II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 604
To amend the adoption opportunities program to define unregulated custody
transfers of children and to improve awareness and prevention of such
transfers, 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 Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To amend the adoption opportunities program to define un-
regulated custody transfers of children and to improve
awareness and prevention of such transfers, 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 ‘‘Safe Home Act of 4
2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2 UNREGULATED CUSTODY TRANSFERS. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title II of the Child Abuse Pre-2
vention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978 3
(42 U.S.C. 5111 et seq.) is amended— 4
(1) by redesignating section 205 (42 U.S.C. 5
5115) as section 206; and 6
(2) by inserting after section 204 the following: 7
‘‘SEC. 205. SENSE OF CONGRESS, TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE, 8
AND REPORT ON UNREGULATED CUSTODY 9
TRANSFERS. 10
‘‘(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-11
gress that— 12
‘‘(1) there are challenges associated with some 13
adoptions (including the child’s mental health needs 14
and the difficulties many families face in accessing 15
support services) and some families may seek out an 16
unregulated transfer of physical custody of an adop-17
tive child without any formal supervision by child 18
welfare agencies or courts; 19
‘‘(2) some adopted children experience trauma, 20
and the disruption and placement in another home 21
due to such a transfer may contribute to additional 22
trauma and instability for such children; 23
‘‘(3) unregulated custody transfers may not in-24
clude certain safety measures that are required as 25
part of formal adoption proceedings, such as re-26
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quired child welfare or criminal background checks 1
or clearances; 2
‘‘(4) child welfare agencies and courts may be 3
unaware of the placement of children through un-4
regulated custody transfers and, as a result, may not 5
conduct assessments on children’s safety and well- 6
being in such subsequent placements; 7
‘‘(5) the lack of such assessments may result in 8
the placement of children in homes in which the chil-9
dren may be exposed to unsafe environments; 10
‘‘(6) the caregivers with whom a child is placed 11
through an unregulated custody transfer may have 12
no legal responsibility with respect to such child and 13
may not have complete records, including the child’s 14
birth, medical, or other records, with respect to such 15
child; 16
‘‘(7) a child adopted through intercountry adop-17
tion may be at risk of not acquiring United States 18
citizenship if an unregulated custody transfer occurs 19
before the adoptive parents complete all necessary 20
steps to finalize the adoption of such child; and 21
‘‘(8) unregulated custody transfers pose signifi-22
cant challenges for children who experience such 23
transfers. 24
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‘‘(b) DEFINITION.—For the purpose of this section, 1
the term ‘unregulated custody transfer’— 2
‘‘(1) means the abandonment of a child, by the 3
child’s parent or legal guardian, or a person or enti-4
ty acting on behalf, and with the consent, of such 5
parent or guardian— 6
‘‘(A) by placing the child with a person 7
who is not— 8
‘‘(i) the child’s parent, stepparent, 9
grandparent, adult sibling, legal guardian, 10
or other adult relative; 11
‘‘(ii) a friend of the family who is an 12
adult and with whom the child is familiar; 13
or 14
‘‘(iii) a member of the federally recog-15
nized Indian Tribe of which the child is 16
also a member or eligible to be a member; 17
‘‘(B) with the intent of severing the rela-18
tionship between the child and the parent or 19
guardian of such child; and 20
‘‘(C) without— 21
‘‘(i) reasonably ensuring the safety of 22
the child and permanency of the placement 23
of the child, including by conducting an of-24
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ficial home study, background check, and 1
supervision; and 2
‘‘(ii) transferring the legal rights and 3
responsibilities of parenthood or guardian-4
ship under applicable Federal and State 5
law to a person described in clause (i), (ii), 6
or (iii) of subparagraph (A); and 7
‘‘(2) does not include the surrender of an infant 8
to a safe haven by the parent or guardian of such 9
infant, if such surrender is consistent with the safe 10
haven law of the applicable State. 11
‘‘(c) T
ECHNICALASSISTANCE ANDPUBLICAWARE-12
NESS.—The Secretary, in coordination with the heads of 13
other relevant Federal agencies— 14
‘‘(1) shall improve public awareness related to 15
preventing adoption disruption and dissolution, in-16
cluding preventing unregulated custody transfers of 17
adopted children; and 18
‘‘(2) in carrying out paragraph (1), shall update 19
Federal resources, including internet websites, to 20
provide— 21
‘‘(A) employees of State, local, and Tribal 22
agencies that provide child welfare services with 23
education materials related to preventing, iden-24
tifying, and responding to unregulated custody 25
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transfers, including such materials containing 1
information on adoption support and stability 2
services for adoptive families and prospective 3
adoptive families; and 4
‘‘(B) prospective adoptive families with in-5
formation on accessing pre-adoption education 6
and post-adoption services from State, local, 7
and private resources to promote child perma-8
nency. 9
‘‘(d) R
EPORT TOCONGRESS.— 10
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years 11
after the date of enactment of the Safe Home Act 12
of 2025, the Secretary, in consultation with the Sec-13
retary of State, shall prepare and submit to the 14
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pen-15
sions and the Committee on Finance of the Senate 16
and the Committee on Education and Workforce and 17
the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of 18
Representatives a report on unregulated custody 19
transfers of children, including of adopted children. 20
‘‘(2) E
LEMENTS.—The report required under 21
paragraph (1) shall include— 22
‘‘(A) information on the causes, methods, 23
and characteristics of unregulated custody 24
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transfers, including the use of social media and 1
the internet; 2
‘‘(B) information on the effects of unregu-3
lated custody transfer on children, including the 4
effects of the lack of assessment of a child’s 5
safety and well-being by social services agencies 6
and courts due to such unregulated custody 7
transfer; 8
‘‘(C) data on the prevalence of unregulated 9
custody transfers within each State and across 10
all States; 11
‘‘(D) recommended policies for preventing, 12
identifying, and responding to unregulated cus-13
tody transfers, including of adopted children, 14
that include— 15
‘‘(i) suggested changes or updates to 16
Federal and State law to address unregu-17
lated custody transfers; 18
‘‘(ii) suggested changes or updates to 19
child protection practices to address un-20
regulated custody transfers; and 21
‘‘(iii) methods of providing to the pub-22
lic information regarding adoption and 23
child protection; and 24
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‘‘(E) a description of the activities carried 1
out under subsection (c).’’. 2
(b) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 3
203(d)(3)(A) of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treat-4
ment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 5
5113(d)(3)(A)) is amended by striking ‘‘section 205(a)’’ 6
and inserting ‘‘section 206(a)’’. 7
Æ
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