Unaccompanied Children: HHS Can Take Further Actions to Monitor Their Care

Highlights

What GAO Found

In fiscal year 2014, nearly 57,500 children traveling without their parents or guardians (referred to as unaccompanied children) were apprehended by federal immigration officers and transferred to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Most of these children were from Central America. GAO found that ORR was initially unprepared to care for that many children; however, the agency increased its bed capacity to accommodate up to 10,000 children at a time. Given the unprecedented demand for capacity in 2014, ORR developed a plan to help prepare it to meet fiscal year 2015 needs. The number of children needing ORR's care declined significantly through most of fiscal year 2015, but began increasing again toward the end of the summer. Given the inherent uncertainties associated with planning for capacity needs, ORR's lack of a process for annually updating and documenting its plan inhibits its ability to balance preparations for anticipated needs while minimizing excess capacity.

ORR relies on grantees to provide care for unaccompanied children, including housing and educational, medical, and therapeutic services. GAO's review of a sample of children's case files found that they often did not contain required documents, making it difficult to verify that all required services were provided. ORR revised its on-site monitoring program in 2014 to ensure better coverage of grantees. However, ORR was not able to complete all the visits it planned for fiscal years 2014 and 2015, citing lack of resources. By not monitoring its grantees consistently, ORR may not be able to identify areas where children's care is not provided in accordance with ORR policies and the agreements with grantees.

ORR grantees conduct various background checks on potential sponsors prior to releasing children to them. These potential sponsors are identified and screened by the grantees as part of their responsibilities for the unaccompanied children in their care. The extent of the checks conducted depends on the relationship of the sponsor to the child. Between January 2014 and April 2015, ORR released about 50,000 children from Central America to sponsors to await their immigration hearings. In nearly 90 percent of these cases, the sponsors were a parent or other close relative already residing in the United States. Sponsors do not need to have legal U.S. residency status.

There is limited information available on post-release services provided to children after they leave ORR care. In part, this is because ORR is only required to provide services to a small percentage of children, such as those who were victims of trafficking. In May 2015, ORR established a National Call Center to assist children who may be facing placement disruptions, making post-release services available to some of them. Also, in August 2015, ORR began requiring well-being follow-up calls to all children 30 days after their release. ORR is collecting information through these new initiatives, but does not currently have a process to ensure that the data are reliable, systematically collected, or compiled in summary form. Service providers GAO spoke with also noted that some of these children may have difficultly accessing services due to the lack of bilingual services in the community, lack of health insurance, or other barriers.

Why GAO Did This Study

ORR is responsible for coordinating and implementing the care and placement of unaccompanied children. The number of children placed in ORR's care rose from nearly 6,600 in fiscal year 2011 to nearly 57,500 in fiscal year 2014. GAO was asked to review how ORR managed their care.

This report examines (1) ORR's response to the increase in unaccompanied children, (2) how ORR cares for children in its custody and monitors their care, (3) how ORR identifies and screens sponsors for children, and (4) what is known about services children receive after they leave ORR custody. GAO reviewed relevant federal laws and regulations, ORR policies, and ORR and Executive Office for Immigration Review data. GAO also visited nine ORR grantee facilities in three states selected to vary in the type of care provided, shelter size, and location, and conducted a random, non-generalizable case file review of 27 case files of children released from these facilities. GAO interviewed agency officials and community stakeholders in six counties that received unaccompanied children, representing diversity in geographic location, size, and demographics.

Recommendations

GAO recommends that HHS (1) develop a process to regularly update its capacity plan, (2) improve its monitoring of grantees, and (3) develop processes to ensure its post-release activities provide reliable and useful summary data. HHS agreed with GAO's recommendations.

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected	Recommendation	Status
Department of Health and Human Services	Priority Rec. The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services should direct the Office of Refugee Resettlement to develop a process to update its bed capacity framework on an annual basis to include the most recent data related to numbers of unaccompanied children who may be referred to its care and adjust its planning scenarios that guide its bed capacity as appropriate.	Closed – Implemented The Office of Refugee Resettlement developed a bed capacity framework for fiscal year 2016, and produced a FY 2017 bed capacity framework in June 2017. The frameworks include a discussion of the indicators, referrals and triggers the Administration for Children and Families uses to monitor bed capacity, as well as the agency's framework for ensuring that it has sufficient capacity to meet its need for shelter beds and services.
Department of Health and Human Services	The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services should direct the Office of Refugee Resettlement to review its monitoring program to ensure that onsite visits are conducted in a timely manner, case files are systematically reviewed as part of or separate from onsite visits, and that grantees properly document the services they provide to children.	Closed – Implemented In June 2017, HHS reported that the Office of Refugee Resettlement's (ORR) Unaccompanied Alien Children Program Monitoring Team completed its scheduled monitoring visits for FY 2016. HHS also reported that ORR planned to monitor all of its care providers over the course of FY 2017 and FY 2018. In April 2018, HHS reported that ORR was in the process of reviewing and revising its monitoring tools, and planned to have final versions of these tools completed by the end of fiscal year 2018. In May 2019, HHS reported that ORR had completed monitoring of all but five care providers within the 2017-2018 fiscal year monitoring cycle and provided its monitoring plans for the next two year cycle. Also, HHS reported that prior to and during monitoring visits officials request and review a sample of case files, checking to ensure the files contain required information. In addition, HHS reported that ORR has completed the process to standardize its monitoring tools and will continue to update these tools to reflect ORR policy and procedures.
Department of Health and Human Services	The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services should direct the Office of Refugee Resettlement to develop a process to ensure all information collected through its existing post-release efforts are reliable and systematically collected so that they can be compiled in summary form and provide useful information to other entities internally and externally.	Open – Partially Addressed In 2016, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) created two new sections in its unaccompanied children's policy guide. The first section required ORR staff to make safety and well-being (SWB) follow-up calls to children and their sponsors after children are released from ORR custody. The second section included case reporting, records management, retention, and information sharing requirements for post-release service (PRS) providers. In September 2023, ORR awarded a contract to a vendor experienced in modern technology delivery and human-centered design. Over time, the vendor will replace each capability of the UC Portal, including replacing and building technology to support the PRS expansion. In November 2023, ORR officials reported that SWB calls will be phased out and PRS providers will become responsible for a series of three virtual check-ins with sponsors and children. PRS providers will confirm that children are residing with their sponsors, are enrolled in and attending school, are aware of upcoming court dates, and are healthy and safe. ORR reported that it has developed a new questionnaire, which is awaiting OMB approval, that PRS providers will use during these calls. The agency reported that responses from these check-ins, including information on PRS services provided, will be collected directly into ORR's digital case management system, the Unaccompanied Children (UC) Portal. Also in November 2023, ORR updated the UC Portal to include additional tracking of children post-release, including screens to update the child's current location and history of the child's moves. The UC Portal was also updated to make it easier to track who the child is living with. ORR reported that by the end of 2024, the Portal will be updated further to enhance and digitalize information on post-release services. GAO will close this recommendation once ORR completes improvements to the UC Portal and demonstrates that it can use the portal to collect reliable safety and well-being and post-release services data and disseminate it internally and externally, as appropriate.