[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2022 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2022

 To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a 
study on the recruitment and retention of foster parents in the United 
                                States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 26, 2011

    Ms. Bass of California introduced the following bill; which was 
              referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a 
study on the recruitment and retention of foster parents in the United 
                                States.

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

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Nation's foster care system provides for nearly 
        424,000 children each day who are unable to live safely with 
        their biological parents.
            (2) In fiscal year 2009, an estimated 255,000 children 
        entered the foster care system and an average of 115,000 
        children were waiting to be adopted every day.
            (3) Most children who are removed from the care of their 
        parents live with non-relative foster parents, however, the 
        number of children placed in relative foster care is growing.
            (4) Foster parents and relative caregivers are the most 
        frontline caregivers for children who cannot safely remain with 
        their biological parents and provide physical care and 
        emotional support.
            (5) Federal legislation enacted over the past three 
        decades, including the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare 
        Act of 1980, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, and 
        the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions 
        Act of 2008, provided new investments and services to improve 
        the outcome of our most vulnerable children. However, more work 
        needs to be done to ensure children are placed in quality 
        foster homes as they wait to be reunited with their parents or 
        achieve permanency with a relative caregiver or adoptive 
        family.
            (6) The last national report to Congress on recruitment and 
        retention of foster parents was last conducted in the 1990s.

SEC. 2. STUDY.

    (a) In General.--The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
conduct a study on the recruitment and retention of foster parents of 
children served by any foster care program funded under part E of title 
IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 670 et seq.).
    (b) Contents of Study.--The study shall include--
            (1) a survey of foster parents who care for children served 
        by any foster care program funded under part E of title IV of 
        the Social Security Act;
            (2) an evaluation of the role of respite care training and 
        services;
            (3) the identification of the capacity of respite care 
        service providers in each State;
            (4) the identification of any barriers that presently exist 
        that limit the ability of States to successfully recruit and 
        retain families in the foster system;
            (5) an evaluation of the efforts that have been made by 
        States to recruit relative caregivers; and
            (6) any other matters that the Secretary of Health and 
        Human Services deems appropriate for this study.
    (c) Report.--Not later than 3 years after funds are made available 
for the study, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall submit 
to Congress a report containing the study's findings and 
recommendations.
                                 <all>