Title I of the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act ( P.L. 112-34 ) extends funding authorization for five years (FY2012-FY2016) for certain programs that support child welfare-related child and family services (under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act). The funding authorization for those programs had been set to expire with FY2011 (i.e., on September 30, 2011). The measure also makes certain child welfare policy changes to those programs and to the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance program (under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act). The policy changes included for programs under both Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the Social Security Act are primarily related to serving children who are in foster care and their families. Title II of P.L. 112-34 renews the authority for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to annually approve up to 10 child welfare demonstration projects for each of three years (FY2012-FY2014). In addition, it adds a number of policy changes related to state eligibility to conduct child welfare demonstration projects (often called "waiver" projects) and HHS approval of those projects. Authority for HHS to grant new waivers expired on March 31, 2006. Substantively identical versions of the Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act were introduced in the House ( H.R. 2883 ) by Representative Geoff Davis, with Representative Lloyd Doggett, and introduced in the Senate ( S. 1542 ) by Senator Max Baucus, with Senator Orrin Hatch, on the same day, September 12, 2011. After those bills were each favorably reported (and without substantive amendment) by the House Ways and Means Committee ( H.R. 2883 ) and the Senate Finance Committee ( S. 1542 ), the House passed H.R. 2883 on September 21, 2011, and the Senate did the same on September 22. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on September 30, 2011 ( P.L. 112-34 ). Title IV-B of the Social Security Act authorizes a range of programs and activities to support child welfare-related child and family services and research. These include the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program (Subpart 1, hereafter Child Welfare Services program), the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (Subpart 2), the National Random Sample Study of Child Welfare (Section 429), and the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program (Section 439). The funding authorization for each of these programs was set to expire as of September 30, 2011. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act makes the following changes to Title IV-B of the Social Security Act: It extends the annual discretionary funding authorization for the Child Welfare Services program at its current law level for five years ($325 million for each of FY2012-FY2016). It provides annual mandatory funding authorization for the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program for five years (FY2012-FY2016) at $345 million; and it extends the discretionary funding authorization for that program at the current law level for those same five years ($200 million for each of FY2012-FY2016). It continues for each of five years (FY2012-FY2016) a reservation of mandatory Promoting Safe and Stable program funds for the Court Improvement Program ($30 million); grants to regional partnerships to assist children affected by parental substance abuse ($20 million); and grants to states related to monthly caseworker visits ($20 million). P.L. 112-34 does not extend program or funding authorization for the Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program, which was first authorized by the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001 ( P.L. 107-133 ). The Mentoring Children of Prisoners Program was authorized to receive "such sums as necessary" for FY2007-FY2011. It received $49 million for each of FY2007-FY2010, but it received no appropriation ($0) for FY2011. Further, P.L. 112-34 does not extend funding for the National Random Sample Study of Child Welfare (a.k.a., the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, NSCAW). The study has collected nationally representative and longitudinal data on children and families who come into contact with the child welfare agency. It includes firsthand reports from these children, their parents or other caregivers, and their caseworkers and teachers. The study has received annual funding since its initial authorization in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 ( P.L. 104-193 ); it received $6 million in mandatory funds for FY2011. States that seek to receive formula grant funds under the Title IV-B Child Welfare Services or Promoting Safe and Stable Families programs and states that wish to receive federal reimbursement for a part of the cost of providing foster care, adoption assistance, and guardianship assistance to eligible children (under the federal "Title IV-E program") must meet specific federal requirements. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act makes several adjustments and additions to these federal child welfare requirements. A primary purpose of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program (hereinafter, the "Safe and Stable program") is to "prevent child maltreatment among families at risk through the provision of supportive family services." The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act requires states, as part of their state plan for this program, to describe how they identify these "at risk" families and how services are targeted to them. Under the Safe and Stable program, states are required to spend no less than 90% of the funds they receive on four categories of services for children and their families: family support, family preservation, time-limited reunification, and adoption promotion and support. Moreover, federal law requires states to spend "significant portions" of the Safe and Stable program funds on each of these four service categories. "Family support services" are intended to strengthen and stabilize families, improve parenting skills, promote children's safety and well-being, and enhance their development. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act amends the definition of those services to clarify that states may use these funds to provide mentoring programs for children. Also, it specifically defines this mentoring as a "structured managed program in which children are appropriately matched with screened and trained adult volunteers for one-on-one relationships, involving meetings and activities on a regular basis, intended to meet, in part, the child's needs for involvement with a caring and supportive adult who provides a positive role model." The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act also revises the definition of "time-limited family reunification services" used in the Safe and Stable program. These are services and activities intended to safely permit a child and his/her parent(s) to be reunited within the first 15 months after the child was removed from the parent's home (and placed in foster care). The services and activities are now stipulated as counseling, substance abuse treatment, assistance to address domestic violence, services to provide temporary child care, and transportation to and from any of these services. The new measure adds the following to these activities: peer-to-peer mentoring, support groups for parents and primary caregivers, and services and activities aimed at facilitating visits and other connections between children in foster care and their parents and siblings. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act makes a number of changes to state plan requirements that are intended to protect children in foster care and enhance their permanence and well-being. As part of a currently required health and mental health oversight plan for all children in foster care, P.L. 112-34 requires states to develop specific protocols related to the appropriate use of psychotropic medication for children in foster care. Further, under the new measure states must also outline in this same oversight plan how they will respond to emotional trauma that is experienced by children in foster care (including trauma based on the children's experience of child abuse or neglect and trauma based on their removal from their biological homes). Separately, P.L. 112-34 requires each state to describe the activities it undertakes to meet the developmental needs of the very young children served (those four years of age or younger), including those activities to shorten the length of time those young children spend without a permanent family. P.L. 112-34 also revises current law education stability planning provisions to ensure that efforts to enroll children, in a timely manner, in the school that is most appropriate for them and in their best interests (and with all necessary records supplied) must apply both when a child is first placed in foster care and at any subsequent placement move that occurs while the child remains in foster care. In an effort to combat identity theft, it further requires that for any youth in foster care at age 16 or older, the state must annually obtain the child's credit report, provide it to the youth at no cost, and provide the youth with an explanation of what is in the report and appropriate guidance. Reviews of state child welfare performance have found that regular and quality caseworker visits with children in foster care are associated with more timely achievement of appropriate permanency goals and better placement stability for these children. The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act extends and revises current requirements related to ensuring that children in foster care are visited on a monthly basis and ensuring that the majority of caseworker visits with children in foster care take place where the child lives. In addition, P.L. 112-34 requires HHS to report additional information to Congress related to state performance on caseworker visits. Finally, the new law continues funding to states ($20 million provided in each of FY2012-FY2016) for formula grants to support monthly caseworker visits. However, it adjusts their focus somewhat. States are required to have standards in place to ensure both the quality and frequency of caseworker visits with children in foster care.