I 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1876 
To establish a national demonstration project to improve intervention pro-
grams for the most disadvantaged children and youth, and for other 
purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 27, 2005 
Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Ms. HOOLEY, Mr. WALDEN of Oregon, and 
Mr. CHABOT) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Education and the Workforce 
A BILL 
To establish a national demonstration project to improve 
intervention programs for the most disadvantaged chil-
dren and youth, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Friends of the Children 
National Demonstration Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds that—
(1) the single most important protective factor 
in a child’s life is a long-term relationship with a 
supportive, caring adult; 
(2) while the most disadvantaged children can 
be accurately identified as early as age 5, very few 
long-term intervention programs are initiated at this 
age; 
(3) no Federal competitive grant or contract 
program exists to fund innovative programs match-
ing the most disadvantaged children beginning at 
age 5 with ‘‘professional mentors’’ for 10 years or 
more; 
(4) privately-funded programs matching ‘‘pro-
fessional mentors’’ with the most disadvantaged chil-
dren beginning at an early age for the child and 
lasting for 10 years or more, show great promise in 
benefiting the most disadvantaged children and 
youth; and 
(5) violent juvenile crime is a national problem, 
and the most disadvantaged children and youth need 
support specifically targeted to help them from be-
coming involved in, or a victim of, violent juvenile 
crime. 
SEC. 3. PURPOSES. 
The purposes of this Act are as follows:
(1) To establish a national demonstration 
project to promote learning about successful early 
and sustained childhood interventions, with pro-
grams carried out by Friends of the Children local 
chapters, by employing and measuring an effective 
approach for improving the lives and future pros-
pects of the most disadvantaged children and youth. 
(2) To demonstrate an effective early interven-
tion program that serves the most disadvantaged 
children and youth through private/public partner-
ships to prevent the need for costly incarceration, re-
habilitation, and treatment at a later date. 
(3) To document best practices for conducting 
a successful early intervention for the most dis-
advantaged children and youth, based on the results 
of Friends of the Children local chapters. 
(4) To produce lessons and data from the oper-
ating experiences of those Friends of the Children 
local chapters that will provide information to im-
prove policy in the public and private sectors. 
SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF DEMONSTRATION PROJECT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—From amounts made available to 
carry out this Act, the Attorney General shall carry out 
a demonstration project under which the Attorney General 
makes a grant to Friends of the Children, National Office,
to be subgranted by such office to Friends of the Children 
local chapters to pay for the Federal share of the cost of 
carrying out early intervention programs under this Act. 
(b) ELIGIBLE LOCAL CHAPTERS.—Friends of the 
Children local chapters serving the following cities are eli-
gible to participate in the demonstration project: 
(1) Chester, Pennsylvania. 
(2) Cincinnati, Ohio. 
(3) Eugene, Oregon. 
(4) Klamath Falls, Oregon. 
(5) New York, New York. 
(6) Portland, Oregon. 
(7) Salem, Oregon. 
(8) San Francisco, California. 
(9) Seattle, Washington. 
(10) Wilmington, Delaware. 
(11) Boston, Massachusetts. 
(c) FEDERAL SHARE.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Federal share of the 
cost referred to in subsection (a) may not exceed 75 
percent. 
(2) NON-FEDERAL
SHARE.—The non-Federal 
share of such cost may be provided in cash or in- 
kind.
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 2006 through 2010. 
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