II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2926 

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

Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a family recovery 

and reunification program replication project to help reunify families 

and protect children with parents or guardians with a substance use 

disorder who have temporarily lost custody of their children. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 22, 2018 

Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself and Mr. SCOTT) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

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

to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services 

to conduct a family recovery and reunification program 

replication project to help reunify families and protect 

children with parents or guardians with a substance use 

disorder who have temporarily lost custody of their children. 

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 ‘‘Improving Recovery 

5 and Reunifying Families Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FAMILY RECOVERY AND REUNIFICATION PROGRAM 

2 REPLICATION PROJECT. 

3 Section 435 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 

4 629e) is amended by adding at the end the following: 

5 ‘‘(e) FAMILY RECOVERY AND REUNIFICATION PRO6 GRAM REPLICATION PROJECT.— 

7 ‘‘(1) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this subsection 

8 is to provide resources to the Secretary to support 

9 the conduct and evaluation of a family recovery and 

10 reunification program replication project (referred to 

11 in this subsection as the ‘project’) and to determine 

12 the extent to which such programs may be appro13 priate for use at different intervention points (such 

14 as when a child is at risk of entering foster care or 

15 when a child is living with a guardian while a parent 

16 is in treatment). The family recovery and reunifica17 tion program conducted under the project shall use 

18 a recovery coach model that is designed to help re19 unify families and protect children by working with 

20 parents or guardians with a substance use disorder 

21 who have temporarily lost custody of their children. 

22 ‘‘(2) PROGRAM COMPONENTS.—The family re23 covery and reunification program conducted under 

24 the project shall adhere closely to the elements and 

25 protocol determined to be most effective in other re26 covery coaching programs that have been rigorously 


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1 evaluated and shown to increase family reunification 

2 and protect children and, consistent with such ele3 ments and protocol, shall provide such items and 

4 services as— 

5 ‘‘(A) assessments to evaluate the needs of 

6 the parent or guardian; 

7 ‘‘(B) assistance in receiving the appro8 priate benefits to aid the parent or guardian in 

9 recovery; 

10 ‘‘(C) services to assist the parent or guard11 ian in prioritizing issues identified in assess12 ments, establishing goals for resolving such 

13 issues that are consistent with the goals of the 

14 treatment provider, child welfare agency, 

15 courts, and other agencies involved with the 

16 parent or guardian or their children, and mak17 ing a coordinated plan for achieving such goals; 

18 ‘‘(D) home visiting services coordinated 

19 with the child welfare agency and treatment 

20 provider involved with the parent or guardian 

21 or their children; 

22 ‘‘(E) case management services to remove 

23 barriers for the parent or guardian to partici24 pate and continue in treatment, as well as to 


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1 re-engage a parent or guardian who is not par2 ticipating or progressing in treatment; 

3 ‘‘(F) access to services needed to monitor 

4 the parent’s or guardian’s compliance with pro5 gram requirements; 

6 ‘‘(G) frequent reporting between the treat7 ment provider, child welfare agency, courts, and 

8 other agencies involved with the parent or 

9 guardian or their children to ensure appropriate 

10 information on the parent’s or guardian’s sta11 tus is available to inform decision-making; and 

12 ‘‘(H) assessments and recommendations 

13 provided by a recovery coach to the child wel14 fare caseworker responsible for documenting the 

15 parent’s or guardian’s progress in treatment 

16 and recovery as well as the status of other 

17 areas identified in the treatment plan for the 

18 parent or guardian, including a recommenda19 tion regarding the expected safety of the child 

20 if the child is returned to the custody of the 

21 parent or guardian that can be used by the 

22 caseworker and a court to make permanency 

23 decisions regarding the child. 

24 ‘‘(3) RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE SECRETARY.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall, 

2 through a grant or contract with 1 or more en3 tities, conduct an evaluation of the family recov4 ery and reunification program under the 

5 project. 

6 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENTS.—In identifying 1 or 

7 more entities to conduct the evaluation of the 

8 family recovery and reunification program, the 

9 Secretary shall— 

10 ‘‘(i) determine that the area or areas 

11 in which the program will be conducted 

12 have sufficient substance use disorder 

13 treatment providers and other resources 

14 (other than those provided with funds 

15 made available to carry out the project) to 

16 successfully conduct the program; 

17 ‘‘(ii) determine that the area or areas 

18 in which the program will be conducted 

19 have enough potential program partici20 pants, and will serve a sufficient number of 

21 parents or guardians and their children, so 

22 as to allow for the formation of a control 

23 group, evaluation results to be adequately 

24 powered, and preliminary results of the 


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1 evaluation to be available within 4 years of 

2 the program’s implementation; 

3 ‘‘(iii) provide the entity or entities 

4 with technical assistance for the program 

5 design, including by working with 1 or 

6 more entities that are or have been in7 volved in recovery coaching programs that 

8 have been rigorously evaluated and shown 

9 to increase family reunification and protect 

10 children so as to make sure the program 

11 conducted under the project adheres closely 

12 to the elements and protocol determined to 

13 be most effective in such other recovery 

14 coaching programs; 

15 ‘‘(iv) assist the entity or entities in se16 curing adequate coaching, treatment, child 

17 welfare, court, and other resources needed 

18 to successfully conduct the family recovery 

19 and reunification program under the 

20 project; and 

21 ‘‘(v) ensure the entity or entities will 

22 be able to monitor the impacts of the pro23 gram in the area or areas in which it is 

24 conducted for at least 5 years after parents 

25 or guardians and their children are ranVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:13 May 30, 2018 Jkt 079200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2926.IS S2926

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1 domly assigned to participate in the pro2 gram or to be part of the program’s con3 trol group. 

4 ‘‘(4) EVALUATION REQUIREMENTS.— 

5 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in con6 sultation with the entity or entities conducting 

7 the family recovery and reunification program 

8 under the project, shall conduct an evaluation 

9 to determine whether the program has been im10 plemented effectively and resulted in improve11 ments for children and families. The evaluation 

12 shall have 3 components: a pilot phase, an im13 pact study, and an implementation study. 

14 ‘‘(B) PILOT PHASE.—The pilot phase com15 ponent of the evaluation shall consist of the 

16 Secretary providing technical assistance to the 

17 entity or entities conducting the family recovery 

18 and reunification program under the project to 

19 ensure— 

20 ‘‘(i) the program’s implementation ad21 heres closely to the elements and protocol 

22 determined to be most effective in other re23 covery coaching programs that have been 

24 rigorously evaluated and shown to increase 


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1 family reunification and protect children; 

2 and 

3 ‘‘(ii) random assignment of parents or 

4 guardians and their children to be partici5 pates in the program or to be part of the 

6 program’s control group is being carried 

7 out. 

8 ‘‘(C) IMPACT STUDY.—The impact study 

9 component of the evaluation shall determine the 

10 impacts of the family recovery and reunification 

11 program conducted under the project on the 

12 parents and guardians and their children par13 ticipating in the program. The impact study 

14 component shall— 

15 ‘‘(i) be conducted using an experi16 mental design that uses a random assign17 ment research methodology; 

18 ‘‘(ii) consistent with previous studies 

19 of other recovery coaching programs that 

20 have been rigorously evaluated and shown 

21 to increase family reunification and protect 

22 children, measure outcomes for parents 

23 and guardians and their children over mul24 tiple time periods, but not for any period 

25 of less than 5 years; and 


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1 ‘‘(iii) include measurements of family 

2 stability and parent, guardian, and child 

3 safety for program participants and the 

4 program control group that are consistent 

5 with measurements of such factors for par6 ticipants and control groups from previous 

7 studies of other recovery coaching pro8 grams so as to allow results of the impact 

9 study to be compared with the results of 

10 such prior studies, including with respect 

11 to comparisons between program partici12 pants and the program control group re13 garding— 

14 ‘‘(I) safe family reunification; 

15 ‘‘(II) time to reunification; 

16 ‘‘(III) permanency (such as 

17 through measures of reunification, 

18 adoption, or placement with guard19 ians); 

20 ‘‘(IV) safety (such as through 

21 measures of subsequent maltreat22 ment); 

23 ‘‘(V) parental or guardian treat24 ment persistence and engagement; 


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1 ‘‘(VI) parental or guardian sub2 stance use; 

3 ‘‘(VII) juvenile delinquency; 

4 ‘‘(VIII) cost; and 

5 ‘‘(IX) other measurements 

6 agreed upon by the Secretary and the 

7 entity or entities operating the family 

8 recovery and reunification program 

9 under the project. 

10 ‘‘(D) IMPLEMENTATION STUDY.—The im11 plementation study component of the evaluation 

12 shall be conducted concurrently with the con13 duct of the impact study component and shall 

14 include, in addition to such other information 

15 as the Secretary may determine, descriptions 

16 and analyses of— 

17 ‘‘(i) the adherence of the family recov18 ery and reunification program conducted 

19 under the project to other recovery coach20 ing programs that have been rigorously 

21 evaluated and shown to increase family re22 unification and protect children; and 

23 ‘‘(ii) the difference in services received 

24 or proposed to be received by the program 


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1 participants and the program control 

2 group. 

3 ‘‘(E) REPORT.—The Secretary shall pub4 lish on an internet website maintained by the 

5 Secretary the following information: 

6 ‘‘(i) A report on the pilot phase com7 ponent of the evaluation. 

8 ‘‘(ii) A report on the impact study 

9 component of the evaluation. 

10 ‘‘(iii) A report on the implementation 

11 study component of the evaluation. 

12 ‘‘(iv) A report that includes— 

13 ‘‘(I) analyses of the extent to 

14 which the program has resulted in in15 creased reunifications, case closures, 

16 net savings to the State or States in17 volved, or other outcomes; 

18 ‘‘(II) if, based on such analyses, 

19 the Secretary determines the program 

20 should be replicated, a replication 

21 plan; and 

22 ‘‘(III) such recommendations for 

23 legislation and administrative action 

24 as the Secretary determines appro25 priate. 


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1 ‘‘(5) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—In 

2 addition to any amount otherwise made available to 

3 carry out this subpart, there are authorized to be 

4 appropriated to the Secretary, $15,000,000 for fiscal 

5 year 2019 to carry out the project, which shall re6 main available through fiscal year 2026.’’. 

Æ 


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