I 

108TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 734

To provide loan forgiveness to social workers who work for child protective 

agencies. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 12, 2003

Mrs. JONES of Ohio (for herself, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. NADLER, Mr. RYAN

of Ohio, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD, and Mr. KUCINICH) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 

the Workforce 

A BILL

To provide loan forgiveness to social workers who work for 

child protective agencies.

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

3 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

4 Congress makes the following findings: 

5 (1) Approximately 3,000,000 reports of child 

6 abuse and neglect must be investigated each year. 

7 (2) Approximately 1,000,000 of these reports 

8 are confirmed and require ongoing intervention. 
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1 (3) On any given day in the United States, 

2 more than 500,000 children are being served outside 

3 their homes by the child welfare system. 

4 (4) These children are served in more than 

5 150,000 foster homes and more than 5,000 residen6 tial programs. 

7 (5) The child welfare workforce crisis has devel8 oped as the result of the following 3 major factors: 

9 (A) Overall low levels of unemployment 

10 and the resulting increase in competition for 

11 workers in all sectors of the economy. 

12 (B) The increasing numbers of children 

13 and families needing service coupled with the 

14 decreasing numbers of workers in the employ15 ment pool. 

16 (C) The relatively low pay and difficult 

17 working conditions that exist in many child wel18 fare agencies. 

19 (6) The vacancy rate in State child welfare 

20 agencies is 8.1 percent, and 14.3 percent for private 

21 agencies. 

22 (7) The overall turnover rate in child welfare 

23 agencies has doubled since 1991, to 13.9 percent in 

24 public agencies and to 46.5 percent in private agen25 cies. 
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1 (8) The child welfare workforce crisis is real 

2 and is already compromising the ability of the child 

3 welfare system to effectively provide essential serv4 ices to its children and families. In addition, analysis 

5 of trends indicates that the situation will worsen 

6 over the next decade. It is clear that steps must be 

7 taken now to encourage more workers to enter the 

8 child welfare services field and to improve the sala9 ries, working conditions, and training of workers 

10 who provide these critically important services. 

11 SEC. 2. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR CHILD WELFARE WORK12 ERS. 

13 Part B of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 

14 1965 is amended by inserting after section 428K (20 

15 U.S.C. 1078–11) the following: 

16 ‘‘SEC. 428L. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR CHILD WELFARE 

17 WORKERS. 

18 ‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this section—

19 ‘‘(1) to bring more highly trained individuals 

20 into the child welfare profession; and 

21 ‘‘(2) to keep more highly trained child welfare 

22 workers in the child welfare field for longer periods 

23 of time. 

24 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
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1 ‘‘(1) CHILD WELFARE SERVICES.—The term 

2 ‘child welfare services’ has the meaning given the 

3 term in section 425 of the Social Security Act. 

4 ‘‘(2) CHILD WELFARE AGENCY.—The term 

5 ‘child welfare agency’ means the State agency re6 sponsible for administering subpart 1 of part B of 

7 title IV of the Social Security Act and any public or 

8 private agency under contract with the State agency 

9 to provide child welfare services. 

10 ‘‘(3) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—

11 The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 

12 meaning given the term in section 101. 

13 ‘‘(4) STATE.—The term ‘State’ has the mean14 ing given the term in section 1101(a)(1) of the So15 cial Security Act for purposes of title IV of such 

16 Act, and includes an Indian tribe. 

17 ‘‘(c) DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.—

18 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may carry 

19 out a demonstration program of assuming the obli20 gation to repay, pursuant to subsection (d), a loan 

21 made, insured, or guaranteed under this part or part 

22 D (excluding loans made under sections 428B and 

23 428C, or comparable loans made under part D) for 

24 any new borrower after the date of enactment of this 

25 section, who—
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1 ‘‘(A) obtains a bachelor’s or master’s de2 gree in social work; 

3 ‘‘(B) obtains employment in public or pri4 vate child welfare services; and 

5 ‘‘(C) has worked full time as a social work6 er for 2 consecutive years preceding the year 

7 for which the determination is made. 

8 ‘‘(2) AWARD BASIS; PRIORITY.—

9 ‘‘(A) AWARD BASIS.—Subject to subpara10 graph (B), loan repayment under this section 

11 shall be on a first-come, first-served basis and 

12 subject to the availability of appropriations. 

13 ‘‘(B) PRIORITY.—The Secretary shall give 

14 priority in providing loan repayment under this 

15 section for a fiscal year to student borrowers 

16 who received loan repayment under this section 

17 for the preceding fiscal year. 

18 ‘‘(3) OUTREACH.—The Secretary shall post a 

19 notice on a Department Internet web site regarding 

20 the availability of loan repayment under this section, 

21 and shall notify institutions of higher education re22 garding the availability of loan repayment under this 

23 section.
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1 ‘‘(4) REGULATIONS.—The Secretary is author2 ized to prescribe such regulations as may be nec3 essary to carry out the provisions of this section. 

4 ‘‘(d) LOAN REPAYMENT.—

5 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall assume 

6 the obligation to repay—

7 ‘‘(A) after the third consecutive year of 

8 employment described in subsection (c)(1)(C), 

9 20 percent of the total amount of all loans 

10 made under this part or part D (excluding 

11 loans made under section 428B or 428C, or 

12 comparable loans made under part D) for any 

13 new borrower after the date of enactment of 

14 this section; 

15 ‘‘(B) after the fourth consecutive year of 

16 such employment, 30 percent of the total 

17 amount of such loans; and 

18 ‘‘(C) after the fifth consecutive year of 

19 such employment, 50 percent of the total 

20 amount of such loans. 

21 ‘‘(2) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this section 

22 shall be construed to authorize the refunding of any 

23 repayment of a loan made under this part or part 

24 D. 
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1 ‘‘(3) INTEREST.—If a portion of a loan is re2 paid by the Secretary under this section for any 

3 year, the proportionate amount of interest on such 

4 loan which accrues for such year shall be repaid by 

5 the Secretary. 

6 ‘‘(4) SPECIAL RULE.—In the case of a student 

7 borrower not participating in loan repayment pursu8 ant to this section who returns to an institution of 

9 higher education after graduation from an institu10 tion of higher education for the purpose of obtaining 

11 a degree described in subsection (c)(1)(A), the Sec12 retary is authorized to assume the obligation to 

13 repay the total amount of loans made under this 

14 part or part D incurred for a maximum of 2 aca15 demic years in returning to an institution of higher 

16 education for the purpose of obtaining such a de17 gree. Such loans shall only be repaid for borrowers 

18 who qualify for loan repayment pursuant to the pro19 visions of this section, and shall be repaid in accord20 ance with the provisions of paragraph (1). 

21 ‘‘(5) INELIGIBILITY OF NATIONAL SERVICE

22 AWARD RECIPIENTS.—No student borrower may, for 

23 the same service, receive a benefit under both this 

24 section and subtitle D of title I of the National and 
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1 Community Service Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12601 

2 et seq.). 

3 ‘‘(e) REPAYMENT TO ELIGIBLE LENDERS.—The Sec4 retary shall pay to each eligible lender or holder for each 

5 fiscal year an amount equal to the aggregate amount of 

6 loans which are subject to repayment pursuant to this sec7 tion for such year. 

8 ‘‘(f) APPLICATION FOR REPAYMENT.—

9 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each eligible individual de10 siring loan repayment under this section shall sub11 mit a complete and accurate application to the Sec12 retary at such time, in such manner, and containing 

13 such information as the Secretary may require. 

14 ‘‘(2) CONDITIONS.—An eligible individual may 

15 apply for loan repayment under this section after 

16 completing each year of qualifying employment. The 

17 borrower shall receive forbearance while engaged in 

18 qualifying employment unless the borrower is in 

19 deferment while so engaged. 

20 ‘‘(g) EVALUATION.—

21 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall con22 duct, by grant or contract, an independent national 

23 evaluation of the impact of the demonstration pro24 gram assisted under this section on the field of child 

25 welfare services. 
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1 ‘‘(2) COMPETITIVE BASIS.—The grant or con2 tract described in paragraph (1) shall be awarded on 

3 a competitive basis. 

4 ‘‘(3) CONTENTS.—The evaluation described in 

5 this subsection shall determine—

6 ‘‘(A) whether the loan forgiveness program 

7 has increased child welfare workers’ education 

8 in the areas covered by loan forgiveness; 

9 ‘‘(B) whether the loan forgiveness program 

10 has contributed to increased time on the job for 

11 child welfare workers as measured by—

12 ‘‘(i) the length of time child welfare 

13 workers receiving loan forgiveness have 

14 worked in the child welfare field; and 

15 ‘‘(ii) the length of time such workers 

16 continue to work in such field after the 

17 workers meet the requirements for loan 

18 forgiveness under this section; and 

19 ‘‘(C) whether the loan forgiveness program 

20 has increased the experience and the quality of 

21 child welfare workers and has contributed to in22 creased performance in the outcomes of child 

23 welfare services in terms of child well-being, 

24 permanency, and safety, as determined after 
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1 consultation with the Secretary of Health and 

2 Human Services. 

3 ‘‘(4) INTERIM AND FINAL EVALUATION RE4 PORTS.—The Secretary shall prepare and submit to 

5 the President and Congress such interim reports re6 garding the evaluation described in this subsection 

7 as the Secretary determines appropriate, and shall 

8 prepare and so submit a final report regarding the 

9 evaluation by September 30, 2005. 

10 ‘‘(h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

11 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

12 $20,000,000 for fiscal year 2003, and such sums as may 

13 be necessary for each of the 4 succeeding fiscal years.’’.

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