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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Approximately 3,000,000 reports of child 
abuse and neglect must be investigated each year. 
(2) Approximately 1,000,000 of these reports 
are confirmed and require ongoing intervention.
(3) On any given day in the United States, 
more than 500,000 children are being served outside 
their homes by the child welfare system. 
(4) These children are served in more than 
150,000 foster homes and more than 5,000 residen-
tial programs. 
(5) The child welfare workforce crisis has devel-
oped as the result of the following 3 major factors: 
(A) Overall low levels of unemployment 
and the resulting increase in competition for 
workers in all sectors of the economy. 
(B) The increasing numbers of children 
and families needing service coupled with the 
decreasing numbers of workers in the employ-
ment pool. 
(C) The relatively low pay and difficult 
working conditions that exist in many child wel-
fare agencies. 
(6) The vacancy rate in State child welfare 
agencies is 8.1 percent, and 14.3 percent for private 
agencies. 
(7) The overall turnover rate in child welfare 
agencies has doubled since 1991, to 13.9 percent in 
public agencies and to 46.5 percent in private agen-
cies.
(8) The child welfare workforce crisis is real 
and is already compromising the ability of the child 
welfare system to effectively provide essential serv-
ices to its children and families. In addition, analysis 
of trends indicates that the situation will worsen 
over the next decade. It is clear that steps must be 
taken now to encourage more workers to enter the 
child welfare services field and to improve the sala-
ries, working conditions, and training of workers 
who provide these critically important services. 
SEC. 2. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR CHILD WELFARE WORK-
ERS. 
Part B of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 
1965 is amended by inserting after section 428K (20 
U.S.C. 1078–11) the following: 
‘‘SEC. 428L. LOAN FORGIVENESS FOR CHILD WELFARE 
WORKERS. 
‘‘(a) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this section—
‘‘(1) to bring more highly trained individuals 
into the child welfare profession; and 
‘‘(2) to keep more highly trained child welfare 
workers in the child welfare field for longer periods 
of time. 
‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
‘‘(1) CHILD
WELFARE
SERVICES.—The term 
‘child welfare services’ has the meaning given the 
term in section 425 of the Social Security Act. 
‘‘(2) CHILD
WELFARE
AGENCY.—The term 
‘child welfare agency’ means the State agency re-
sponsible for administering subpart 1 of part B of 
title IV of the Social Security Act and any public or 
private agency under contract with the State agency 
to provide child welfare services. 
‘‘(3) INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION.—
The term ‘institution of higher education’ has the 
meaning given the term in section 101. 
‘‘(4) STATE.—The term ‘State’ has the mean-
ing given the term in section 1101(a)(1) of the So-
cial Security Act for purposes of title IV of such 
Act, and includes an Indian tribe. 
‘‘(c) DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.—
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may carry 
out a demonstration program of assuming the obli-
gation to repay, pursuant to subsection (d), a loan 
made, insured, or guaranteed under this part or part 
D (excluding loans made under sections 428B and 
428C, or comparable loans made under part D) for 
any new borrower after the date of enactment of this 
section, who—
‘‘(A) obtains a bachelor’s or master’s de-
gree in social work; 
‘‘(B) obtains employment in public or pri-
vate child welfare services; and 
‘‘(C) has worked full time as a social work-
er for 2 consecutive years preceding the year 
for which the determination is made. 
‘‘(2) AWARD BASIS; PRIORITY.—
‘‘(A) AWARD BASIS.—Subject to subpara-
graph (B), loan repayment under this section 
shall be on a first-come, first-served basis and 
subject to the availability of appropriations. 
‘‘(B) PRIORITY.—The Secretary shall give 
priority in providing loan repayment under this 
section for a fiscal year to student borrowers 
who received loan repayment under this section 
for the preceding fiscal year. 
‘‘(3) OUTREACH.—The Secretary shall post a 
notice on a Department Internet web site regarding 
the availability of loan repayment under this section, 
and shall notify institutions of higher education re-
garding the availability of loan repayment under this 
section.