II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 162
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.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY21, 2025
Mr. G
RASSLEY(for himself, Ms. HASSAN, and Mr. WICKER) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recruiting Families 4
Using Data Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. STATE PLAN AMENDMENT. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 422 of the Social Security 7
Act (42 U.S.C. 622) is amended— 8
(1) in subsection (b)(7), by inserting ‘‘through 9
the development and implementation of a family 10
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partnership plan which meets the requirements of 1
subsection (d) for identification, recruitment, screen-2
ing, licensing, support, and retention of foster and 3
adoptive families’’ after ‘‘are needed’’; and 4
(2) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(d) F
AMILYPARTNERSHIP PLANREQUIRE-6
MENTS.—For purposes of subsection (b)(7), the require-7
ments for a family partnership plan (in this subsection 8
referred to as the ‘plan’) are the following: 9
‘‘(1) The plan is developed in consultation with 10
birth, kinship, foster and adoptive families, commu-11
nity-based service providers, technical assistance 12
providers, and youth with lived experience with fos-13
ter care and adoption. 14
‘‘(2) The plan describes— 15
‘‘(A) how the State plans to identify, no-16
tify, engage, and support relatives (and others 17
connected to the child) as potential placement 18
resources for children; 19
‘‘(B) how the State plans to develop and 20
implement child-specific recruitment plans for 21
every child in or entering foster care who needs 22
a foster or adoptive family; 23
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‘‘(C) how the State plans to authentically 1
engage children and youth in recruitment ef-2
forts on their behalf; 3
‘‘(D) how the State plans to use data to 4
establish goals, assess needs, measure progress, 5
reduce unnecessary placements in congregate 6
care, increase permanency, improve placement 7
stability, increase the rate of kinship place-8
ments, improve recruitment and retention of 9
families for teens, sibling groups, and other spe-10
cial populations, and align the composition of 11
foster and adoptive families with the needs of 12
children in or entering foster care; and 13
‘‘(E) how that State will stand up or sup-14
port foster family advisory boards for the pur-15
pose of improving recruitment and retention of 16
foster and adoptive families. 17
‘‘(3) The plan provides that, not less than an-18
nually, the State shall collect and report on the 19
State’s actual foster family capacity and congregate 20
care utilization, including the number, demo-21
graphics, and characteristics of licensed foster fami-22
lies, including prospective adoptive families, the 23
number of such families that haven’t received a 24
placement or are not being fully utilized and the rea-25
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sons therefor, and the number, demographics, and 1
characteristics of children placed in congregate care 2
in-State and out-of-State. 3
‘‘(4) The plan includes, and shall update not 4
less than annually, a summary of the most recent 5
feedback from foster and adoptive parents and youth 6
regarding licensure, training, support, and reasons 7
why parents stop fostering or why adoptive or legal 8
guardianship placements out of foster care fail or 9
foster and such adoptive of legal guardianship fami-10
lies struggle to meet children’s needs. 11
‘‘(5) The plan includes, and shall update annu-12
ally, a report on the State’s analysis of specific chal-13
lenges or barriers to recruiting, licensing, and uti-14
lizing families who reflect the racial and ethnic back-15
ground of children in foster care in the State, and 16
the State’s efforts to overcome those challenges and 17
barriers. 18
‘‘(6) The plan includes such other information 19
relating to foster and adoptive parent recruitment 20
and retention as the Secretary may require.’’. 21
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-23
graph (2), the amendment made by this subsection 24
shall take effect on October 1, 2026. 25
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(2) DELAY PERMITTED IF STATE LEGISLATION 1
REQUIRED.—In the case of a State plan approved 2
under subpart 1 of part B of title IV of the Social 3
Security Act which the Secretary of Health and 4
Human Services determines requires State legisla-5
tion (other than legislation appropriating funds) in 6
order for the plan to meet the additional require-7
ments imposed by this subsection, the State plan 8
shall not be regarded as failing to comply with the 9
requirements of such part solely on the basis of the 10
failure of the plan to meet such additional require-11
ments before the first day of the first calendar quar-12
ter beginning after the close of the first regular ses-13
sion of the State legislature that begins after the 14
date of enactment of this subsection. For purposes 15
of the previous sentence, in the case of a State that 16
has a 2-year legislative session, each year of such 17
session shall be deemed to be a separate regular ses-18
sion of the State legislature. 19
SEC. 3. INCLUSION OF INFORMATION ON FOSTER AND 20
ADOPTIVE FAMILIES IN ANNUAL CHILD WEL-21
FARE OUTCOMES REPORT TO CONGRESS. 22
Section 479A(a) of the Social Security Act (42 23
U.S.C. 679b(a)) is amended— 24
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(1) in paragraph (6)(C), by striking ‘‘and’’ 1
after the semicolon; 2
(2) in paragraph (7)(B), by striking the period 3
and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 4
(3) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(8) include in the report submitted pursuant 6
to paragraph (5) for fiscal year 2025 or any suc-7
ceeding fiscal year— 8
‘‘(A) State-by-State data on the number, 9
demographics, and characteristics of foster and 10
adoptive families in the State, and the number 11
of potential foster and adoptive families not 12
being utilized in the State and the reasons why; 13
‘‘(B) a summary of the challenges of, and 14
barriers to, being a foster or adoptive parent, 15
including with respect to recruitment, licensure, 16
engagement, retention, and why parents stop 17
fostering, adoptions disrupt or dissolve, or fos-18
ter or adoptive families struggle, as reported by 19
States based on surveys of foster and adoptive 20
parents; and 21
‘‘(C) a summary of the challenges and bar-22
riers States reported on efforts to recruit a pool 23
of families that reflect the racial and ethnic 24
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background of children in foster care in the 1
State, and efforts to overcome those barriers.’’. 2
Æ
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