AUTHORITY OF THE DIRECTOR TO MAKE GRANTS.

SEC. 212. AUTHORITY OF THE DIRECTOR TO MAKE GRANTS. (a) In General.— The Director of the Office of Victims of Crime (hereinafter in this subtitle referred to as the “Director”), in consultation with officials of the Department of Health and Human Services, shall make grants to develop and implement multidisciplinary child abuse investigation and prosecution programs. (b) Grant Criteria.— (1) The Director shall establish the criteria to be used in evaluating applications for grants under this section consistent with sections 262, 293, and 296 of subpart II of title II of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. 5665 et seq.). (2) In general, the grant criteria established pursuant to paragraph (1) may require that a program include any of the following elements: (A) A written agreement between local law enforcement, social service, health, and other related agencies to coordinate child abuse investigation, prosecution, treatment, and counseling services. (B) An appropriate site for referring, interviewing, treating, and counseling child victims of sexual and serious physical abuse and neglect (referred to as the “counseling center”). (C) Referral of all sexual and serious physical abuse and neglect cases to the counseling center not later than 24 hours after notification of an incident of abuse. (D) Joint initial investigative interviews of child victims by personnel from law enforcement, health, and social service agencies. (E) A requirement that, to the extent practicable, the same agency representative who conducts an initial interview conduct all subsequent interviews. (F) A requirement that, to the extent practicable, all interviews and meetings with a child victim occur at the counseling center. (G) Coordination of each step of the investigation process to minimize the number of interviews that a child victim must attend. (H) Designation of a director for the multidisciplinary program. (I) Assignment of a volunteer or staff advocate to each child in order to assist the child and, when appropriate, the child’s family, throughout each step of judicial proceedings. (J) Such other criteria as the Director shall establish by regulation. (c) Distribution of Grants.— In awarding grants under this section, the Director shall ensure that grants are distributed to both large and small States and to rural, suburban, and urban jurisdictions.