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
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.