computer science or software 

2 engineering with a background in inter3 operability standards. 

4 (C) EXPERIENCE.—The Commission shall 

5 have 1 or more members with experience in 

6 each of the areas listed in subparagraph (B). 

7 (2) DATE.—The appointments of the members 

8 of the Commission shall be made not later than 90 

9 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 

10 (c) PERIOD OF APPOINTMENT; VACANCIES.—Mem11 bers shall be appointed for the life of the Commission. Any 

12 vacancy in the Commission shall not affect its powers, but 

13 shall be filled in the same manner as the original appoint14 ment. 

15 (d) INITIAL MEETING.—Not later than 30 days after 

16 the date on which all members of the Commission have 

17 been appointed, the Commission shall hold its first meet18 ing. 

19 (e) MEETINGS.—The Commission shall meet at the 

20 call of the Chairperson. 

21 (f) QUORUM.—A majority of the members of the 

22 Commission shall constitute a quorum, but a lesser num23 ber of members may hold hearings. 

24 (g) CHAIRPERSON.—The President shall select a 

25 Chairperson for the Commission from among its members. 


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1 SEC. 4. DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION. 

2 (a) STUDY.— 

3 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall con4 duct a thorough study on reducing fatalities from 

5 child abuse and neglect. 

6 (2) MATTERS STUDIED.—The matters studied 

7 by the Commission shall include— 

8 (A) the incidence of fatalities from child 

9 abuse and neglect in the United States and 

10 whether that incidence has been increasing over 

11 time; 

12 (B) the feasibility of establishing a system 

13 that accurately records incidents of child abuse 

14 and neglect; 

15 (C) practices that can prevent fatalities 

16 from child abuse and neglect; 

17 (D) the role of parental substance abuse, 

18 parental mental health issues, and domestic vio19 lence in increasing the incidence of child abuse 

20 and neglect; 

21 (E) the adequacy and effectiveness of pro22 grams, including child health services, mental 

23 health services, child protective services, child 

24 welfare services, education, child care, juvenile 

25 justice services, and law enforcement activities, 

26 designed to identify and prevent child (includes 


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1 youth) fatalities that are intentionally caused or 

2 that occur due to negligence, neglect, or a fail3 ure to exercise proper care; 

4 (F) the effectiveness of Federal, State, and 

5 local policies and systems aimed at appro6 priately identifying and collecting accurate, uni7 form data on child fatalities in a coordinated 

8 fashion, including the identification of the most 

9 and least effective policies and systems in prac10 tice; 

11 (G) the adequacy of Federal, State, and 

12 local efforts to obtain an appropriate distribu13 tion of properly trained child health services, 

14 mental health services, child protective services, 

15 child welfare services, education, child care, ju16 venile justice services, and law enforcement per17 sonnel to identify and prevent child fatalities; 

18 (H) the current (as of the date of the 

19 study) resource limitations and barriers to pre20 venting fatalities from child abuse and neglect, 

21 and how to improve efficiency of use of those 

22 current resources to improve child welfare out23 comes; 

24 (I) identification of best practices in evalu25 ating programs for effectiveness in preventing 


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1 child abuse and neglect and fatalities from child 

2 abuse and neglect; 

3 (J) methods of prioritizing child abuse and 

4 neglect prevention services for families with the 

5 highest need, including exploring prioritization 

6 based on risk factors beyond poverty; 

7 (K) the correlation between animal abuse 

8 and child abuse, including whether additional 

9 research and policy changes could better ad10 dress that correlation and whether there are 

11 warning signs that animal abuse may escalate 

12 to child abuse; 

13 (L) methods of improving data collection 

14 and utilization, such as increasing interoper15 ability among State and local systems and using 

16 other effective and financially feasible ap17 proaches; 

18 (M) identification of best practices and 

19 models for promoting child welfare, specifically 

20 addressing child abuse and neglect; 

21 (N) identification of requirements and na22 tional standards for training and education for 

23 child welfare workers; 

24 (O) the potential impact of a Federal law 

25 mandating the review of fatalities of children; 


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1 (P) the development of a model protocol 

2 for assuring that civil and criminal legal pro3 ceedings are closely coordinated between child 

4 protection and law enforcement agencies, in5 cluding coordination between law enforcement 

6 personnel, child protection services personnel, 

7 prosecutors, medical providers, victim advo8 cates, and mental health professionals; 

9 (Q) the potential effectiveness of a tar10 geted public education campaign focused on 

11 community involvement to reduce child abuse 

12 and neglect; 

13 (R) possible modifications to confidentiality 

14 laws that would increase access to information 

15 and better protect child victims; 

16 (S) examination of public and private mod17 els for improving child welfare outcomes, in18 cluding suggestions for expanding the most ef19 fective approaches; 

20 (T) examination of sources for available 

21 data beyond fatalities, such as data on serious 

22 injuries and ‘‘near misses’’; 

23 (U) development of guidelines for the type 

24 of instances that should be tracked to improve 


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1 child welfare response and interventions to pre2 vent fatalities from child abuse and neglect; and 

3 (V) consideration of past recommendations 

4 from the Advisory Board on Child Abuse and 

5 Neglect, including updates on those rec6 ommendations. 

7 (3) MATERIALS STUDIED.—The Commission 

8 shall review all current (as of the date of the study) 

9 research and documentation, including the National 

10 Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being and re11 search and recommendations from the Government 

12 Accountability Office, to identify lessons, solutions, 

13 and needed improvements related to reducing fatali14 ties from child abuse and neglect. 

15 (b) COORDINATION.—The Commission shall— 

16 (1) provide opportunities for graduate and doc17 toral students to coordinate research with the Com18 mission; and 

19 (2) coordinate with institutions of higher edu20 cation, as that term is defined in section 101 of the 

21 Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001), in22 terested in supporting the work of the Commission. 

23 (c) RECOMMENDATIONS.—The Commission shall de24 velop recommendations for Federal, State, and local agen25 cies, and private sector and nonprofit organizations to imVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:19 Dec 18, 2011 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1984.IS S1984

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1 plement a comprehensive national strategy that reduces 

2 fatalities from child abuse and neglect. 

3 (d) REPORT.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years after 

5 the date of the enactment of this Act, the Commis6 sion shall submit a report to the President and Con7 gress, which shall contain a detailed statement of 

8 the findings and conclusions of the Commission, to9 gether with its recommendations for such legislation 

10 and administrative actions as it considers appro11 priate. 

12 (2) ONLINE ACCESS.—The Commission shall 

13 make the report under paragraph (1) available on 

14 the publicly available Internet Web site of the De15 partment of Health and Human Services. 

16 SEC. 5. POWERS OF THE COMMISSION. 

17 (a) HEARINGS.— 

18 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Commission may hold 

19 such hearings, sit and act at such times and places, 

20 take such testimony, and receive such evidence as 

21 the Commission considers advisable to carry out this 

22 Act. 

23 (2) LOCATION.—The location of hearings under 

24 paragraph (1) shall include— 


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1 (A) areas with high fatality rates from 

2 child abuse and neglect; and 

3 (B) areas that have shown a decrease in 

4 fatalities from child abuse and neglect. 

5 (3) SUBJECT.—The Commission shall hold 

6 hearings under paragraph (1)— 

7 (A) to examine the Federal, State, and 

8 local policies and available resources that affect 

9 fatalities from child abuse and neglect; and 

10 (B) to explore the matters studied under 

11 section 4(a)(2). 

12 (b) INFORMATION FROM FEDERAL AGENCIES.—The 

13 Commission may secure directly from any Federal depart14 ment or agency such information as the Commission con15 siders necessary to carry out this Act. Upon request of 

16 the Chairperson of the Commission, the head of such de17 partment or agency shall furnish such information to the 

18 Commission. 

19 (c) POSTAL SERVICES.—The Commission may use 

20 the United States mails in the same manner and under 

21 the same conditions as other departments and agencies of 

22 the Federal Government. 

23 (d) GIFTS.—The Commission may accept, use, and 

24 dispose of gifts or donations of services or property. 


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1 SEC. 6. COMMISSION PERSONNEL MATTERS. 

2 (a) COMPENSATION OF MEMBERS.—Each member of 

3 the Commission who is not an officer or employee of the 

4 Federal Government shall be compensated at a rate equal 

5 to the daily equivalent of the annual rate of basic pay pre6 scribed for level IV of the Executive Schedule under sec7 tion 5315 of title 5, United States Code, for each day (in8 cluding travel time) during which such member is engaged 

9 in the performance of the duties of the Commission. All 

10 members of the Commission who are officers or employees 

11 of the United States shall serve without compensation in 

12 addition to that received for their services as officers or 

13 employees of the United States. 

14 (b) TRAVEL EXPENSES.—The members of the Com15 mission shall be allowed travel expenses, including per 

16 diem in lieu of subsistence, at rates authorized for employ17 ees of agencies under subchapter I of chapter 57 of title 

18 5, United States Code, while away from their homes or 

19 regular places of business in the performance of services 

20 for the Commission. 

21 (c) STAFF.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Chairperson of the 

23 Commission may, without regard to the civil service 

24 laws and regulations, appoint and terminate an exec25 utive director and such other additional personnel as 

26 may be necessary to enable the Commission to perVerDate Mar 15 2010 00:19 Dec 18, 2011 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1984.IS S1984

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1 form its duties. The employment of an executive di2 rector shall be subject to confirmation by the Com3 mission. 

4 (2) COMPENSATION.—The Chairperson of the 

5 Commission may fix the compensation of the execu6 tive director and other personnel without regard to 

7 chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 53 of title 

8 5, United States Code, relating to classification of 

9 positions and General Schedule pay rates, except 

10 that the rate of pay for the executive director and 

11 other personnel may not exceed the rate payable for 

12 level V of the Executive Schedule under section 5316 

13 of such title. 

14 (d) DETAIL OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES.—Any 

15 Federal Government employee may be detailed to the 

16 Commission without reimbursement, and such detail shall 

17 be without interruption or loss of civil service status or 

18 privilege. 

19 (e) PROCUREMENT OF TEMPORARY AND INTERMIT20 TENT SERVICES.—The Chairperson of the Commission 

21 may procure temporary and intermittent services under 

22 section 3109(b) of title 5, United States Code, at rates 

23 for individuals that do not exceed the daily equivalent of 

24 the annual rate of basic pay prescribed for level V of the 

25 Executive Schedule under section 5316 of such title. 


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1 SEC. 7. TERMINATION OF THE COMMISSION. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Commission shall terminate 

3 on the earlier of— 

4 (1) the 90th day after the date on which the 

5 Commission submits its report under section 4(d); or 

6 (2) the day that is 3 years after the initial 

7 meeting under section 3(d). 

8 (b) EXCEPTION.—The President may extend the ter9 mination date under subsection (a)(2) by an additional 1 

10 year. 

11 SEC. 8. FEDERAL AGENCY RESPONSE. 

12 Not later than 6 months after the submission of the 

13 report required under section 4(d), any Federal agency 

14 that is affected by a recommendation described in the re15 port shall submit to Congress a report containing the re16 sponse of the Federal agency to the recommendation and 

17 the plans of the Federal agency to address the rec18 ommendation. 

19 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

20 (a) IN GENERAL.—There is authorized to be appro21 priated $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2012, 2013, 

22 and 2014 to the Commission to carry out this Act. 

23 (b) AVAILABILITY.—Any sums appropriated under 

24 the authorization contained in this section shall remain 

25 available, without fiscal year limitation, until expended. 

Æ 


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