RESEARCH AND ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES AND DEMONSTRATIONS.

SEC. 112. RESEARCH AND ASSISTANCE ACTIVITIES AND DEMONSTRATIONS.(a) Research.—Section 104(a) of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (42 U.S.C. 5105(a)) is amended—(1) in paragraph (1)—(A) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), in the first sentence, by inserting “, including longitudinal research,” after “interdisciplinary program of research”; and(B) in subparagraph (B), by inserting before the semicolon the following: “, including the effects of abuse and neglect on a child’s development and the identification of successful early intervention services or other services that are needed”;(C) in subparagraph (C)—(i) by striking “judicial procedures” and inserting “judicial systems, including multidisciplinary, coordinated decisionmaking procedures”; and(ii) by striking “and” at the end; and(D) in subparagraph (D)—(i) in clause (viii), by striking “and” at the end;(ii) by redesignating clause (ix) as clause (x); and(iii) by inserting after clause (viii), the following:“(ix) the incidence and prevalence of child maltreatment by a wide array of demographic characteristics such as age, sex, race, family structure, household relationship (including the living arrangement of the resident parent and family size), school enrollment and education attainment, disability, grandparents as caregivers, labor force status, work status in previous year, and income in previous year; and”;(E) by redesignating subparagraph (D) as subparagraph (I); and(F) by inserting after subparagraph (C), the following:“(D) the evaluation and dissemination of best practices consistent with the goals of achieving improvements in the child protective services systems of the States in accordance with paragraphs (1) through (12) of section 106(a);“(E) effective approaches to interagency collaboration between the child protection system and the juvenile justice system that improve the delivery of services and treatment, including methods for continuity of treatment plan and services as children transition between systems;“(F) an evaluation of the redundancies and gaps in the services in the field of child abuse and neglect prevention in order to make better use of resources; 117 STAT. 804“(G) the nature, scope, and practice of voluntary relinquishment for foster care or State guardianship of low income children who need health services, including mental health services;“(H) the information on the national incidence of child abuse and neglect specified in clauses (i) through (xi) of subparagraph (H); and”;(2) in paragraph (2), by striking subparagraph (B) and inserting the following:“(B) Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003, and every 2 years thereafter, the Secretary shall provide an opportunity for public comment concerning the priorities proposed under subparagraph (A) and maintain an official record of such public comment.”;(3) by redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (4);(4) by inserting after paragraph (1) the following:“(2) Research.—The Secretary shall conduct research on the national incidence of child abuse and neglect, including the information on the national incidence on child abuse and neglect specified in subparagraphs (i) through (ix) of paragraph (1)(I).“(3) Report.—Not later than 4 years after the date of the enactment of the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003, the Secretary shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the Senate a report that contains the results of the research conducted under paragraph (2).”.(b) Provision of Technical Assistance.—Section 104(b) of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (42 U.S.C. 5105(b)) is amended—(1) in paragraph (1)—(A) by striking “nonprofit private agencies and” and inserting “private agencies and community-based”; and(B) by inserting “, including replicating successful program models,” after “programs and activities”; and(2) in paragraph (2)—(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking “and” at the end;(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking the period and inserting “; and”; and(C) by adding at the end the following:“(D) effective approaches being utilized to link child protective service agencies with health care, mental health care, and developmental services to improve forensic diagnosis and health evaluations, and barriers and shortages to such linkages.”.(c) Demonstration Programs and Projects.—Section 104 of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (42 U.S.C. 5105) is amended by adding at the end the following:“(e) Demonstration Programs and Projects.—The Secretary may award grants to, and enter into contracts with, States or public or private agencies or organizations (or combinations of such agencies or organizations) for time-limited, demonstration projects for the following:“(1) Promotion of safe, family-friendly physical environments for visitation and exchange.—The Secretary 117 STAT. 805 may award grants under this subsection to entities to assist such entities in establishing and operating safe, family-friendly physical environments—“(A) for court-ordered, supervised visitation between children and abusing parents; and“(B) to safely facilitate the exchange of children for visits with noncustodial parents in cases of domestic violence.“(2) Education identification, prevention, and treatment.—The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to entities for projects that provide educational identification, prevention, and treatment services in cooperation with preschool and elementary and secondary schools. “(3) Risk and safety assessment tools.—The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to entities for projects that provide for the development of research-based strategies for risk and safety assessments relating to child abuse and neglect.“(4) Training.—The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to entities for projects that involve research-based strategies for innovative training for mandated child abuse and neglect reporters.”.