II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 600
To enhance pre- and post-adoption support services, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY13, 2025
Ms. K
LOBUCHAR(for herself and Mr. CRAMER) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To enhance pre- and post-adoption support services, 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 ‘‘Supporting Adopted 4
Children and Families Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ADOPTION SUPPORT SERVICES. 6
(a) E
NSURING THEWELL-BEING OFADOPTEDCHIL-7
DREN ANDTHEIRADOPTIVEFAMILIES.—Section 421 of 8
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 621) is amended— 9
(1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘and’’ at the 10
end; 11
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(2) by redesignating paragraph (5) as para-1
graph (6); and 2
(3) by inserting after paragraph (4) the fol-3
lowing new paragraph: 4
‘‘(5) ensuring the well-being of adopted children 5
and their adoptive families and promoting efforts to 6
prevent such children from entering the foster care 7
system through the provision of pre- and post-adop-8
tion support services; and’’. 9
(b) P
RE- ANDPOST-ADOPTIONSUPPORTSERV-10
ICES.—Paragraph (8) of section 431(a) of such Act (42 11
U.S.C. 629a(a)) is amended to read as follows: 12
‘‘(8) A
DOPTION PROMOTION AND SUPPORT 13
SERVICES.— 14
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘adoption 15
promotion and support services’ means services 16
and activities designed to encourage more adop-17
tions out of the foster care system and support 18
domestic adoptions and adoptions from other 19
countries, consistent with promoting the best 20
interests of adopted children and their adoptive 21
families. Such services and activities may in-22
clude pre- and post-adoption support services, 23
as described in subparagraph (B), that are de-24
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signed to support adopted children and their 1
adoptive families. 2
‘‘(B) P
RE- AND POST-ADOPTION SUPPORT 3
SERVICES.—The term ‘pre- and post-adoption 4
support services’ means the following: 5
‘‘(i) Pre-adoption support services, 6
which may include— 7
‘‘(I) direct services, including 8
training, educational support, coun-9
seling, and other services for adoptive 10
parents and families that address 11
caregiver interests and concerns re-12
garding common behavioral issues, 13
such as— 14
‘‘(aa) issues relating to emo-15
tional, behavioral, or develop-16
mental health needs; 17
‘‘(bb) issues relating to at-18
tachment, identity, abandonment, 19
cultural differences, grief, loss, 20
and trauma; and 21
‘‘(cc) issues resulting from 22
birth defects due to fetal alcohol 23
syndrome or any other substance 24
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abuse-related developmental dis-1
order; 2
‘‘(II) the provision of educational 3
resources for adoptive parents regard-4
ing the geographic, ethnic, and cul-5
tural background of the adopted child; 6
‘‘(III) peer-to-peer mentoring and 7
support groups that permit a newly 8
adoptive parent to communicate and 9
learn from more experienced adoptive 10
parents, including programs that en-11
hance communication between adop-12
tive parents with children of similar 13
geographic, ethnic, or cultural back-14
grounds; and 15
‘‘(IV) the provision of informa-16
tional resources for adoptive parents, 17
including— 18
‘‘(aa) resources available 19
through Federal and State agen-20
cies, including information re-21
garding benefits for children with 22
a medical condition or a physical, 23
mental, or emotional disability; 24
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‘‘(bb) newsletters, websites, 1
and other informational resources 2
regarding adoption-related serv-3
ices; 4
‘‘(cc) the establishment of 5
lending libraries containing infor-6
mation and resources for adop-7
tive parents; and 8
‘‘(dd) conferences, discus-9
sion groups, and seminars that 10
are available to adoptive parents 11
and other relevant stakeholders. 12
‘‘(ii) Post-adoption support services, 13
which may include— 14
‘‘(I) continued provision to adop-15
tive parents of pre-adoption support 16
services described in clause (i); 17
‘‘(II) the provision of accessible 18
and reliable respite services for adop-19
tive parents; 20
‘‘(III) direct services and coun-21
seling for adopted children, including, 22
as appropriate— 23
‘‘(aa) support services for an 24
adopted child with emotional, be-25
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havioral, or developmental health 1
needs; 2
‘‘(bb) support services that 3
address issues relating to attach-4
ment, identity, abandonment, cul-5
tural differences, grief, and loss; 6
and 7
‘‘(cc) treatment services that 8
are specialized for adopted chil-9
dren, including psychiatric resi-10
dential services, outpatient men-11
tal health services, social skills 12
training, intensive in-home super-13
vision services, recreational ther-14
apy, suicide prevention, and sub-15
stance abuse treatment; 16
‘‘(IV) peer-to-peer mentoring and 17
support groups that allow adopted 18
children to communicate and socialize 19
with other adopted children, including 20
programs that provide for communica-21
tion between adopted children from 22
similar geographic, ethnic, or cultural 23
backgrounds; and 24
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‘‘(V) crisis and family preserva-1
tion services, including crisis coun-2
seling and a 24-hour emergency hot-3
line for adoptive parents.’’. 4
SEC. 3. FUNDING FOR ADOPTION PROMOTION AND SUP-5
PORT SERVICES. 6
Paragraph (8) of section 473(a) of the Social Secu-7
rity Act (42 U.S.C. 673(a)) is amended to read as follows: 8
‘‘(8) With respect to the amount of savings (if 9
any) in State expenditures under this part resulting 10
from the application of paragraph (2)(A)(ii) to all 11
applicable children for a fiscal year, a State shall— 12
‘‘(A) spend a significant portion of such 13
amount to provide pre- and post-adoption sup-14
port services (as defined in section 15
431(a)(8)(B)); 16
‘‘(B) spend the remainder of such amount 17
to provide to children or families any other 18
services that may be provided under this part 19
or part B; and 20
‘‘(C) on an annual basis, submit to the 21
Secretary a report that provides a detailed ac-22
count of any services that were funded pursuant 23
to this paragraph.’’. 24
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SEC. 4. FEDERAL GRANT PROGRAM FOR POST-ADOPTION 1
AND POST-LEGAL GUARDIANSHIP MENTAL 2
HEALTH SERVICES. 3
(a) F
UNDING.—Section 436(b) of the Social Security 4
Act (42 U.S.C. 629f(b)) is amended by adding at the end 5
the following new paragraph: 6
‘‘(5) P
OST-ADOPTION AND POST-LEGAL GUARD-7
IANSHIP MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES .—The Sec-8
retary shall reserve $20,000,000 for grants under 9
section 437(h).’’. 10
(b) G
RANTPROGRAM.—Section 437 of the Social Se-11
curity Act (42 U.S.C. 629g) is amended by adding at the 12
end the following new subsection: 13
‘‘(h) P
OST-ADOPTION ANDPOST-LEGALGUARDIAN-14
SHIPMENTALHEALTHSERVICEPROGRAMS.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—From the amounts reserved 16
for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2029 under 17
section 436(b)(6), the Secretary shall award grants 18
or cooperative agreements under this subsection to 19
eligible entities to— 20
‘‘(A) develop and implement statewide or 21
tribal post-adoption and post-legal guardianship 22
mental health service programs for all children 23
who are adopted or placed in legal guardianship 24
and their families; 25
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‘‘(B) support public organizations and pri-1
vate nonprofit organizations actively involved in 2
statewide or tribal post-adoption and post-legal 3
guardianship mental health service programs; 4
‘‘(C) collect and analyze data on State- 5
sponsored statewide or tribal post-adoption and 6
post-legal guardianship mental health service 7
programs that can be used to monitor the effec-8
tiveness of such services and for research, tech-9
nical assistance, and policy development; 10
‘‘(D) develop and provide adoption and 11
legal guardianship competent educational and 12
training opportunities concerning the mental 13
health needs of children who are adopted or 14
placed in legal guardianship, and their families, 15
for use by teachers, social workers, and other 16
community mental health service providers; 17
‘‘(E) develop and provide materials for po-18
tential adoptive parents and legal guardians, 19
both for children who already reside in the 20
United States at the time of adoption or place-21
ment in legal guardianship and for those who at 22
such time reside in other countries, describing 23
the possible need for post-adoption and post- 24
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legal guardianship mental health services and 1
available resources; 2
‘‘(F) develop and provide respite care serv-3
ices for adoptive and legal guardian families; 4
and 5
‘‘(G) support research on, and development 6
of, promising practices (as defined in section 7
471(e)(4)(C)(iii)) for post-adoption and post- 8
legal guardianship mental health services. 9
‘‘(2) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY DEFINED .— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In this subsection, the 11
term ‘eligible entity’ means— 12
‘‘(i) a State; 13
‘‘(ii) a public organization or private 14
nonprofit organization designated by a 15
State to develop or direct the State-spon-16
sored statewide post-adoption and post- 17
legal guardianship mental health service 18
program under a grant under this sub-19
section; and 20
‘‘(iii) a federally recognized Indian 21
tribe or tribal organization (as defined in 22
the Indian Self-Determination and Edu-23
cation Assistance Act) or an urban Indian 24
organization (as defined in the Indian 25
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Health Care Improvement Act) that is ac-1
tively involved in the development and con-2
tinuation of a post-adoption and post-legal 3
guardianship mental health service pro-4
gram. 5
‘‘(B) L
IMITATION.—In carrying out this 6
subsection, the Secretary shall ensure that each 7
State is awarded only 1 grant or cooperative 8
agreement under this subsection. For purposes 9
of the preceding sentence, a State shall be con-10
sidered to have been awarded a grant or cooper-11
ative agreement if the eligible entity involved is 12
the State or an entity designated by the State 13
under subparagraph (A)(ii). Nothing in this 14
subparagraph shall be construed to apply to en-15
tities described in subparagraph (A)(iii). 16
‘‘(3) P
REFERENCE.—In providing assistance 17
under a grant or cooperative agreement under this 18
subsection, the Secretary shall give preference to— 19
‘‘(A) eligible entities that have dem-20
onstrated success in increasing the level of 21
adoption and legal guardianship competency 22
among mental health providers, adoption and 23
legal guardianship lawyers, social workers, case 24
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workers, adoptive parents, and legal guardians; 1
and 2
‘‘(B) eligible entities that plan to partner 3
with their State mental health agency in car-4
rying out the activities for which the grant or 5
cooperative agreement is made. 6
‘‘(4) R
EQUIREMENT FOR DIRECT SERVICES .— 7
Not less than 85 percent of funds received under a 8
grant or cooperative agreement under this sub-9
section shall be used to provide direct services, of 10
which not less than 5 percent shall be used for ac-11
tivities authorized under paragraph (1)(C). 12
‘‘(5) C
OORDINATION AND COLLABORATION .— 13
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In carrying out this 14
subsection, the Secretary shall collaborate with 15
relevant Federal agencies and adoption and 16
legal guardianship-related working groups to 17
promote interaction between domestic foster 18
care agencies and private adoption agencies in 19
other countries. 20
‘‘(B) C
ONSULTATION.—In carrying out 21
this subsection, the Secretary shall consult 22
with— 23
‘‘(i) State and social service agencies 24
engaged in the placement of children for 25
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adoption, domestically or from other coun-1
tries; 2
‘‘(ii) local and national organizations 3
that serve foster and adopted youth and 4
youth placed in legal guardianship; 5
‘‘(iii) health and education specialists 6
who focus on adoption, legal guardianship, 7
and foster care medicine; 8
‘‘(iv) youth who have been in foster 9
care, adopted, or in legal guardianship, do-10
mestically or from other countries, includ-11
ing youth who have experienced adoption 12
or guardianship disruptions or dissolutions; 13
‘‘(v) families and friends of youth who 14
have been in foster care, adopted, or in 15
legal guardianship, domestically or from 16
other countries, including foster and adop-17
tive parents and legal guardians; and 18
‘‘(vi) qualified professionals who pos-19
sess the specialized knowledge, skills, expe-20
rience, and relevant attributes needed to 21
serve children who are adopted or placed in 22
legal guardianship and their families. 23
‘‘(C) P
OLICY DEVELOPMENT .—In carrying 24
out this subsection, the Secretary shall— 25
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‘‘(i) coordinate and collaborate on pol-1
icy development with relevant Department 2
of Health and Human Services agencies 3
and adoption and legal guardianship-re-4
lated working groups; and 5
‘‘(ii) consult on policy development at 6
the Federal level with those in the private 7
sector engaged in the recruitment of foster 8
and adoptive parents and legal guardians, 9
the placement of children in foster care, 10
for adoption, and in legal guardianship, 11
and the provision of post-adoption and 12
post-legal guardianship services. 13
‘‘(6) E
VALUATION AND REPORT .— 14
‘‘(A) E
VALUATIONS BY ELIGIBLE ENTI -15
TIES.—Not later than 18 months after receipt 16
of a grant or cooperative agreement under this 17
subsection, an eligible entity shall submit to the 18
Secretary the results of an evaluation to be con-19
ducted by the entity concerning the effective-20
ness of the activities carried out under the 21
grant or agreement. 22
‘‘(B) R
EPORT.—Not later than 2 years 23
after the date of enactment of this subsection, 24
the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate 25
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committees of Congress a report concerning the 1
results of— 2
‘‘(i) the evaluations conducted under 3
subparagraph (A); and 4
‘‘(ii) an evaluation conducted by the 5
Secretary to analyze the effectiveness and 6
efficacy of the activities conducted with 7
grants, collaborations, and consultations 8
under this subsection. 9
‘‘(7) A
DDITIONAL DEFINITIONS .—In this sub-10
section: 11
‘‘(A) A
DOPTED CHILD.—The term ‘adopt-12
ed child’ means an individual who is under 21 13
years of age and was adopted from foster care 14
or placed in legal guardianship through a pri-15
vate placement agency, or from another coun-16
try. 17
‘‘(B) A
DOPTION AND LEGAL GUARDIAN -18
SHIP COMPETENCY .—The term ‘adoption and 19
legal guardianship competency’ means an un-20
derstanding of— 21
‘‘(i) the nature of adoption and legal 22
guardianship as a form of family formation 23
and the different types of adoption and 24
legal guardianship; 25
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‘‘(ii) relevant emotional and physical 1
issues involved in the adoption or legal 2
guardianship process, including issues re-3
lating to separation, loss, attachment, 4
abuse, trauma, and neglect; 5
‘‘(iii) common developmental chal-6
lenges associated with adoption and legal 7
guardianship; 8
‘‘(iv) the characteristics and skills 9
that allow for successful adoptive and legal 10
guardianship families; 11
‘‘(v) proper sensitivity with respect to 12
the different geographic, ethnic, or cultural 13
backgrounds of children who are adopted 14
or placed in legal guardianship and their 15
families; and 16
‘‘(vi) the necessary skills for effec-17
tively advocating on behalf of birth and 18
adoptive and legal guardian families. 19
‘‘(C) P
OST-ADOPTION AND POST -LEGAL 20
GUARDIANSHIP MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES .— 21
The term ‘post-adoption and post-legal guard-22
ianship mental health services’ includes— 23
‘‘(i) adoption and legal guardianship 24
competent mental health direct services, in-25
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cluding training, educational support, 1
counseling, and other services for adoptive 2
and legal guardian parents and families 3
that address caregiver interests and con-4
cerns regarding child behavioral issues that 5
are common among children who are 6
adopted, placed in legal guardianship, or 7
placed in foster care, including, as appro-8
priate— 9
‘‘(I) caring for a child who is 10
adopted or placed in legal guardian-11
ship and has emotional, behavioral, or 12
developmental health needs; and 13
‘‘(II) providing for the emotional 14
needs of a child who is adopted or 15
placed in legal guardianship, including 16
issues relating to attachment, identity, 17
abandonment, cultural differences, 18
grief, loss, and trauma; 19
‘‘(ii) peer-to-peer mentoring and sup-20
port groups that permit a newly adoptive 21
parent or legal guardian to communicate 22
and learn from more experienced adoptive 23
parents or legal guardians; 24
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‘‘(iii) the provision of informational 1
resources and available services for adop-2
tive parents or legal guardians; 3
‘‘(iv) direct services, including coun-4
seling, peer-to-peer mentoring and support 5
groups, and other services for children who 6
are adopted or placed in legal guardianship 7
that address common behavioral and ad-8
justment issues, including, as appro-9
priate— 10
‘‘(I) support services for a child 11
who is adopted or placed in legal 12
guardianship with emotional, behav-13
ioral, or developmental health needs; 14
‘‘(II) support services that ad-15
dress the emotional needs of a child 16
who is adopted or placed in legal 17
guardianship, including issues relating 18
to attachment, identity, abandonment, 19
cultural differences, grief, loss, and 20
trauma; and 21
‘‘(III) treatment services that are 22
specialized for children who are adopt-23
ed or placed in legal guardianship, in-24
cluding psychiatric residential serv-25
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ices, outpatient mental health services, 1
social skills training, intensive in- 2
home supervision services, recreational 3
therapy, suicide prevention, and sub-4
stance abuse treatment; 5
‘‘(v) peer-to-peer mentoring and sup-6
port groups that allow children who are 7
adopted or placed in legal guardianship 8
communicate and socialize with other such 9
children; and 10
‘‘(vi) crisis intervention and family 11
preservation services.’’. 12
SEC. 5. DATA COLLECTION ON ADOPTION DISRUPTION AND 13
DISSOLUTION. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 479 of the Social Security 15
Act (42 U.S.C. 679) is amended by adding at the end the 16
following new subsection: 17
‘‘(e)(1) Not later than 12 months after the date of 18
enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall, as part 19
of the data collection system established under this sec-20
tion, promulgate final regulations providing for the collec-21
tion and analysis of information regarding children who 22
enter into State custody as a result of the disruption of 23
a placement for adoption or the dissolution of an adoption, 24
which shall require States to collect and report— 25
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‘‘(A) information on children who are adopted 1
within the United States or from other countries and 2
who enter into State custody as a result of the dis-3
ruption of a placement for adoption or the dissolu-4
tion of an adoption, including— 5
‘‘(i) the number of children who enter into 6
State custody as a result of— 7
‘‘(I) the disruption of placement for 8
adoption; or 9
‘‘(II) the dissolution of an adoption; 10
and 11
‘‘(ii) for each child identified under clause 12
(i)— 13
‘‘(I) as applicable, the country of birth 14
for any child who was not born in the 15
United States; 16
‘‘(II) the length of the adoption place-17
ment prior to disruption or dissolution; 18
‘‘(III) the age of the child at the time 19
of the disruption or dissolution; 20
‘‘(IV) the reason for the disruption or 21
dissolution; and 22
‘‘(V) the agencies who handled the 23
placement for adoption; and 24
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‘‘(B) such other information as determined ap-1
propriate by the Secretary. 2
‘‘(2) The information described in paragraph (1) 3
shall be used— 4
‘‘(A) to consolidate and expand the collection of 5
information on adoption disruption and dissolution; 6
‘‘(B) to improve research and data collection 7
systems in order to more accurately determine and 8
measure the rates, outcomes, and causes of adoption 9
disruption and dissolution; 10
‘‘(C) to identify pre- and post-adoption support 11
services (including services described in section 12
431(a)(8)(B) (as amended by the Supporting Adopt-13
ed Children and Families Act)) that result in lower 14
rates of disruption and dissolution of adoptions; 15
‘‘(D) to develop an understanding of the rela-16
tionship between the rate of incidence of adoption 17
disruptions and dissolutions and the support services 18
that are provided to adoptive families in order to 19
identify and develop effective evidence-based strate-20
gies, programs, and support services that help to 21
prevent adoption disruption and dissolution; and 22
‘‘(E) to develop and enhance training and edu-23
cational services regarding strategies for prevention 24
of adoption disruption and dissolution. 25
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‘‘(3)(A) Not later than 6 months after the date of 1
enactment of this subsection, the Secretary shall, subject 2
to subparagraph (B), establish an advisory committee to 3
study methods to effectively collect data regarding disrup-4
tion and dissolution of adoptions that are not included in 5
the data collection system established under this section, 6
including— 7
‘‘(i) data on children whose adoptions are dis-8
rupted or dissolved but do not enter into State cus-9
tody as a result of such disruption or dissolution; 10
‘‘(ii) data on adoption displacements, whereby 11
an adopted child is temporarily placed out of the 12
home of an adoptive parent in order to receive med-13
ical, mental health, behavioral, or other forms of 14
treatment; and 15
‘‘(iii) such other data as determined appropriate 16
by the Secretary. 17
‘‘(B) The membership and organization of the advi-18
sory committee described in subparagraph (A) shall be de-19
termined by the Secretary and shall include— 20
‘‘(i) State and child welfare agencies that are 21
engaged in the placement of children for adoption 22
domestically or from other countries; 23
‘‘(ii) local and national organizations that serve 24
adopted children and children in foster care; and 25
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‘‘(iii) members of State and local judiciary and 1
court staff. 2
‘‘(C) Not later than 12 months after establishment 3
of the advisory committee described in subparagraph (A), 4
the Secretary shall submit to the appropriate committees 5
of Congress a report containing recommendations of the 6
advisory committee for improvement of the data collection 7
system established under this section.’’. 8
(b) A
NNUALREPORT.—Section 479A(a) of the Social 9
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 679b(a)) is amended— 10
(1) in paragraph (6)(C), by striking ‘‘and’’ 11
after the semicolon; 12
(2) in paragraph (7), by striking the period at 13
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 14
(3) by adding at the end the following new 15
paragraph: 16
‘‘(8) include in the report submitted pursuant 17
to paragraph (5) for fiscal year 2026 or any suc-18
ceeding fiscal year, national and State-by-State data 19
on the numbers and rates of disruptions and dissolu-20
tions of adoptions, as collected pursuant to section 21
479(e)(1).’’. 22
SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 23
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsections 24
(b), (c), and (d), the amendments made by this Act shall 25
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take effect on October 1, 2025, and shall apply to pay-1
ments under parts B and E of title IV of the Social Secu-2
rity Act (42 U.S.C. 621 et seq., 670 et seq.) for calendar 3
quarters beginning on or after such date. 4
(b) D
ELAYPERMITTED IFSTATELEGISLATIONRE-5
QUIRED.—If the Secretary of Health and Human Services 6
determines that State legislation (other than legislation 7
appropriating funds) is required in order for a State plan 8
developed pursuant to part B or E of title IV of the Social 9
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 621 et seq., 670 et seq.) to meet 10
the additional requirements imposed by the amendments 11
made by this Act, the plan shall not be regarded as failing 12
to meet any of the additional requirements before the 1st 13
day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the first 14
regular session of the State legislature that begins after 15
the date of the enactment of this Act. For purposes of 16
the preceding sentence, if the State has a 2-year legislative 17
session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate 18
regular session of the State legislature. 19
(c) A
PPLICATION TOPROGRAMSOPERATED BYIN-20
DIANTRIBALORGANIZATIONS.—In the case of an Indian 21
tribe, tribal organization, or tribal consortium that the 22
Secretary of Health and Human Services determines re-23
quires time to take action necessary to comply with the 24
additional requirements imposed by the amendments made 25
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by this Act (whether the tribe, organization, or tribal con-1
sortium has a plan under section 479B of the Social Secu-2
rity Act or a cooperative agreement or contract entered 3
into with a State), the Secretary shall provide the tribe, 4
organization, or tribal consortium with such additional 5
time as the Secretary determines is necessary for the tribe, 6
organization, or tribal consortium to take the action to 7
comply with the additional requirements before being re-8
garded as failing to comply with the requirements. 9
(d) D
ATACOLLECTION ON ADOPTIONDISRUPTION 10
ANDDISSOLUTION.—The amendments made by section 5 11
shall take effect on the date of enactment of this Act. 12
Æ
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