CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT AND ADOPTION REFORM.

SEC. 301. CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND TREATMENT AND ADOPTION REFORM.(a) Findings.—Section 201 of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 5111) is amended—(1) by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:“(a) Findings.—Congress finds that—“(1) on the last day of fiscal year 2009, some 424,000 children were living in temporary foster family homes or other foster care settings;“(2) most children in foster care are victims of child abuse or neglect by their biological parents and their entry into foster care brought them the additional trauma of separation from their homes and often their communities;“(3) on average, children entering foster care have more physical and mental health needs than do children in the general population, and some require intensive services because the children entering foster care—“(A) were born to mothers who did not receive prenatal care;“(B) were born with life-threatening conditions or disabilities;“(C) were born addicted to alcohol or other drugs; or“(D) have HIV/AIDS;“(4) each year, thousands of children in foster care, regardless of their age, the size of the sibling group they are a part of, their racial or ethnic status, their medical condition, or any physical, mental or emotional disability they may have, are in need of placement with permanent, loving, adoptive families;“(5)(A) States have made important strides in increasing the number of children who are placed in permanent homes with adoptive parents and in reducing the length of time children wait for such a placement; and“(B) many thousands of children, however, still remain in institutions or foster homes solely because of legal and other barriers to such a placement;“(6)(A) on the last day of fiscal year 2009, there were 115,000 children waiting for adoption;“(B) children waiting for adoption have had parental rights of all living parents terminated or the children have a permanency goal of adoption;124 STAT. 3511“(C)(i) the average age of children adopted with public child welfare agency involvement during fiscal year 2009 was a little more than 6 years; and“(ii) the average age of children waiting for adoption on the last day of that fiscal year was a little more than 8 years of age and more than 30,000 of those children were 12 years of age or older; and“(D)(i) 25 percent of the children adopted with public child welfare agency involvement during fiscal year 2009 were African-American; and“(ii) 30 percent of the children waiting for adoption on the last day of fiscal year 2009 were African-American;“(7) adoption may be the best alternative for assuring the healthy development of children placed in foster care;“(8) there are qualified persons seeking to adopt such children who are unable to do so because of barriers to their placement and adoption; and“(9) in order both to enhance the stability of and love in the home environments of such children and to avoid wasteful expenditures of public funds, such children—“(A) should not have medically indicated treatment withheld from them; or“(B) be maintained in foster care or institutions when adoption is appropriate and families can be found for such children.”; and(2) in subsection (b)—(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by inserting “older children, minority children, and” after “particularly”; and(B) by striking paragraph (2) and inserting the following:“(2) maintain an Internet-based national adoption information exchange system to—“(A) bring together children who would benefit from adoption and qualified prospective adoptive parents who are seeking such children;“(B) conduct national recruitment efforts in order to reach prospective parents for children awaiting adoption; and“(C) connect placement agencies, prospective adoptive parents, and adoptive parents to resources designed to reduce barriers to adoption, support adoptive families, and ensure permanency; and”.(b) Information and Services.—Section 203 of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 5113) is amended—(1) in subsection (a), by striking all that follows “facilitate the adoption of” and inserting “older children, minority children, and children with special needs, particularly infants and toddlers with disabilities who have life-threatening conditions, and services to families considering adoption of children with special needs.”;(2) in subsection (b)—(A) in paragraph (1)—(i) by striking “and” after “regarding adoption” and inserting a comma; and124 STAT. 3512(ii) by inserting “, and post-legal adoption services” after “adoption assistance programs”;(B) in paragraph (2), by inserting “, including efforts to promote the adoption of older children, minority children, and children with special needs” after “national level”;(C) in paragraph (7)—(i) by striking “study the efficacy of States contracting with” and inserting “increase the effective use of”;(ii) by striking the comma after “organizations)” and inserting “by States,”;(iii) by inserting a comma after “institutions”; and(iv) by inserting “, including assisting in efforts to work with organizations that promote the placement of older children, minority children, and children with special needs” after “children for adoption”;(D) in paragraph (9)—(i) in subparagraph (B), by striking “and” at the end;(ii) in subparagraph (C), by adding “and” after the semicolon at the end; and(iii) by adding at the end the following:“(D) identify best practices to reduce adoption disruption and termination;”; and(E) in paragraph (10)—(i) in the matter preceding subparagraph (A), by inserting “tribal child welfare agencies,” after “local government entities,”; and(ii) in subparagraph (A)—(I) in clause (ii), by inserting “, including developing and using procedures to notify family and relatives when a child enters the child welfare system” before the semicolon at the end;(II) by redesignating clauses (vii) and (viii) as clauses (viii) and (ix), respectively; and(III) by inserting after clause (vi) the following:“(vii) education and training of prospective adoptive or adoptive parents;”; and(3) in subsection (d)—(A) in paragraph (1), by striking the second sentence and all that follows; and(B) in paragraph (2)—(i) in subparagraph (A)—(I) in the second sentence, by inserting “, consistent with the purpose of this title” after “by the Secretary”; and(II) by striking the third sentence and inserting the following: “Each application shall contain information that—“(i) describes how the State plans to improve the placement rate of children in permanent homes;“(ii) describes the methods the State, prior to submitting the application, has used to improve the placement of older children, minority children, and children with special needs, who are legally free for adoption;124 STAT. 3513“(iii) describes the evaluation the State plans to conduct, to identify the effectiveness of programs and methods of placement under this subsection, and submit to the Secretary; and“(iv) describes how the State plans to coordinate activities under this subsection with relevant activities under section 473 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 673).”;(ii) in subparagraph (B)(i), by inserting “older children, minority children, and” after “successful placement of”; and(iii) by adding at the end the following:“(C) Evaluation.—The Secretary shall compile the results of evaluations submitted by States (described in subparagraph (A)(iii)) and submit a report containing the compiled results to the appropriate committees of Congress.”.(c) Authorization of Appropriations.—Section 205 of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 5115) is amended—(1) in subsection (a)—(A) by striking “2004” and inserting “2010”; and(B) by striking “2005 through 2008” and inserting “2011 through 2015”;(2) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (c); and(3) by inserting after subsection (a) the following:“(b) Not less than 30 percent and not more than 50 percent of the funds appropriated under subsection (a) shall be allocated for activities under subsections (b)(10) and (c) of section 203.”.