I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2022 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a 
study on the recruitment and retention of foster parents in the United 
States. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 26, 2011 
Ms. BASS of California introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to conduct a study on the recruitment and retention 
of foster parents in the United States. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Nation’s foster care system provides for 
nearly 424,000 children each day who are unable to 
live safely with their biological parents. 
(2) In fiscal year 2009, an estimated 255,000 
children entered the foster care system and an aver-
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age of 115,000 children were waiting to be adopted 
every day. 
(3) Most children who are removed from the 
care of their parents live with non-relative foster 
parents, however, the number of children placed in 
relative foster care is growing. 
(4) Foster parents and relative caregivers are 
the most frontline caregivers for children who cannot 
safely remain with their biological parents and pro-
vide physical care and emotional support. 
(5) Federal legislation enacted over the past 
three decades, including the Adoption Assistance 
and Child Welfare Act of 1980, the Adoption and 
Safe Families Act of 1997, and the Fostering Con-
nections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 
2008, provided new investments and services to im-
prove the outcome of our most vulnerable children. 
However, more work needs to be done to ensure chil-
dren are placed in quality foster homes as they wait 
to be reunited with their parents or achieve perma-
nency with a relative caregiver or adoptive family. 
(6) The last national report to Congress on re-
cruitment and retention of foster parents was last 
conducted in the 1990s. 
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SEC. 2. STUDY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 
Human Services shall conduct a study on the recruitment 
and retention of foster parents of children served by any 
foster care program funded under part E of title IV of 
the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 670 et seq.). 
(b) CONTENTS
OF STUDY.—The study shall in-
clude— 
(1) a survey of foster parents who care for chil-
dren served by any foster care program funded 
under part E of title IV of the Social Security Act; 
(2) an evaluation of the role of respite care 
training and services; 
(3) the identification of the capacity of respite 
care service providers in each State; 
(4) the identification of any barriers that pres-
ently exist that limit the ability of States to success-
fully recruit and retain families in the foster system; 
(5) an evaluation of the efforts that have been 
made by States to recruit relative caregivers; and 
(6) any other matters that the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services deems appropriate for 
this study. 
(c) REPORT.—Not later than 3 years after funds are 
made available for the study, the Secretary of Health and 
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Human Services shall submit to Congress a report con-
taining the study’s findings and recommendations. 
Æ 
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