Decreasing ORR’s Dependence on Congregate Care: Four Recommendations for Progress

In this policy brief, the Women’s Refugee Commission calls on the Biden administration – specifically the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) – to move away from congregate care for unaccompanied minors and instead improve care for unaccompanied children by adopting four specific recommendations. Based on research with current and former staff at congregate care facilities, post-release service providers, attorneys, and child advocates across the United States, the brief outlines that ORR should:

1. Prioritize geolocation in initial placement decisions;
2. Build a pipeline of community-based care providers;
3. Rectify problems of language access for children in care; and
4. Provide localized, wrap-around services for unaccompanied children released to a non-relative sponsor.