[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 378 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 378

 Expressing the sense of the Senate that children should have a safe, 
 loving, nurturing, and permanent family and that it is the policy of 
the United States that family reunification, kinship care, or domestic 
   and intercountry adoption promotes permanency and stability to a 
   greater degree than long-term institutionalization and long-term, 
                   continually disrupted foster care.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 15, 2012

Ms. Landrieu (for herself, Mr. Lugar, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Grassley, Mrs. 
 Gillibrand, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Boozman, Mrs. Hutchison, 
    Mr. Levin, and Mr. Nelson of Nebraska) submitted the following 
             resolution; which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate that children should have a safe, 
 loving, nurturing, and permanent family and that it is the policy of 
the United States that family reunification, kinship care, or domestic 
   and intercountry adoption promotes permanency and stability to a 
   greater degree than long-term institutionalization and long-term, 
                   continually disrupted foster care.

Whereas the family is the basic unit of society and contributes to the 
        emotional, financial, and material support essential for the healthy 
        growth and development of children;
Whereas children without a family or connections to siblings and relatives or a 
        permanent relationship with a caring adult are at risk of being 
        homeless, growing up in substandard institutional care, and are 
        vulnerable to sexual and labor exploitation and abuse;
Whereas research has shown that children who are abandoned, abused, or severely 
        neglected can face significant risks that are costly to society, 
        including lower individual lifetime earnings, poorer educational 
        achievement, and higher consumption of health services, which in turn 
        could lead to a greater risk of criminal activity and greater risk of 
        incarceration;
Whereas there is scientific evidence that children deprived of a family, 
        including connections with siblings, often experience trauma, which can 
        have a detrimental impact on the development of a child;
Whereas some estimates show that there are approximately 18 million children in 
        the world who have lost both parents and at least 2 million children in 
        the world who are in institutional care;
Whereas there are approximately 408,000 children in the United States foster-
        care system and 107,000 of them are awaiting adoption;
Whereas within the current foster-care system, many children are overmedicated, 
        housed in inadequate group homes, denied the ability to engage in age-
        appropriate activities, such as afterschool activities, and often denied 
        access to their siblings or placement with a relative guardian due to 
        insufficient efforts to locate family members;
Whereas thousands of children who ``age out'' of the foster-care system in the 
        United States every year lack the security or support of a biological or 
        adoptive family, connections with siblings and relatives, or a permanent 
        relationship with a caring adult and struggle to secure affordable 
        housing, health insurance, higher education, and adequate employment;
Whereas current governmental efforts to assist these highly vulnerable children 
        in the United States and around the world do not include an effective 
        strategy for securing a protective family, connections with siblings and 
        relatives, or a permanent relationship with a caring adult for every 
        child; and
Whereas while there have been several bipartisan laws enacted in the past 
        several years that have made progress on a number of needed child-
        welfare reforms, much remains to be done to ensure that all children 
        have a safe, loving, nurturing, and permanent family, regardless of age 
        or special needs: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) the Senate--
                    (A) affirms that all children in the world, 
                including those with special needs, deserve a safe, 
                loving, nurturing, and permanent family, connections 
                with siblings and relatives, or a permanent 
                relationship with a caring adult;
                    (B) acknowledges that the United States Government 
                can and should do more by working with the private 
                sector, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based 
                communities to implement cost effective strategies that 
                connect children living outside of family care with a 
                permanent, supportive family, or connections with 
                siblings and relatives, or a permanent relationship 
                with a caring adult;
                    (C) encourages States, counties, cities, and to the 
                extent appropriate, other governments to invest 
                resources in family preservation, reunification 
                services, services to help older youth transition out 
                of care with a connection to siblings, relatives or a 
                caring adult, kinship adoption, domestic adoption, and 
                intercountry adoption and post adoption strategies to 
                ensure that more children in the United States are 
                provided with safe, loving, and permanent family 
                placements or a permanent relationship with a caring 
                adult; and
                    (D) recognizes the United States Agency for 
                International Development and the Department of State 
                for recent efforts to develop a strategy for meeting 
                the unique needs of children living outside of family 
                care;
            (2) it is the sense of the Senate that children should have 
        a safe, loving, nurturing, and permanent family; and
            (3) it is the policy of the United States that family 
        reunification, kinship care, or domestic and intercountry 
        adoption promotes permanency and stability to a greater degree 
        than long-term institutionalization and long-term, continually 
        disrupted foster care.
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