119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 579
AN ACT
To amend parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security
Act to improve foster and adoptive parent recruitment
and retention, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recruiting Families 2
Using Data Act of 2025’’. 3
SEC. 2. STATE PLAN AMENDMENT. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 422 of the Social Security 5
Act (42 U.S.C. 622) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (b)(7), by inserting ‘‘through 7
the development and implementation of a family 8
partnership plan which meets the requirements of 9
subsection (d) for identification, recruitment, screen-10
ing, licensing, support, and retention of foster and 11
adoptive families’’ after ‘‘are needed’’; and 12
(2) by adding at the end the following: 13
‘‘(d) F
AMILYPARTNERSHIP PLANREQUIRE-14
MENTS.—For purposes of subsection (b)(7), the require-15
ments for a family partnership plan (in this subsection 16
referred to as the ‘plan’) are the following: 17
‘‘(1) The plan is developed in consultation with 18
birth, kinship, foster and adoptive families, commu-19
nity-based service providers, technical assistance 20
providers, and youth with lived experience with fos-21
ter care and adoption. 22
‘‘(2) The plan describes— 23
‘‘(A) how the State plans to identify, no-24
tify, engage, and support relatives (and others 25 3
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connected to the child) as potential placement 1
resources for children; 2
‘‘(B) how the State plans to develop and 3
implement child-specific recruitment plans for 4
every child in or entering foster care who needs 5
a foster or adoptive family; 6
‘‘(C) how the State plans to authentically 7
engage children and youth in recruitment ef-8
forts on their behalf; 9
‘‘(D) how the State plans to use data to 10
establish goals, assess needs, measure progress, 11
reduce unnecessary placements in congregate 12
care, increase permanency, improve placement 13
stability, increase the rate of kinship place-14
ments, improve recruitment and retention of 15
families for teens, sibling groups, and other spe-16
cial populations, and align the composition of 17
foster and adoptive families with the needs of 18
children in or entering foster care; and 19
‘‘(E) how that State will stand up or sup-20
port foster family advisory boards for the pur-21
pose of improving recruitment and retention of 22
foster and adoptive families. 23
‘‘(3) The plan provides that, not less than an-24
nually, the State shall collect and report on the 25 4
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State’s actual foster family capacity and congregate 1
care utilization, including the number, demo-2
graphics, and characteristics of licensed foster fami-3
lies, including prospective adoptive families, the 4
number of such families that haven’t received a 5
placement or are not being fully utilized and the rea-6
sons therefor, and the number, demographics, and 7
characteristics of children placed in congregate care 8
in-State and out-of-State. 9
‘‘(4) The plan includes, and shall update not 10
less than annually, a summary of the most recent 11
feedback from foster and adoptive parents and youth 12
regarding licensure, training, support, and reasons 13
why parents stop fostering or why adoptive or legal 14
guardianship placements out of foster care fail or 15
foster and such adoptive of legal guardianship fami-16
lies struggle to meet children’s needs. 17
‘‘(5) The plan includes, and shall update annu-18
ally, a report on the State’s analysis of specific chal-19
lenges or barriers to recruiting, licensing, and uti-20
lizing families who reflect the racial and ethnic back-21
ground of children in foster care in the State, and 22
the State’s efforts to overcome those challenges and 23
barriers. 24 5
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‘‘(6) The plan includes such other information 1
relating to foster and adoptive parent recruitment 2
and retention as the Secretary may require.’’. 3
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.— 4
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-5
graph (2), the amendment made by this subsection 6
shall take effect on October 1, 2026. 7
(2) D
ELAY PERMITTED IF STATE LEGISLATION 8
REQUIRED.—In the case of a State plan approved 9
under subpart 1 of part B of title IV of the Social 10
Security Act which the Secretary of Health and 11
Human Services determines requires State legisla-12
tion (other than legislation appropriating funds) in 13
order for the plan to meet the additional require-14
ments imposed by this subsection, the State plan 15
shall not be regarded as failing to comply with the 16
requirements of such part solely on the basis of the 17
failure of the plan to meet such additional require-18
ments before the first day of the first calendar quar-19
ter beginning after the close of the first regular ses-20
sion of the State legislature that begins after the 21
date of enactment of this subsection. For purposes 22
of the previous sentence, in the case of a State that 23
has a 2-year legislative session, each year of such 24 6
•HR 579 EH
session shall be deemed to be a separate regular ses-1
sion of the State legislature. 2
SEC. 3. INCLUSION OF INFORMATION ON FOSTER AND 3
ADOPTIVE FAMILIES IN ANNUAL CHILD WEL-4
FARE OUTCOMES REPORT TO CONGRESS. 5
Section 479A(a) of the Social Security Act (42 6
U.S.C. 679b(a)) is amended— 7
(1) in paragraph (6)(C), by striking ‘‘and’’ 8
after the semicolon; 9
(2) in paragraph (7)(B), by striking the period 10
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 11
(3) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(8) include in the report submitted pursuant 13
to paragraph (5) for fiscal year 2025 or any suc-14
ceeding fiscal year— 15
‘‘(A) State-by-State data on the number, 16
demographics, and characteristics of foster and 17
adoptive families in the State, and the number 18
of potential foster and adoptive families not 19
being utilized in the State and the reasons why; 20
‘‘(B) a summary of the challenges of, and 21
barriers to, being a foster or adoptive parent, 22
including with respect to recruitment, licensure, 23
engagement, retention, and why parents stop 24
fostering, adoptions disrupt or dissolve, or fos-25 7
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ter or adoptive families struggle, as reported by 1
States based on surveys of foster and adoptive 2
parents; and 3
‘‘(C) a summary of the challenges and bar-4
riers States reported on efforts to recruit a pool 5
of families that reflect the racial and ethnic 6
background of children in foster care in the 7
State, and efforts to overcome those barriers.’’. 8
Passed the House of Representatives March 4,
2025.
Attest:
Clerk. 119
TH
CONGRESS
1
ST
S
ESSION
H. R. 579
AN ACT
To amend parts B and E of title IV of the Social
Security Act to improve foster and adoptive par-
ent recruitment and retention, and for other pur-
poses.