SEC. 5. ELIGIBILITY. 
(a) IN
GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 
subgrant under this Act, a Friends of the Children local 
chapter serving a city referred to in subsection (b) shall 
submit an application to Friends of the Children, National 
Office, at such time, in such manner, and containing such 
information as Friends of the Children, National Office 
may require. 
(b) SELECTION CRITERIA.—In making subgrants 
under this Act, Friends of the Children, National Office, 
shall consider the ability of the Friends of the Children 
local chapter—
(1) to implement an early intervention program 
for the most disadvantaged children and youth; 
(2) to identify and target the most disadvan-
taged children and youth through a three-tiered 
process of identifying the children including—
(A) several weeks of classroom (either kin-
dergarten or first grade) observation; 
(B) assessment forms completed by the 
classroom teachers and other relevant school 
staff; and 
(C) a closed session with elementary school 
teachers, family, counselors, and administra-
tors; and
(3) to participate in an evidence-based evalua-
tion of the early intervention program for the most 
disadvantaged children and youth. 
SEC. 6. USES OF FUNDS. 
(a) PROGRAMS.—
(1) CORE FEATURES.—A Friends of the Chil-
dren local chapter that receives a subgrant under 
this Act shall use some or all of the subgrant 
amounts to carry out an early intervention program 
with the following core features: 
(A) TARGET GROUP.—The program shall 
target children between the ages of 5 and 7 
years old for initial enrollment who—
(i) are at most risk of—
(I) abuse and neglect; 
(II) school failure; 
(III) juvenile delinquency and 
gang and drug involvement; and 
(IV) teen pregnancy; and 
(ii) are unlikely to develop any form 
of resiliency without intensive, long-term 
intervention; and 
(iii) as adults, are likely to have prob-
lems with mental illness, substance abuse, 
and the criminal justice system.
(B) PROFESSIONAL MENTORS.—The pro-
gram shall make significant use of professional 
adult role models to serve no more than eight 
children through one-on-one relationships on a 
weekly basis for approximately 12 years. 
(C) LONG-TERM
INVOLVEMENT.—Profes-
sional mentors will engage each child one-on-
one on a weekly basis for approximately 12 
years 
(2) PERMISSIBLE SERVICES.—The Friends of 
the Children local chapter may use some of the 
subgrant amounts to secure training and technical 
assistance from the Friends of the Children National 
Office to build its infrastructure to improve its ca-
pacity to service youth. 
(b) EVALUATION
AND
RELATED
ACTIVITIES.—
Friends of the Children National Office shall (and may 
use grant amounts under this Act, without regard to the 
limitation set forth in (c)(2) of this section, to)—
(1) prepare and implement an evaluation design 
for evaluating the Friends of the Children local 
chapters that receive subgrants under this Act; 
(2) conduct annual evaluations of the perform-
ance and progress of the early intervention programs 
under this Act;
(3) provide training and technical assistance to 
the Friends of the Children local chapters, based on 
such annual evaluations; 
(4) prepare and submit to the Attorney General 
a report that describes the activities of such pro-
grams and the results of such evaluations; and 
(5) disseminate information and results gen-
erated from the operation of the demonstration 
project and the resulting evaluation with policy mak-
ers in the public and private sectors. 
SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 
There are authorized to be appropriated to the Attor-
ney General to carry out this Act $7,500,000 for each of 
the fiscal years 2005 through 2009.
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