{
  "id": "RL34704",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL34704",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 412522,
      "date": "2008-10-09",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T03:06:35.090208",
      "title": "Child Welfare: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-351)",
      "summary": "The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (H.R. 6893) is an omnibus child welfare bill designed to ensure greater permanence and improve the well-being of children served by public child welfare agencies. The legislation received strong support in Congress and, beyond revising and extending the Adoption Incentives program, responds to a range of issues and concerns that have been raised (some for more than a decade) by public child welfare administrators; youth, adoption, tribal, and child welfare advocates; and by children and youth who have been (or still are) in foster care. The bill passed the House of Representatives, by voice vote (under suspension of the rules), on September 17, 2008, and the Senate, by unanimous consent, on September 22, 2008. It was signed into law by the President on October 7, 2008 (P.L. 110-351).\nThe final bill represented a compromise between earlier bills acted on in the House (H.R. 6307) and in the Senate Finance Committee (S. 3038). As enacted, it revises the Adoption Incentives program and extends its funding authorization for five years (FY2009-FY2013). It makes significant changes to federal funding for child welfare programs, which include authorizing new federal support for states that provide kinship guardianship assistance to eligible children leaving foster care; expanding eligibility for federal adoption assistance (by phasing out, over FY2010-FY2018, income and other eligibility criteria that are based on dated cash welfare program rules); extending, as of FY2011, eligibility for federal foster care assistance to youth who remain in care beyond their 18th birthday, up to age 21; and phasing in additional support to states for child welfare related training. Additionally, the bill authorizes tribal child welfare agencies, as of FY2010, to directly access federal funds for foster care, adoption, and guardianship assistance under the Title IV-E program, provided the tribes meet substantially the same requirements made of states. The bill also appropriates $15 million in annual funding, for five years, for a new competitive grant program, Family Connection Grants.\nApart from these financing changes, P.L. 110-351 establishes new requirements for receipt of federal child welfare funding by public child welfare agencies. These include several that focus exclusively on the health and education status of children in foster care and others intended to ensure, or enable, sibling and other kinship connections for children in, or entering, foster care, and those leaving to adoption or guardianship. The bill also requires states to make new efforts related to planning for the transition of older children leaving foster care for independent living and requires states to inform prospective adoptive parents of foster children of their potential eligibility for the adoption tax credit (under the federal tax code).\nMany of the changes included in the new law are projected by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to increase federal spending for child welfare. However, the increases are projected to be fully offset (over the next five and ten years) by savings or increased revenues to the federal treasury that CBO expects to be produced by other changes in the bill (both related and unrelated to child welfare policy). This report may be updated if warranted by issues related to implementing the new law.",
      "type": "CRS Report",
      "typeId": "REPORTS",
      "active": false,
      "formats": [
        {
          "format": "HTML",
          "encoding": "utf-8",
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL34704",
          "sha1": "097f796b018d28aeae207332d26e43dc8f561db8",
          "filename": "files/20081009_RL34704_097f796b018d28aeae207332d26e43dc8f561db8.html",
          "images": null
        },
        {
          "format": "PDF",
          "encoding": null,
          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RL34704",
          "sha1": "9db1050fe364f7c13a2def365c25646cb9b9f17c",
          "filename": "files/20081009_RL34704_9db1050fe364f7c13a2def365c25646cb9b9f17c.pdf",
          "images": null
        }
      ],
      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Domestic Social Policy"
  ]
}