Followup Review to Report on Increased Federal Efforts Needed To Better Identify, Treat, and Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect

GAO reported on the actions that have been taken or are underway to implement GAO recommendations on Federal efforts to better identify, treat, and prevent child abuse and neglect. GAO also reported on the recommendations on which no action has been taken and analyzed the number of grants and contracts awarded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect from fiscal year 1978 through February 1981.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has implemented 8 of the GAO recommendations and is in the process of implementing 15 others. It has not implemented eight other recommendations. Of the 15 recommendations being implemented, 6 should be completed in 1981, 5 others depend on the completion of various demonstration and service improvement grants over the next 3 years, and the other 4 require ongoing program monitoring or data collection. From fiscal year 1978 through February 1981, the Center made 447 awards totaling $58.3 million to both organizations and States. Most of the recipients received several awards during the period as part of a single grant/contract with portions of the total funding allocated to several fiscal years. Although several grantees received more than one grant during the period under review, GAO found no evidence of duplication of projects in the awards. Of the 311 awards to organizations, 152 were demonstration grants and contracts.