Children&Families1st history

The National Child Labor Committee was organized during an April 25, 1904, meeting at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

In 1908, the NCLC hired a photographer, Lewis Wickes Hine, to document child labor in pictures.

A juvenile court in St Louis, MO, hears the case of an 8-year-old boy charged with stealing a bicycle (1910). (Library of Congress, LC-DIG-nclc-04645)

Lewis Hine's photographs, like this one depicting a 5-year-old "shrimp-picker" in Biloxi, MS, in 1911, raised the nation's awareness of and generated sympathy for the plight of child laborers. (Library of Congress, LC-DIG-nclc-00828)

On April 9, 1912, President William Howard Taft signed the law establishing the Children’s Bureau.

The publication of Prenatal Care in 1913 was prompted by findings that many of the infants who failed to survive their first month died due to conditions present before birth.

At the end of Children’s Year (May 5–8, 1919), President Woodrow Wilson and the Children’s Bureau held the Second White House Conference on Children and Youth.

A census enumerator collects information from a father and son during the 1920 census. (United States Census Bureau)

Children’s Bureau studies on the subject of mothers’ aid, including this 1926 bulletin, helped lay the groundwork for the Aid to Dependent Children program. (Open Library)

The Children's Bureau began collecting and publishing the first nationwide uniform juvenile court statistics in 1927. (Maternal and Child Health Library)

Before the program ended in 1929, services reached an estimated 700,000 pregnant women and more than 4 million children, many in rural areas.

Image from materials distributed to delegates at the third White House Conference on Children, 1930. (White House Conference on Child Health and Protection records, Box 145, Hoover Institution Archives)

Passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act on June 4, 1938, represented a major victory for the Children’s Bureau and its partners in seeking Federal regulation of child labor.

White House Conference on Children in a Democracy -- 1940

The Committee on Standards and Services for Day Care submitted detailed standards, which the Bureau published in 1942.

Wives and infants of soldiers like this one, pictured here arriving for duty in Washington, DC, in 1943, were eligible for maternity and infant care funded by the Children's Bureau during World War II. (Library of Congress, LC-USW3-040559-D)

President Truman with members of the National Conference on Prevention and Control of Juvenile Delinquency, 1948. (National Archives)

Beginning in 1949, the first programs to address congenital heart defects were established using these funds.

Martha Eliot, M.D., takes the oath of office as Chief of the Children's Bureau in 1951. (National Archives)

After reviewing previously published studies, analyzing current research activities, and inviting recommendations from experts in related fields, the Bureau published A Research Program for the Children’s Bureau in 1953.

Conference findings related to the harmful effects of segregation would later be cited by the Supreme Court in its 1954 decision outlawing racial segregation in public schools.

The Special Juvenile Delinquency Project ended in 1955, but the Bureau’s work in this area continued within its new Division of Juvenile Delinquency Service.

Katherine Oettinger, the fifth Chief of the Children’s Bureau, in 1957. (Associated Press)

Shortly after Fidel Castro assumed power in Cuba in 1959, refugees began arriving in the United States; many of the new arrivals were unaccompanied children.

Yet in 1960, the country still faced a shortage of approximately 3,000 trained public child welfare workers.

In 1961, the Junior League of Sarasota, formerly the Junior Welfare League of Sarasota, founded the Sarasota Day Nursery.

The Children’s Bureau’s efforts to prevent and treat mental retardation gained momentum in 1962 when President Kennedy named a 24-member panel to develop a “comprehensive and coordinated attack” on the issue.

In January 1963, the Children’s Bureau was moved from the Social Security Administration to the newly created Welfare Administration, which also included the Bureau of Family Services, the Office of Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Development, and the Cuban Refugee Program, among others.

Thanks in part to the Bureau’s leadership on this issue, all States had enacted child abuse reporting laws by the end of 1967.

In early 1968, President Johnson reassigned Oettinger from the Children’s Bureau to be the new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Population and Family Planning, HEW.

Doctor Edward Zigler was named OCD’s first Director in 1970.

Conference participants discussed a list of the “Rights of Foster Parents” and resolved to initiate an annual National Action for Foster Children Week, first held April 9–15, 1972.

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and creation of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) -- 1974

Just before the fall of Saigon, in April 1975, approximately 2,000 infants and young children were quickly evacuated from South Vietnam to the United States under the auspices of the United States Agency for International Development.

A 1977 Children’s Bureau workforce study found a significant void in professional child welfare leadership and practice, minimal staff development, and heavy workloads.

Increase in number of children in foster care raises concerns about foster care “drift.” -- 1978

In 1979, two South Beach Psychiatric Center professionals established our center (then called The Brooklyn Center for Family Life) as a preventive community mental health service.

On May 4, 1980, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) became the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) after the Department of Education Organization Act, which created a separate Department of Education, was signed into law.

In 1982, Congress resolved that June 6–12 should be designated as the first National Child Abuse Prevention Week; the following year, President Reagan proclaimed April to be the first National Child Abuse Prevention Month, a tradition that continues to this day.

Foster care population decreases. -- 1984

Congress creates the first Federal Independent Living program. -- 1986

In 1988, the National Foster Parent Association persuaded Senator Strom Thurmond to introduce a resolution to proclaim May as National Foster Care Month.

By 1989, all but three States had passed Children’s Trust Fund legislation.

LONGSCAN begins. -- 1990

Cover of Child Maltreatment 1992.

Building on this idea, the United States Advisory Board issued a follow-up report in 1993 describing steps to create a comprehensive, neighborhood-based approach to preventing child maltreatment.

Data were collected through VCIS until 1994, when it was replaced by the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS).

In response to a mandate from Congress, the United States Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect issued A Nation’s Shame: Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States in 1995.

The Office on Child Abuse and Neglect and Federal Interagency Work Group on Child Abuse and Neglect are established. -- 1996

Signed into law on November 19, 1997, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) was created to improve the safety of children, promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and support families.

The Children’s Bureau’s long history of publishing research and information for child welfare professionals took a big step into the digital age with the debut of Children’s Bureau Express in March of 2000.

First Child and Family Services Reviews are conducted. -- 2001

Adoption Month poster, 2003.

Children First proudly merged with the historic Helen R. Payne Day Nursery, formerly the Newtown Day Nursery, in 2004.

The Children’s Bureau created a new information service spanning the full spectrum of child welfare topics on June 20, 2006, with the launch of Child Welfare Information Gateway.

In September 2007, Doctor Cecelia Tichi, then Chair of Modern Culture in the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, presented "Justice, Not Pity: Julia Lathrop, First Chief of the United States Children's Bureau.

In 2008, the Children’s Bureau funded five Regional Implementation Centers focused on strategies to achieve sustainable, systemic change and improve outcomes for children and families.

The Quality Improvement Center on Early Childhood, established in FY 2009, is one of three QICs currently funded by the Children's Bureau.

After consultation with stakeholders and pilot-testing in several States, the Bureau began data collection for the National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) in October 2010.

In February 2011, the six grantees were announced for the Permanency Innovations Initiative.

The images and brief text take you on a unique journey through the key projects, initiatives, milestones, and political and social events through 2012 that shaped the evolution of child welfare in America.