I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5810 
To establish a national, evidence-based, and comprehensive home study assess-
ment standard for the evaluation of prospective foster parents and adop-
tive parents and provide funding to States to adopt this standard. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 14, 2016 
Mr. HUFFMAN (for himself and Ms. BASS) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To establish a national, evidence-based, and comprehensive 
home study assessment standard for the evaluation of 
prospective foster parents and adoptive parents and pro-
vide funding to States to adopt this standard. 
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 ‘‘National Adoption and 
Foster Care Home Study Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. COMMUNITY-BASED GRANTS FOR THE PREVENTION 
OF CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT. 
Title II of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment 
Act (42 U.S.C. 5116 et seq.) is amended— 
(1) in section 201(b)— 
(A) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘; and’’ 
and inserting a semicolon; 
(B) in paragraph (5), by striking the pe-
riod and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(C) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(6) establishing a demonstration program not 
later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of 
this Act through which the State— 
‘‘(A) adopts a specific evidence-based, uni-
form, home study program for the evaluation of 
prospective foster parents and adoptive parents 
that incorporate the elements described in sec-
tion 207A(a) and that— 
‘‘(i) expedites the screening of care-
givers to promote more family-based care 
over institutional care for children; 
‘‘(ii) provides cost savings to the 
State’s current foster care and adoption 
system; 
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‘‘(iii) reduces the number of children 
waiting for foster care or adoptive place-
ment; 
‘‘(iv) reduces the number of prospec-
tive families waiting for foster care or 
adoptive placement; 
‘‘(v) quantifies better outcomes for 
children that participate; 
‘‘(vi) ensures ongoing training of 
home study certified personnel; and 
‘‘(vii) designates a home study auditor 
to ensure quality control and accuracy of 
information provided to placing agencies; 
and 
‘‘(B) provides data gathered through oper-
ation of the program to the Secretary, as the 
Secretary may require for purposes of the na-
tional registry under section 207A(b).’’; and 
(2) by inserting after section 207 the following: 
‘‘SEC. 207A. NATIONAL HOME STUDY STANDARD DEM-
ONSTRATION PROGRAMS; NATIONAL REG-
ISTRY. 
‘‘(a) PROGRAM
ELEMENTS.—Each demonstration 
program established by a State in accordance with section 
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201(b)(6) shall use the home study methodology developed 
by the Secretary that shall incorporate— 
‘‘(1) information gathering tools, including— 
‘‘(A) an initial written questionnaire that 
is a uniform set of closed-ended questions with 
a variety of possible answers that provides sig-
nificant family information; 
‘‘(B) a secondary in-person questionnaire 
that is administered in a private setting, and, 
if applicable, with both applicants present to-
gether; and 
‘‘(C) guidelines that describe standardized 
questions that an individual serving as a ref-
erence for the applicant uses in writing a ref-
erence letter, to be sent directly to such indi-
vidual and not shared with the applicant, and 
which is consistent with the questionnaires de-
scribed in subparagraphs (A) and (B); 
‘‘(2) a written guidance document to assist 
home study practitioners in performing a psycho-
social evaluation of the applicant that— 
‘‘(A) provides instructions on how to sys-
tematically analyze information learned from 
the information gathering tools described in 
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