II 

108TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2625 

To establish a national demonstration project to improve intervention programs for the most disadvantaged children and youth, and for other 

purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 8, 2004 

Mr. SMITH (for himself and Mr. WYDEN) introduced the following bill; which 

was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish a national demonstration project to improve 

intervention programs for the most disadvantaged children and youth, and for other purposes. 

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 ‘‘Friends of the Children 

5 National Demonstration Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 
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1 (1) the single most important protective factor 

2 in a child’s life is a long-term relationship with a 

3 supportive, caring adult; 

4 (2) while the most disadvantaged children can 

5 be accurately identified as early as age 5, very few 

6 long-term intervention programs are initiated at this 

7 age; 

8 (3) no Federal competitive grant or contract 

9 program exists to fund innovative programs match10 ing the most disadvantaged children beginning at 

11 age 5 with ‘‘professional mentors’’ for 10 years or 

12 more; 

13 (4) privately-funded programs matching ‘‘pro14 fessional mentors’’ with the most disadvantaged chil15 dren beginning at an early age for the child and 

16 lasting for 10 years or more, show great promise in 

17 benefitting the most disadvantaged children and 

18 youth; and 

19 (5) violent juvenile crime is a national problem, 

20 and the most disadvantaged children and youth need 

21 support specifically targeted to help them from be22 coming involved in, or a victim of, violent juvenile 

23 crime. 

24 SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 

25 The purposes of this Act are as follows: 
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1 (1) To establish a national demonstration 

2 project to promote learning about successful early 

3 and sustained childhood interventions, with pro4 grams carried out by Friends of the Children local 

5 chapters, by employing and measuring an effective 

6 approach for improving the lives and future pros7 pects of the most disadvantaged children and youth. 

8 (2) To demonstrate an effective early interven9 tion program that serves the most disadvantaged 

10 children and youth through private/public partner11 ships to prevent the need for costly incarceration, re12 habilitation, and treatment at a later date. 

13 (3) To document best practices for conducting 

14 a successful early intervention for the most dis15 advantaged children and youth, based on the results 

16 of Friends of the Children local chapters. 

17 (4) To produce lessons and data from the oper18 ating experiences of those Friends of the Children 

19 local chapters that will provide information to im20 prove policy in the public and private sectors. 

21 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMONSTRATION PROJECT. 

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—From amounts made available to 

23 carry out this Act, the Attorney General shall carry out 

24 a demonstration project under which the Attorney General 

25 makes a grant to Friends of the Children, National Office, 
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1 to be subgranted by such office to Friends of the Children 

2 local chapters to pay for the Federal share of the cost of 

3 carrying out early intervention programs under this Act. 

4 (b) ELIGIBLE LOCAL CHAPTERS.—Friends of the 

5 Children local chapters serving the following cities are eli6 gible to participate in the demonstration project: 

7 (1) Chester, Pennsylvania. 

8 (2) Cincinnati, Ohio. 

9 (3) Eugene, Oregon. 

10 (4) Klamath Falls, Oregon. 

11 (5) New York, New York. 

12 (6) Portland, Oregon. 

13 (7) Salem, Oregon. 

14 (8) San Francisco, California. 

15 (9) Seattle, Washington. 

16 (10) Wilmington, Delaware. 

17 (11) Boston, Massachusetts. 

18 (c) FEDERAL SHARE.— 

19 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of the 

20 cost referred to in subsection (a) may not exceed 75 

21 percent. 

22 (2) NON-FEDERAL SHARE.—The non-Federal 

23 share of such cost may be provided in cash or in24 kind. 
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1 SEC. 5. ELIGIBILITY. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 

3 subgrant under this Act, a Friends of the Children local 

4 chapter serving a city referred to in section 4(b) shall sub5 mit an application to Friends of the Children, National 

6 Office, at such time, in such manner, and containing such 

7 information as Friends of the Children, National Office 

8 may require. 

9 (b) SELECTION CRITERIA.—In making subgrants 

10 under this Act, Friends of the Children, National Office, 

11 shall consider the ability of the Friends of the Children 

12 local chapter— 

13 (1) to implement an early intervention program 

14 for the most disadvantaged children and youth; 

15 (2) to identify and target the most disadvan16 taged children and youth through a three-tiered 

17 process of identifying the children including— 

18 (A) several weeks of classroom (either kin19 dergarten or first grade) observation; 

20 (B) assessment forms completed by the 

21 classroom teachers and other relevant school 

22 staff; and 

23 (C) a closed session with elementary school 

24 teachers, family, counselors, and administra25 tors; and 
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1 (3) to participate in an evidence-based evalua2 tion of the early intervention program for the most 

3 disadvantaged children and youth. 

4 SEC. 6. USES OF FUNDS. 

5 (a) PROGRAMS.— 

6 (1) CORE FEATURES.—A Friends of the Chil7 dren local chapter that receives a subgrant under 

8 this Act shall use some or all of the subgrant 

9 amounts to carry out an early intervention program 

10 with the following core features: 

11 (A) TARGET GROUP.—The program shall 

12 target children between the ages of 5 and 7 

13 years old for initial enrollment who— 

14 (i) are at most risk of— 

15 (I) abuse and neglect; 

16 (II) school failure; 

17 (III) juvenile delinquency and 

18 gang and drug involvement; and 

19 (IV) teen pregnancy; and 

20 (ii) are unlikely to develop any form 

21 of resiliency without intensive, long-term 

22 intervention; and 

23 (iii) as adults, are likely to have prob24 lems with mental illness, substance abuse, 

25 and the criminal justice system. 
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1 (B) PROFESSIONAL MENTORS.—The pro2 gram shall make significant use of professional 

3 adult role models to serve no more than eight 

4 children through one-on-one relationships on a 

5 weekly basis for approximately 12 years. 

6 (C) LONG-TERM INVOLVEMENT.—Profes7 sional mentors will engage each child one-on8 one on a weekly basis for approximately 12 

9 years 

10 (2) PERMISSIBLE SERVICES.—The Friends of 

11 the Children local chapter may use some of the 

12 subgrant amounts to secure training and technical 

13 assistance from the Friends of the Children National 

14 Office to build its infrastructure to improve its ca15 pacity to service youth. 

16 (b) EVALUATION AND RELATED ACTIVITIES.— 

17 Friends of the Children National Office shall use grant 

18 amounts under this Act to— 

19 (1) prepare and implement an evaluation design 

20 for evaluating the Friends of the Children local 

21 chapters that receive subgrants under this Act; 

22 (2) conduct annual evaluations of the perform23 ance and progress of the early intervention programs 

24 under this Act; 
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1 (3) provide training and technical assistance to 

2 the Friends of the Children local chapters, based on 

3 such annual evaluations; 

4 (4) prepare and submit to the Attorney General 

5 a report that describes the activities of such pro6 grams and the results of such evaluations; and 

7 (5) disseminate information and results gen8 erated from the operation of the demonstration 

9 project and the resulting evaluation with policy mak10 ers in the public and private sectors. 

11 SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

12 There are authorized to be appropriated to the Attor13 ney General to carry out this Act $7,500,000 for each of 

14 the fiscal years 2005 through 2009. 

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