I 
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 ne-
glect. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accountability in Fos-
ter Care Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Key child welfare laws, such as the Adop-
tion and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 
105–89) and the John H. Chafee Foster Care Inde-
pendence Act of 1999 (Public Law 106–169), em-
phasize the importance of monitoring States per-
formances in providing for the safety, permanency, 
stability, and well-being of children in and emanci-
pated from the foster care system via measurable 
outcome data. 
(2) Child welfare experts and government 
agents have identified serious problems with current 
efforts to measure program functioning related to 
children in foster care and emancipated youth, in-
cluding— 
(A) Performance measures that prohibit 
examining children or success over time, over-
estimate the proportion of children reunified 
with families, and fail to consider the nature of 
the children (such as the severity of their prob-
lems, their age, and their urbanicity) served 
that could affect determinations of a State’s 
success; 
(B) The failure of the Department of 
Health and Human Services to implement the 
National Youth in Transition Database to mon-
itor States’ performance related to youth aging 
out of the foster care system, as mandated by 
the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999; and 
(C) Findings by the Government Account-
ability Office that effective Federal oversight of 
the child welfare system requires reliable infor-
mation on States’ implementation efforts and 
that the ability of the Administration of Chil-
dren and Families to monitor State perform-
ance continues to be hindered by an absence of 
standard, comprehensive information within and 
across State plans on each State’s goals, serv-
ices, and youth outcomes as measured against 
baselines of past achievement. 
SEC. 3. ADVISORY PANEL ON THE ADOPTION AND FOSTER 
CARE ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYSTEM. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—Not later than 90 days after 
the date of the enactment of this subsection, the Secretary 
shall establish an Advisory Panel (in this Act referred to 
as the ‘‘Advisory Panel’’) on the Adoption and Foster Care 
Analysis and Reporting System (in this Act referred to 
as ‘‘AFCARS’’) to revise and monitor the data collection, 
analysis, and reporting system designed to be used to as-
sess and improve State performance in operating child
protection and child welfare programs pursuant to parts 
B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act. 
(b) FUNCTIONS.—The Advisory Panel established 
under subsection (a) shall— 
(1) no later than 6 months after its appoint-
ment, make written recommendations for changes in 
law or data collection procedures necessary to revise 
AFCARS to enable the revised AFCARS to— 
(A) longitudinally track child-specific out-
comes (including maltreatment in foster care, 
number of foster care placements, maltreatment 
in foster care, and time to reunification, adop-
tion, or legal guardianship) for children in or 
who have exited the foster care system through 
emancipation, adoption, or legal guardianship, 
developing appropriate timeframes for following 
children after exiting the system; 
(B) collect and analyze entry and exit co-
hort data; 
(C) be integrated with the National Youth 
in Transition Database to promote efficiency in 
data collection and to allow States to examine 
the relationships between the experiences of 
youths while in care and later transition out-
comes; and
(D) include outcome measures of child 
well-being (including education, health, mental 
health, and connection to adults); 
(2) monitor the implementation of these 
AFCARS improvements and propose improvements 
to other State performance measures related to pro-
vision of services to children and families, by— 
(A) convening not less frequently than an-
nually to evaluate the quality of the revised 
AFCARS and make recommendations to the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services for 
continuing improvement in the quality of the 
system of data collection, analysis, and report-
ing; 
(B) developing a uniform reporting format 
for the Child and Family Services Plan and the 
Annual Progress and Services Report in devel-
oping services for children and families; and 
(C) proposing performance standards that 
allow for differences among States and charac-
teristics among populations served (such as dif-
ferences in the severity of problems faced by the 
population, age of the population, or urbanicity 
of the population) in understanding States per-
formance; and
(3) 
examining 
the 
feasibility 
of 
linking 
AFCARS and the National Child Abuse and Neglect 
Data Systems (NCANDS) to understand longitu-
dinal outcomes of children who may be in both sys-
tems. 
(c) MEMBERSHIP.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 
the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
determine the membership and organization of the 
Advisory Panel. 
(2) QUALIFICATIONS.—The membership of the 
Advisory Panel shall include— 
(A) representatives of State and local gov-
ernmental agencies with responsibility for foster 
care and adoption services, which may include 
caseworkers responsible for input data used for 
AFCARS or other Federal child welfare data 
reporting systems; 
(B) representatives of research organiza-
tions and universities who focus on child wel-
fare issues; 
(C) representatives of private, nonprofit or-
ganizations with an interest in child protection 
and child welfare, including those with dem-
onstrated expertise in developing effective child 
welfare assessment tools; 
(D) representatives of Federal agencies re-
sponsible for the collection of child welfare data 
and statistics; 
(E) representatives of families of former 
foster children, including adoptive parents or 
guardians; and 
(F) representatives of juvenile, family, or 
dependency courts. 
(d) USE OF ALTERNATIVE LONGITUDINAL MEAS-
URES BY STATES.—Until final regulations providing for 
implementation of the recommendations made pursuant to 
this section are promulgated, the Secretary shall assess 
the extent to which a State is in compliance with a correc-
tive action plan pursuant to section 1123A of the Social 
Security Act through use of such alternative longitudinal 
measures as the State may select. 
(e) PERMANENCY.—Section 14(a)(2) of the Federal 
Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply 
to the Advisory Board.
SEC. 4. REGULATIONS TO REVISE THE ADOPTION AND FOS-
TER CARE ANALYSIS AND REPORTING SYS-
TEM. 
(a) NOTICE OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS.—Not later 
than 12 months after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall 
cause to be published in the Federal Register a notice of 
proposed regulations to revise AFCARS which details the 
plans and timetable for implementing the regulations de-
scribed in subsection (b). 
(b) CONTENT
OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS.—The 
proposed regulations shall be based on the recommenda-
tions provided by the Advisory Panel, and shall— 
(1) permit longitudinal analysis of child-specific 
outcomes, including analysis of entry and exit cohort 
data for children in and emancipated from foster 
care; 
(2) permit AFCARS to be integrated with the 
planned National Youth in Transition Database; and 
(3) contain such other rules as may be nec-
essary to ensure that the revised AFCARS can per-
form the functions described in section 3(b). 
(c) FINAL REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months 
after the notice required by subsection (a) is published, 
the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall publish
final regulations to revise AFCARS in the manner de-
scribed in this section. 
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