IB 

Union Calendar No. 315 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 2426 

[Report No. 118–385] 

To amend part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to require the 

Secretary of Health and Human Services to identify obstacles to identifying and responding to reports of children missing from foster care 

and other vulnerable foster youth, to provide technical assistance relating 

to the removal of such obstacles, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 30, 2023 

Mr. TONY GONZALES of Texas (for himself, Ms. BROWN, Mrs. HOUCHIN, Ms. 

MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. BACON, Ms. KAMLAGER-DOVE, Mr. 

NEWHOUSE, and Ms. SCANLON) introduced the following bill; which was 

referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 

FEBRUARY 13, 2024 

Additional sponsors: Ms. MACE, Mr. LAMBORN, Mr. CASTEN, Mr. DOGGETT, 

Mr. TRONE, Ms. SEWELL, Mr. GOTTHEIMER, Mr. STANTON, Mr. 

LAWLER, Mr. LANGWORTHY, Mr. VALADAO, Mr. ESTES, Mr. NUNN of 

Iowa, Mr. FITZPATRICK, and Mrs. HINSON

FEBRUARY 13, 2024 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole 

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 30, 2023] 


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A BILL 

To amend part E of title IV of the Social Security Act 

to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

to identify obstacles to identifying and responding to 

reports of children missing from foster care and other 

vulnerable foster youth, to provide technical assistance 

relating to the removal of such obstacles, and for other 

purposes. 


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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 ‘‘Find and Protect Foster 

5 Youth Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ELIMINATING OBSTACLES TO IDENTIFYING AND RE7 SPONDING TO REPORTS OF CHILDREN MISS8 ING FROM FOSTER CARE AND OTHER VUL9 NERABLE FOSTER YOUTH. 

10 Section 476 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 676) 

11 is amended by adding at the end the following: 

12 ‘‘(f) EVALUATION OF PROTOCOLS RELATING TO CHIL13 DREN MISSING FROM FOSTER CARE AND OTHER VULNER14 ABLE YOUTH; TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.— 

15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall conduct 

16 an evaluation of the protocols established by States in 

17 accordance with the requirements of section 

18 471(a)(35) and, to the extent applicable, by Indian 

19 tribes or tribal organizations (as defined in section 

20 479B(a)) or tribal consortia with a plan approved 

21 under section 471 in accordance with section 479B. 

22 ‘‘(2) REQUIREMENTS.—The evaluation shall in23 clude the following: 

24 ‘‘(A) A review of relevant aspects of reports 

25 submitted by States, Indian tribes, tribal organiVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:20 Feb 14, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2426.RH H2426

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1 zations, and tribal consortia under this part and 

2 part B, and data and other information reported 

3 pursuant to the system established under section 

4 479. 

5 ‘‘(B) Analysis of the extent to which States, 

6 Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and tribal 

7 consortia comply with, and enforce, the protocols 

8 required by section 471(a)(35). 

9 ‘‘(C) Analysis of the effectiveness of such 

10 protocols. 

11 ‘‘(D) Identification of obstacles for States, 

12 Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and tribal 

13 consortia to identifying and responding to re14 ports of children missing from foster care and 

15 other vulnerable foster youth. 

16 ‘‘(E) Identification of best practices for 

17 identifying such children and youth and inter18 vening with effective services. 

19 ‘‘(3) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—The Secretary 

20 shall provide States, Indian tribes, tribal organiza21 tions, and tribal consortia with information, advice, 

22 educational materials, and technical assistance relat23 ing to eliminating identified obstacles to identifying 

24 and responding to reports of children missing from 

25 foster care and other vulnerable foster youth and proVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:20 Feb 14, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\H2426.RH H2426

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1 viding such children and youth with effective services. 

2 Such assistance may include dissemination of— 

3 ‘‘(A) processes and tools to identify and ex4 amine risk factors and potential trends related to 

5 children who go missing from foster care and 

6 other vulnerable youth; 

7 ‘‘(B) best practices for runaway tracking 

8 and recovery; and 

9 ‘‘(C) guidelines for intervention, including 

10 with respect to services, types of providers, and 

11 placement settings. 

12 ‘‘(4) REPORT.—Not later than 5 years after the 

13 date of enactment of this subsection, the Secretary 

14 shall submit a report to Congress on the results of the 

15 evaluation conducted under this subsection and the 

16 technical assistance provided in accordance with 

17 paragraph (3).’’. 

18 SEC. 3. IMPROVING SCREENING AND ASSESSMENT OF CHIL19 DREN RETURNED TO FOSTER CARE AFTER 

20 GOING MISSING TO DETERMINE WHETHER 

21 THEY WERE, OR ARE AT RISK OF BECOMING, 

22 VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING. 

23 Section 476 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 676), 

24 as amended by section 2, is further amended by adding at 

25 the end the following: 


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1 ‘‘(g) IMPROVING IDENTIFICATION OF, AND SERVICES

2 FOR, CHILDREN WHO RETURN TO FOSTER CARE AFTER

3 RUNNING AWAY OR OTHERWISE BEING ABSENT FROM FOS4 TER CARE AND WHO ARE, OR ARE AT RISK OF BEING, 

5 VICTIMS OF SEX TRAFFICKING.— 

6 ‘‘(1) ASSISTANCE.— 

7 ‘‘(A) SCREENING AFTER A RETURN TO FOS8 TER CARE.—The Secretary shall provide States, 

9 Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and tribal 

10 consortia, with information, advice, educational 

11 materials, and technical assistance to improve 

12 compliance with section 471(a)(35)(A)(iii). 

13 ‘‘(B) IMPROVING OTHER REQUIREMENTS.— 

14 The information, advice, educational materials, 

15 and technical assistance provided may include 

16 information, advice, educational materials, and 

17 technical assistance to improve or modify poli18 cies and procedures (including relevant training 

19 for caseworkers) developed by States, Indian 

20 tribes, tribal organizations, and tribal consortia 

21 under section 471(a)(9)(C), including the fol22 lowing: 

23 ‘‘(i) Identifying, through screening, 

24 whether the State has reasonable cause to 


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1 believe the child or youth is, or is at risk of 

2 being, a victim of sex trafficking. 

3 ‘‘(ii) Documenting the results of such 

4 screening in agency records. 

5 ‘‘(iii) Determining appropriate serv6 ices for a child or youth for whom the State 

7 determines there is reasonable cause to iden8 tify the child or youth as a victim of sex 

9 trafficking, or as at risk of being a victim 

10 of sex trafficking. 

11 ‘‘(iv) Documenting in agency records 

12 the determination of appropriate services 

13 for a child or youth described in clause 

14 (iii). 

15 ‘‘(2) FORMS OF ASSISTANCE.—The assistance 

16 provided under this subsection shall include the fol17 lowing: 

18 ‘‘(A) Assisting States, Indian tribes, tribal 

19 organizations, and tribal consortia, with devel20 oping oversight mechanisms to assess their com21 pliance with section 471(a)(35)(A)(iii). 

22 ‘‘(B) Assisting States, Indian tribes, tribal 

23 organizations, and tribal consortia in devel24 oping— 


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1 ‘‘(i) assessments for screening children 

2 who return to foster care after running 

3 away or otherwise being absent from foster 

4 care for risk of becoming victims of sex traf5 ficking; and 

6 ‘‘(ii) effective and robust policies relat7 ing to the use of the assessments. 

8 ‘‘(C) Working with States, Indian tribes, 

9 tribal organizations, and tribal consortia to im10 prove or modify policies and procedures devel11 oped under section 471(a)(9)(C). 

12 ‘‘(D) Providing technical assistance on how 

13 States, Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and 

14 tribal consortia may best use data collected pur15 suant to section 479 for oversight of, and to en16 sure compliance with, the requirements of para17 graphs (9)(C) and (35)(A)(iii) of section 471(a). 

18 ‘‘(3) CONSULTATION.—The Secretary shall, to the 

19 extent practicable, consult with internal and external 

20 offices with expertise on sex trafficking, including the 

21 Office on Trafficking in Persons of the Administra22 tion for Children and Families, on the development 

23 and dissemination to States, Indian tribes, tribal or24 ganizations, and tribal consortia of the assistance re25 quired under this subsection.’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

2 There is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary 

3 such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act for fiscal 

4 year 2024, which shall remain available through fiscal year 

5 2027. 

6 SEC. 5. IDENTIFYING AND ADDRESSING CONDITIONS THAT 

7 LEAD TO YOUTH RUNNING AWAY FROM FOS8 TER CARE. 

9 The Comptroller General of the United States shall 

10 submit to the Congress a written report that— 

11 (1) contains a rigorous analysis of administra12 tive data to determine the characteristics of youth 

13 who run away from foster care and other relevant in14 formation about foster care runaway episodes; 

15 (2) includes information from interviews with 

16 recent foster youth runaways regarding their reasons 

17 for running away and what happened after they ran 

18 away, including any screening or other protocol fol19 lowed by the State; 

20 (3) includes a systematic review of research and 

21 evidence related to foster youth runaways; 

22 (4) sets forth best practices for making foster care 

23 safe for youth and reducing the number of foster 

24 youth runaways; and 

25 (5) makes recommendations to advance child 

26 welfare practices, after convening and consulting with 


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1 a group of child welfare practitioners and profes2 sionals to inform the recommendations. 


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Union Calendar No. 315 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 2426 

[Report No. 118–385] 

A BILL 

To amend part E of title IV of the Social Security 

poses. the removal of such obstacles, and for other puryouth, to provide technical assistance relating to ing from foster care and other vulnerable foster fying and responding to reports of children missHuman Services to identify obstacles to identiAct to require the Secretary of Health and 

FEBRUARY 13, 2024 

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Comand ordered to be printed mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, 


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