S 620. Authorization
of appropriations
(a) For the
purpose of enabling the United States, through the Secretary, to cooperate
with State public welfare agencies in establishing,
extending, and strengthening child welfare services, there is authorized
to be appropriated for each fiscal year the sum of $325,000,000.
(b) Funds appropriated
for any fiscal year pursuant to the authorization contained in subsection
(a) of this section shall be included in the appropriation
Act (or supplemental appropriation Act) for the fiscal year
preceding the fiscal
year for which such funds are available for obligation. In order
to effect a transition to this method of timing appropriation
action, the preceding sentence shall apply notwithstanding the fact that
its initial application will result in the enactment in
the same year (whether in the same appropriation Act or otherwise) of two
separate appropriations, one for the then current fiscal year
and one for the succeeding fiscal year.
S 621. Allotments
to States
(a) Allotment formula
The sum appropriated
pursuant to section 620 of this title for each fiscal year shall be allotted
by the Secretary for use by cooperating State public
welfare agencies which have plans developed jointly by the State agency
and the Secretary as follows: He shall first allot $70,000 to each
State, and shall then allot to each State an amount
which bears the same ratio to the remainder of such sum as the product
of (1) the population of the State under the age of
twenty-one and (2) the allotment percentage of the State (as determined
under this section) bears to the sum of the corresponding
products of all the States.
(b) Allotment percentage
The "allotment
percentage" for any State shall be 100 per centum less the State percentage;
and the State percentage shall be the percentage which
bears the same ratio to 50 per centum as the per capita income of such
State bears to the per capita income of the United
States; except that (1) the allotment percentage shall in no case
be less than 30 per centum or more than 70 per centum, and (2)
the allotment percentage shall be 70 per centum in the case of Puerto Rico,
the Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa.
(c) Promulgation of
allotment percentage
The allotment
percentage for each State shall be promulgated by the Secretary between
October 1 and November 30 of each even-numbered year,
on the basis of the average per capita income of each State and of the
United States for the three most recent calendar years
for which satisfactory data are available from the Department of Commerce.
Such promulgation shall be conclusive for each of
the two fiscal years in the period beginning October 1 next succeeding
such promulgation.
(d) "United States"
defined
For purposes
of this section, the term "United States" means the fifty States and the
District of Columbia.
S 622.
State plans for child welfare services
(a) Joint development
In order to
be eligible for payment under this subpart, a State must have a plan for
child welfare services which has been developed jointly
by the Secretary and the State agency designated pursuant to subsection
(b)(1) of this section, and which meets the requirements
of subsection (b) of this section.
(b) Requisite features
of State plans
Each plan for
child welfare services under this subpart shall--
(1) provide
that (A) the individual or agency that administers or supervises the administration
of the State's services program under subchapter XX
of this chapter will administer or supervise the administration of the
plan (except as otherwise provided in section 103(d)
of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980), and (B) to the
extent that child welfare services are furnished by the
staff of the State agency or local agency administering the plan, a single
organizational unit in such State or local agency, as the case
may be, will be responsible for furnishing such child welfare services;
(2) provide
for coordination between the services provided for children under the plan
and the services and assistance provided under subchapter
XX of this chapter, under the State program funded under part A of this
subchapter, under the State plan approved under subpart
2 of this part, under the State plan approved under the State plan approved
> [FN1] under part E of this subchapter, and under
other State programs having a relationship to the program under this subpart,
with a view to provision of welfare and related services
which will best promote the welfare of such children and their families;
(3) provide
that the standards and requirements imposed with respect to child day care
under subchapter XX of this chapter shall apply with
respect to day care services under this subpart, except insofar as eligibility
for such services is involved;
(4) provide
for the training and effective use of paid paraprofessional staff, with
particular emphasis on the full-time or part-time employment
of persons of low income, as community service aides, in the administration
of the plan, and for the use of nonpaid or partially
paid volunteers in providing services and in assisting any advisory committees
established by the State agency;
(5) contain
a description of the services to be provided and specify the geographic
areas where such services will be available;
(6) contain
a description of the steps which the State will take to provide child welfare
services and to make progress in--
(A) covering
additional political subdivisions,
(B) reaching
additional children in need of services, and
(C) expanding
and strengthening the range of existing services and developing new types
of services, along with a description of the State's
child welfare services staff development and training plans;
(7) provide,
in the development of services for children, for utilization of the facilities
and experience of voluntary agencies in accordance
with State and local programs and arrangements, as authorized by the State;
(8) provide
that the agency administering or supervising the administration of the
plan will furnish such reports, containing such information,
and participate in such evaluations, as the Secretary may require;
(9) provide
for the diligent recruitment of potential foster and adoptive families
that reflect the ethnic and racial diversity of children in
the State for whom foster and adoptive homes are needed;
(10) provide
assurances that the State--
(A) since
June 17, 1980, has completed an inventory of all children who, before the
inventory, had been in foster care under the responsibility
of the State for 6 months or more, which determined--
(i) the appropriateness of, and necessity for, the foster care placement;
(ii) whether the child could or should be returned to the parents of the
child or should be freed for adoption or other permanent placement;
and
(iii) the services necessary to facilitate the return of the child or the
placement of the child for adoption or legal guardianship;
(B) is
operating, to the satisfaction of the Secretary--
(i) a statewide information system from which can be readily determined
the status, demographic characteristics, location, and goals for
the placement of every child who is (or, within the immediately preceding
12 months, has been) in foster care;
(ii) a case review system (as defined in section 675(5) of this title)
for each child receiving foster care under the supervision of the
State;
(iii) a service program designed to help children--
(I) where safe and appropriate, return to families from which they have
been removed; or
(II) be placed for adoption, with a legal guardian, or, if adoption or
legal guardianship is determined not to be appropriate for a child,
in some other planned, permanent living arrangement; and
(iv) a preplacement preventive services program designed to help children
at risk of foster care placement remain safely with their families;
and
(C)(i)
has reviewed (or within 12 months after October 31, 1994 will review) State
policies and administrative and judicial procedures
in effect for children abandoned at or shortly after birth (including policies
and procedures providing for legal representation
of such children); and
(ii)
is implementing (or within 24 months after October 31, 1994 will implement)
such policies and procedures as the State determines,
on the basis of the review described in clause (i), to be necessary to
enable permanent decisions to be made expeditiously with
respect to the placement of such children;
(11) contain
a description, developed after consultation with tribal organizations (as
defined in section 450b of Title 25) in the State, of
the specific measures taken by the State to comply with the Indian Child
Welfare Act [> 25 U.S.C.A. S 1901 et seq.]; and
(12) contain
assurances that the State shall develop plans for the effective use of
cross-jurisdictional resources to facilitate timely adoptive
or permanent placements for waiting children.
S 623. Payment
to States
(a) Payment schedule
From the sums
appropriated therefor and the allotment under this subpart, subject to
the conditions set forth in this section, the Secretary
shall from time to time pay to each State that has a plan developed in
accordance with section 622 of this title an amount equal
to 75 per centum of the total sum expended under the plan (including the
cost of administration of the plan) in meeting the costs of
State, district, county, or other local child welfare services.
(b) Computation and
method of payment
The method of
computing and making payments under this section shall be as follows:
(1) The Secretary
shall, prior to the beginning of each period for which a payment is to
be made, estimate the amount to be paid to the State
for such period under the provisions of this section.
(2) From the
allotment available therefor, the Secretary shall pay the amount so estimated,
reduced or increased, as the case may be, by any sum
(not previously adjusted under this section) by which he finds that his
estimate of the amount to be paid the State for any prior
period under this section was greater or less than the amount which should
have been paid to the State for such prior period under
this section.
(c) Prohibited payments;
exceptions
(1) No payment
may be made to a State under this part, for any fiscal year beginning after
September 30, 1979, with respect to State expenditures
made for (A) child day care necessary solely because of the employment,
or training to prepare for employment, of a parent
or other relative with whom the child involved is living, (B) foster care
maintenance payments, and (C) adoption assistance payments,
to the extent that the Federal payment with respect to those expenditures
would exceed the total amount of the Federal payment
under this part for fiscal year 1979.
(2) Expenditures
made by a State for any fiscal year which begins after September 30, 1979,
for foster care maintenance payments shall be treated
for purposes of making Federal payments under this part with respect to
expenditures for child welfare services, as if such
foster care maintenance payments constituted child welfare services of
a type to which the limitation imposed by paragraph (1) does
not apply; except that the amount payable to the State with respect
to expenditures made for other child welfare services and for foster
care maintenance payments during any such year shall not exceed 100 per
centum of the amount of the expenditures made for child
welfare services for which payment may be made under the limitation imposed
by paragraph (1) as in effect without regard to this
paragraph.
(d) Minimum State
expenditures
No payment may
be made to a State under this part in excess of the payment made under
this part for fiscal year 1979, for any fiscal year
beginning after September 30, 1979, if for the latter fiscal year the total
of the State's expenditures for child welfare services under
this part (excluding expenditures for activities specified in subsection
(c)(1) of this section) is less than the total of the State's expenditures
under this part (excluding expenditures for such activities) for fiscal
year 1979.
S 624. Reallotment
(a) In general
Subject to subsection
(b) of this section, the amount of any allotment to a State under section
621 of this title for any fiscal year hich the State
certifies to the Secretary will not be required for carrying out the State
plan developed as provided in section 622 of this title shall
be available for reallotment from time to time, on such dates as the Secretary
may fix, to other States which the Secretary determines
(1) have need in carrying out their State plans so developed for sums in
excess of those previously allotted to them under section
621 of this title and (2) will be able to use such excess amounts during
such fiscal year. Such reallotments shall be made on
the basis of the State
plans so developed, after taking into consideration the population under
the age of twenty-one, and the per capita income of
each such State as compared with the population under the age of twenty-one,
and the per capita income of all such States with
respect to which such a determination by the Secretary has been made.
Any amount so reallotted to a State shall be deemed part of
its allotment under section 621 of this title.
(b) Exception relating
to foster child protections
The Secretary
shall not reallot under subsection (a) of this section any amount that
is withheld or recovered from a State due to the failure of the State to
meet the requirements of section 622(b)(10) of this title.
S 625. Definitions
(a)(1) For purposes
of this subchapter, the term "child welfare services" means public social
services which are directed toward the accomplishment
of the following purposes: (A) protecting and promoting the welfare
of all children, including handicapped, homeless,
dependent, or neglected children; (B) preventing or remedying, or assisting
in the solution of problems which may result in, the
neglect, abuse, exploitation, or delinquency of children; (C) preventing
the unnecessary separation of children from their families by
identifying family problems, assisting families in resolving their problems,
and preventing breakup of the family where the prevention
of child removal is desirable and possible; (D) restoring to their
families children who have been removed, by the provision
of services to the child and the families; (E) placing children in
suitable adoptive homes, in cases where restoration to the biological
family is not possible or appropriate; and (F) assuring adequate
care of children away from their homes, in cases where the child
cannot be returned home or cannot be placed for adoption.
(2) Funds expended by a State for any calendar quarter to comply with section
622(b)(10) or 676(b) of this title, and funds expended with
respect to nonrecurring costs of adoption proceedings in the case of children
placed for adoption with respect to whom assistance is
provided under a State plan for adoption assistance approved under part
E of this subchapter, shall be deemed to have been expended
for child welfare services.
(b) For other
definitions relating to this part and to part E of this subchapter, see
section 675 of this title.
S 627. Repealed.
Pub.L. 103-432, Title II, S 202(c), Oct. 31, 1994, 108 Stat. 4454
S 670. Congressional
declaration of purpose; authorization of appropriations
For the purpose of enabling each State to provide, in appropriate cases,
foster care and transitional independent living programs for children
who otherwise would have been eligible for assistance under the State's
plan approved under part A of this subchapter (as such
plan was in effect on June 1, 1995) and adoption assistance for children
with special needs, there are authorized to be appropriated
for each fiscal year (commencing with the fiscal year which begins October
1, 1980) such sums as may be necessary to carry out
the provisions of this part. The sums made available under this section
shall be used for making payments to States which have
submitted, and had approved by the Secretary, State plans under this part.