[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3470 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3470

  To strengthen the accountability of the child welfare system in its 
 mandate to ensure the safety, permanence, and well-being of children 
                 who are victims of abuse and neglect.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 27, 2005

   Mr. Davis of Illinois (for himself and Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To strengthen the accountability of the child welfare system in its 
 mandate to ensure the safety, permanence, and well-being of children 
                 who are victims of abuse and neglect.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Accountability in Foster Care Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Key child welfare laws, such as the Adoption and Safe 
        Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-89) and the John H. Chafee 
        Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (Public Law 106-169), 
        emphasize the importance of monitoring States performances in 
        providing for the safety, permanency, stability, and well-being 
        of children in and emancipated from the foster care system via 
        measurable outcome data.
            (2) Child welfare experts and government agents have 
        identified serious problems with current efforts to measure 
        program functioning related to children in foster care and 
        emancipated youth, including--
                    (A) Performance measures that prohibit examining 
                children or success over time, overestimate the 
                proportion of children reunified with families, and 
                fail to consider the nature of the children (such as 
                the severity of their problems, their age, and their 
                urbanicity) served that could affect determinations of 
                a State's success;
                    (B) The failure of the Department of Health and 
                Human Services to implement the National Youth in 
                Transition Database to monitor States' performance 
                related to youth aging out of the foster care system, 
                as mandated by the Foster Care Independence Act of 
                1999; and
                    (C) Findings by the Government Accountability 
                Office that effective Federal oversight of the child 
                welfare system requires reliable information on States' 
                implementation efforts and that the ability of the 
                Administration of Children and Families to monitor 
                State performance continues to be hindered by an 
                absence of standard, comprehensive information within 
                and across State plans on each State's goals, services, 
                and youth outcomes as measured against baselines of 
                past achievement.

SEC. 3. ADVISORY PANEL ON THE ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE ANALYSIS AND 
              REPORTING SYSTEM.

    (a) Establishment.--Not later than 90 days after the date of the 
enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall establish an Advisory 
Panel (in this Act referred to as the ``Advisory Panel'') on the 
Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (in this Act 
referred to as ``AFCARS'') to revise and monitor the data collection, 
analysis, and reporting system designed to be used to assess and 
improve State performance in operating child protection and child 
welfare programs pursuant to parts B and E of title IV of the Social 
Security Act.
    (b) Functions.--The Advisory Panel established under subsection (a) 
shall--
            (1) no later than 6 months after its appointment, make 
        written recommendations for changes in law or data collection 
        procedures necessary to revise AFCARS to enable the revised 
        AFCARS to--
                    (A) longitudinally track child-specific outcomes 
                (including maltreatment in foster care, number of 
                foster care placements, maltreatment in foster care, 
                and time to reunification, adoption, or legal 
                guardianship) for children in or who have exited the 
                foster care system through emancipation, adoption, or 
                legal guardianship, developing appropriate timeframes 
                for following children after exiting the system;
                    (B) collect and analyze entry and exit cohort data;
                    (C) be integrated with the National Youth in 
                Transition Database to promote efficiency in data 
                collection and to allow States to examine the 
                relationships between the experiences of youths while 
                in care and later transition outcomes; and
                    (D) include outcome measures of child well-being 
                (including education, health, mental health, and 
                connection to adults);
            (2) monitor the implementation of these AFCARS improvements 
        and propose improvements to other State performance measures 
        related to provision of services to children and families, by--
                    (A) convening not less frequently than annually to 
                evaluate the quality of the revised AFCARS and make 
                recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human 
                Services for continuing improvement in the quality of 
                the system of data collection, analysis, and reporting;
                    (B) developing a uniform reporting format for the 
                Child and Family Services Plan and the Annual Progress 
                and Services Report in developing services for children 
                and families; and
                    (C) proposing performance standards that allow for 
                differences among States and characteristics among 
                populations served (such as differences in the severity 
                of problems faced by the population, age of the 
                population, or urbanicity of the population) in 
                understanding States performance; and
            (3) examining the feasibility of linking AFCARS and the 
        National Child Abuse and Neglect Data Systems (NCANDS) to 
        understand longitudinal outcomes of children who may be in both 
        systems.
    (c) Membership.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), the Secretary of 
        Health and Human Services shall determine the membership and 
        organization of the Advisory Panel.
            (2) Qualifications.--The membership of the Advisory Panel 
        shall include--
                    (A) representatives of State and local governmental 
                agencies with responsibility for foster care and 
                adoption services, which may include caseworkers 
                responsible for input data used for AFCARS or other 
                Federal child welfare data reporting systems;
                    (B) representatives of research organizations and 
                universities who focus on child welfare issues;
                    (C) representatives of private, nonprofit 
                organizations with an interest in child protection and 
                child welfare, including those with demonstrated 
                expertise in developing effective child welfare 
                assessment tools;
                    (D) representatives of Federal agencies responsible 
                for the collection of child welfare data and 
                statistics;
                    (E) representatives of families of former foster 
                children, including adoptive parents or guardians; and
                    (F) representatives of juvenile, family, or 
                dependency courts.
    (d) Use of Alternative Longitudinal Measures by States.--Until 
final regulations providing for implementation of the recommendations 
made pursuant to this section are promulgated, the Secretary shall 
assess the extent to which a State is in compliance with a corrective 
action plan pursuant to section 1123A of the Social Security Act 
through use of such alternative longitudinal measures as the State may 
select.
    (e) Permanency.--Section 14(a)(2) of the Federal Advisory Committee 
Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Advisory Board.

SEC. 4. REGULATIONS TO REVISE THE ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE ANALYSIS AND 
              REPORTING SYSTEM.

    (a) Notice of Proposed Regulations.--Not later than 12 months after 
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services shall cause to be published in the Federal Register a 
notice of proposed regulations to revise AFCARS which details the plans 
and timetable for implementing the regulations described in subsection 
(b).
    (b) Content of Proposed Regulations.--The proposed regulations 
shall be based on the recommendations provided by the Advisory Panel, 
and shall--
            (1) permit longitudinal analysis of child-specific 
        outcomes, including analysis of entry and exit cohort data for 
        children in and emancipated from foster care;
            (2) permit AFCARS to be integrated with the planned 
        National Youth in Transition Database; and
            (3) contain such other rules as may be necessary to ensure 
        that the revised AFCARS can perform the functions described in 
        section 3(b).
    (c) Final Regulations.--Not later than 6 months after the notice 
required by subsection (a) is published, the Secretary of Health and 
Human Services shall publish final regulations to revise AFCARS in the 
manner described in this section.
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