Bill > S1013

This bill, titled the State Child Welfare Innovation Act, renews the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to allow states to conduct demonstration projects aimed at improving child welfare programs, specifically those related to child and family services (Part B) and foster care and adoption assistance (Part E) of the Social Security Act (SSA). The bill updates the timeframe for these projects to fiscal years 2011 through 2014 and removes previous requirements for state applications, replacing them with new conditions for eligibility. To be approved for a new project, states must identify specific goals for improvement, such as increasing permanency for children, enhancing positive outcomes for families, and preventing child abuse and neglect. They must also demonstrate their readiness to implement these projects by outlining planned policy changes and show that they have implemented or plan to implement at least three specific child welfare program improvement policies, which can include establishing a bill of rights for children in foster care, improving health and mental health services, promoting educational stability, supporting kinship guardianship, protecting against inappropriate psychotropic medication use, ensuring appropriate use of congregate care, increasing sibling placements, improving foster home recruitment and retention, assisting youth transitioning out of foster care, and developing programs to prevent children from entering foster care or to provide permanency. The bill also revises requirements for project applications, evaluations, and reporting, including mandating independent evaluations and requiring states to account for investments and maintain equivalent spending levels. Importantly, Indian tribes operating certain programs under Title IV of the SSA are now considered states for the purposes of this section.