[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 24, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S5120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. DeWINE (for himself, Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Domenici):
  S. 2999. A bill to improve protections for children and to hold 
States accountable for the safe and timely placement of children across 
State lines, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. DeWINE. Today I join with my colleagues Senator Rockefeller and 
Senator Domenici to introduce the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement 
of Foster Children Act of 2006. I am proud to have had the opportunity 
to again work with my friend, Senator Rockefeller, on the important 
issues affecting the most vulnerable and at risk children--children in 
foster care. This is an important bill and I hope we will be able to 
pass swiftly.
  In 1997, I worked on the Adoption and Safe Families Act, an important 
bill that worked to provide timelier placement of children in foster 
care. Since that time, it has been successful. Dramatically more 
children are being adopted. Children are spending less time languishing 
in foster care and have greater opportunities to find a permanent home 
or family. However, there are barriers that remain for children in 
foster care--particularly for children who are placed across state 
lines for various reasons--including trying to place them with family 
members or if a family in another state is looking to adopt that child. 
These children are shown to continue to remain in foster care for much 
longer periods of time. Through no fault of their own--they wait for 
placement and wait for a permanency in their lives that children long 
for and deserve.
  I also want to thank the work that the States have done to alleviate 
the problems we currently find in interstate placement. This has been a 
problem for many years, but recently States have been active in 
creating and promulgating guidelines for dealing with complications 
that can arise related to interstate placement. I hope that we can see 
these guidelines soon implemented. The primary power to move these 
children to homes rests with the States, and we want to encourage their 
quick action.
  This bill will require and support States in the expeditious study of 
homes for children in foster care who may be placed or adopted across 
State lines. This bill would allow a 60-day period for such study to 
occur--while 2 months is a long time in the life of a child, we feel 
that it is an appropriate balance between the needs of the State and 
child welfare agencies to conduct thorough assessments and the needs of 
the child to be in a more permanent home.
  This bill also expresses the sense of the Congress that States should 
accept the home study evaluations done by another State. This would go 
a long way to reduce time waiting for placement and redundancy of 
effort in the child welfare system.
  Importantly, this bill is not just another mandate on States. This 
bill would provide resources to enhance and speed up their systems for 
interstate placement--but States do have to earn it. If passed, it 
would provide $1,500 per child who was placed within a 30-day period. 
States can use this money to improve their systems for placement, hire 
more staff to conduct placement, or otherwise use it for improvement of 
services for foster children in their State.
  This bill will also improve the rights of children and their foster, 
pre-adoptive parents, or family caregivers to be heard in court 
proceedings concerning their case within the child welfare system. It 
is important that a child's needs are appropriately represented and 
this bill will work to ensure that the parties most involved in the 
child's life are present when important matters are being considered. 
Courts will also be required to work more closely with their 
counterparts in other States when the situation warrants. The judges 
who work with the child welfare system hold so much power in so many 
children's lives. We must continue to encourage their cooperation with 
outside stakeholders, including child welfare systems and court systems 
in other States, to quickly move these children to permanent homes. 
There is no excuse for a child to languish in a system for months and 
sometimes years of their lives due to court inaction or delay.
  Again, I want to thank my colleagues for their work and support of 
these efforts. I am confident that we can work together to quickly pass 
this legislation and put it to work for our Nation's children.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Today, I rise to join my colleagues Senators DeWine 
and Domenici to introduce the Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of 
Foster Children Act of 2006. This is a bipartisan initiative that I 
have been working on for several years.
  This legislation could help to deliver on the promises made in the 
Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 which stated that geographic 
barriers should not delay or deny adoptions. Unfortunately, data 
continues to suggest that it can take twice as long for a child to 
leave foster care to an out-of-state placement. When a child leaves 
foster care and goes out of state, half of the time the child is being 
adopted and gaining a permanent home. In about twenty percent of the 
cases, a child is being placed with a parent or caretaker. These are 
good, permanent options for children, and it should not take twice as 
long to achieve such a placement.
  This new legislation could provide incentives for States to process 
these out-of-state claims more quickly. In my view, this complements 
and builds upon actions by many States to update the 1960 Interstate 
Compact for the Placement of Children. The purpose of this legislation 
is to add specific time-frames and to provide federal incentives to 
achieve the goal set in 1997 of reducing and eliminating geographic 
barriers.
  As technology has vastly improved, and more families seek to open 
their hearts and homes to children in foster care, we need improved 
regulations and policies to serve such families. This legislation is 
part of the DeWine-Rockefeller bill, called the ``We Care Kids Act''. 
Thanks to the leadership of Chairman Grassley, the major provisions of 
We Care Kids Act were included in the reconciliation package to invest 
in court training and data to help judges have insight and the 
information needed to care for the vulnerable children in foster care. 
But action could not be taken to improve interstate case planning 
within the reconciliation bill. In 2004, similar legislation passed the 
House of Representatives. Today, we are re-introducing the legislation 
for timely placements of children across state lines. Hopefully the 
Senate will act, and we can help children in foster care get a 
permanent home in a timely manner.
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