I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 3852 
To amend part E of title IV of the Social Security Act to address or 
assist in resolving the shortage of appropriate foster homes for children, 
to develop resources to keep sibling groups together, and to provide 
for a system of checks and balances to ensure a child’s ongoing safety 
and well-being, by providing for the placement of a foster child in 
cottage family homes and making a child so placed eligible for foster 
care maintenance payments. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 6, 2023 
Mr. DUNN of Florida (for himself, Mr. STEUBE, Mr. SOTO, Ms. WASSERMAN 
SCHULTZ, Mrs. CHERFILUS-MCCORMICK, Mr. BEAN of Florida, Mr. 
RUTHERFORD, Mr. WALTZ, Mrs. CAMMACK, Mr. BILIRAKIS, Mr. C. 
SCOTT FRANKLIN of Florida, and Mr. MOSKOWITZ) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means 
A BILL 
To amend part E of title IV of the Social Security Act 
to address or assist in resolving the shortage of appro-
priate foster homes for children, to develop resources 
to keep sibling groups together, and to provide for a 
system of checks and balances to ensure a child’s ongoing 
safety and well-being, by providing for the placement 
of a foster child in cottage family homes and making 
a child so placed eligible for foster care maintenance 
payments. 
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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 ‘‘Create Accountable 
Respectful Environments (CARE) for Children Act’’. 
SEC. 2. PLACEMENT OF FOSTER CHILDREN IN COTTAGE 
FAMILY HOMES. 
(a) 
STATE
PLAN
REQUIREMENT.—Section 
471(a)(37) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 
671(a)(37)) is amended by inserting ‘‘or a cottage family 
home’’ before the comma. 
(b) ELIGIBILITY OF COTTAGE FAMILY HOMES FOR 
FOSTER
CARE
MAINTENANCE
PAYMENTS.—Section 
472(a)(2)(C) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 672(a)(2)(C)) is 
amended by inserting ‘‘a cottage family home,’’ before 
‘‘with a parent’’. 
(c) DEFINITION OF COTTAGE FAMILY HOME.—Sec-
tion 472(c) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 672(c)) is amended 
by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(3) COTTAGE FAMILY HOME.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The term ‘cottage 
family home’ means a home— 
‘‘(i) that is operated by a public or 
private child care agency licensed or ap-
proved by the State in which the home is 
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situated as an agency that meets the 
standards established for the licensing or 
approval; 
‘‘(ii) that encourages and supports the 
child and the family of the child in main-
taining a strong connection through reg-
ular contact and involvement in a plan of 
care, except to the extent otherwise di-
rected by a court of law; 
‘‘(iii) that is able to serve as a re-
source to facilitate sibling groups being 
placed together where daily contact and 
interaction strengthens family ties; 
‘‘(iv) that provides children access to 
activities or items that are age or develop-
mentally-appropriate, including the ability 
to participate in extracurricular, social, or 
other home and community activities with 
the same freedom afforded to their peers 
who are living at home with their families; 
‘‘(v) that has and implements a trau-
ma-informed approach in the care of chil-
dren; 
‘‘(vi) that prohibits the use of seclu-
sion or mechanical or chemical restraints 
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and permits only short-term physical re-
straint if approved in the policies of the 
agency to prevent injury to self or others, 
and prohibits any prone physical restraint; 
‘‘(vii) that provides a system for a 
child to alert a staff member if the child 
has a concern, feels unfairly denied rights, 
or is subject to a threat of mistreatment; 
‘‘(viii) that has a continuous quality 
improvement methodology that regularly 
solicits information from children con-
cerning their perceptions of the quality of 
care and opinions about the strengths and 
weaknesses of the program; 
‘‘(ix) that is in a single-family style 
residence with no more than 2 children per 
bedroom unless it is in the best interest of 
the children; and 
‘‘(x) in which the children are under 
the care of live-in parents that use the rea-
sonable and prudent parent standard and 
provide 24-hour substitute care of children 
placed away from their parents or other 
caretakers. 
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