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109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3470 

To strengthen the accountability of the child welfare system in its mandate 

to ensure the safety, permanence, and well-being of children who are 

victims of abuse and neglect. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JULY 27, 2005 

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois (for himself and Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas) introduced 

the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

A BILL 

To strengthen the accountability of the child welfare system 

in its mandate to ensure the safety, permanence, and 

well-being of children who are victims of abuse and neglect. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability in Fos5 ter Care Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds the following: 
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1 (1) Key child welfare laws, such as the Adop2 tion and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 

3 105–89) and the John H. Chafee Foster Care Inde4 pendence Act of 1999 (Public Law 106–169), em5 phasize the importance of monitoring States per6 formances in providing for the safety, permanency, 

7 stability, and well-being of children in and emanci8 pated from the foster care system via measurable 

9 outcome data. 

10 (2) Child welfare experts and government 

11 agents have identified serious problems with current 

12 efforts to measure program functioning related to 

13 children in foster care and emancipated youth, in14 cluding— 

15 (A) Performance measures that prohibit 

16 examining children or success over time, over17 estimate the proportion of children reunified 

18 with families, and fail to consider the nature of 

19 the children (such as the severity of their prob20 lems, their age, and their urbanicity) served 

21 that could affect determinations of a State’s 

22 success; 

23 (B) The failure of the Department of 

24 Health and Human Services to implement the 

25 National Youth in Transition Database to mon-
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1 itor States’ performance related to youth aging 

2 out of the foster care system, as mandated by 

3 the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999; and 

4 (C) Findings by the Government Account5 ability Office that effective Federal oversight of 

6 the child welfare system requires reliable infor7 mation on States’ implementation efforts and 

8 that the ability of the Administration of Chil9 dren and Families to monitor State perform10 ance continues to be hindered by an absence of 

11 standard, comprehensive information within and 

12 across State plans on each State’s goals, serv13 ices, and youth outcomes as measured against 

14 baselines of past achievement. 

15 SEC. 3. ADVISORY PANEL ON THE ADOPTION AND FOSTER 

16 CARE ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYSTEM. 

17 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after 

18 the date of the enactment of this subsection, the Secretary 

19 shall establish an Advisory Panel (in this Act referred to 

20 as the ‘‘Advisory Panel’’) on the Adoption and Foster Care 

21 Analysis and Reporting System (in this Act referred to 

22 as ‘‘AFCARS’’) to revise and monitor the data collection, 

23 analysis, and reporting system designed to be used to as24 sess and improve State performance in operating child 
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1 protection and child welfare programs pursuant to parts 

2 B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act. 

3 (b) FUNCTIONS.—The Advisory Panel established 

4 under subsection (a) shall— 

5 (1) no later than 6 months after its appoint6 ment, make written recommendations for changes in 

7 law or data collection procedures necessary to revise 

8 AFCARS to enable the revised AFCARS to— 

9 (A) longitudinally track child-specific out10 comes (including maltreatment in foster care, 

11 number of foster care placements, maltreatment 

12 in foster care, and time to reunification, adop13 tion, or legal guardianship) for children in or 

14 who have exited the foster care system through 

15 emancipation, adoption, or legal guardianship, 

16 developing appropriate timeframes for following 

17 children after exiting the system; 

18 (B) collect and analyze entry and exit co19 hort data; 

20 (C) be integrated with the National Youth 

21 in Transition Database to promote efficiency in 

22 data collection and to allow States to examine 

23 the relationships between the experiences of 

24 youths while in care and later transition out25 comes; and 
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1 (D) include outcome measures of child 

2 well-being (including education, health, mental 

3 health, and connection to adults); 

4 (2) monitor the implementation of these 

5 AFCARS improvements and propose improvements 

6 to other State performance measures related to pro7 vision of services to children and families, by— 

8 (A) convening not less frequently than an9 nually to evaluate the quality of the revised 

10 AFCARS and make recommendations to the 

11 Secretary of Health and Human Services for 

12 continuing improvement in the quality of the 

13 system of data collection, analysis, and report14 ing; 

15 (B) developing a uniform reporting format 

16 for the Child and Family Services Plan and the 

17 Annual Progress and Services Report in devel18 oping services for children and families; and 

19 (C) proposing performance standards that 

20 allow for differences among States and charac21 teristics among populations served (such as dif22 ferences in the severity of problems faced by the 

23 population, age of the population, or urbanicity 

24 of the population) in understanding States per25 formance; and 
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1 (3) examining the feasibility of linking 

2 AFCARS and the National Child Abuse and Neglect 

3 Data Systems (NCANDS) to understand longitu4 dinal outcomes of children who may be in both sys5 tems. 

6 (c) MEMBERSHIP.— 

7 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 

8 the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 

9 determine the membership and organization of the 

10 Advisory Panel. 

11 (2) QUALIFICATIONS.—The membership of the 

12 Advisory Panel shall include— 

13 (A) representatives of State and local gov14 ernmental agencies with responsibility for foster 

15 care and adoption services, which may include 

16 caseworkers responsible for input data used for 

17 AFCARS or other Federal child welfare data 

18 reporting systems; 

19 (B) representatives of research organiza20 tions and universities who focus on child wel21 fare issues; 

22 (C) representatives of private, nonprofit or23 ganizations with an interest in child protection 

24 and child welfare, including those with dem-
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1 onstrated expertise in developing effective child 

2 welfare assessment tools; 

3 (D) representatives of Federal agencies re4 sponsible for the collection of child welfare data 

5 and statistics; 

6 (E) representatives of families of former 

7 foster children, including adoptive parents or 

8 guardians; and 

9 (F) representatives of juvenile, family, or 

10 dependency courts. 

11 (d) USE OF ALTERNATIVE LONGITUDINAL MEAS12 URES BY STATES.—Until final regulations providing for 

13 implementation of the recommendations made pursuant to 

14 this section are promulgated, the Secretary shall assess 

15 the extent to which a State is in compliance with a correc16 tive action plan pursuant to section 1123A of the Social 

17 Security Act through use of such alternative longitudinal 

18 measures as the State may select. 

19 (e) PERMANENCY.—Section 14(a)(2) of the Federal 

20 Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply 

21 to the Advisory Board. 
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1 SEC. 4. REGULATIONS TO REVISE THE ADOPTION AND FOS2 TER CARE ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYS3 TEM. 

4 (a) NOTICE OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS.—Not later 

5 than 12 months after the date of the enactment of this 

6 Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 

7 cause to be published in the Federal Register a notice of 

8 proposed regulations to revise AFCARS which details the 

9 plans and timetable for implementing the regulations de10 scribed in subsection (b). 

11 (b) CONTENT OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS.—The 

12 proposed regulations shall be based on the recommenda13 tions provided by the Advisory Panel, and shall— 

14 (1) permit longitudinal analysis of child-specific 

15 outcomes, including analysis of entry and exit cohort 

16 data for children in and emancipated from foster 

17 care; 

18 (2) permit AFCARS to be integrated with the 

19 planned National Youth in Transition Database; and 

20 (3) contain such other rules as may be nec21 essary to ensure that the revised AFCARS can per22 form the functions described in section 3(b). 

23 (c) FINAL REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months 

24 after the notice required by subsection (a) is published, 

25 the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall publish 
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1 final regulations to revise AFCARS in the manner de2 scribed in this section. 

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