34 U.S.C. § 20304 — Local children’s advocacy centers

(a) General grants. The Administrator must make grants to: (1) build and maintain a network of local children's advocacy centers and coordinated teams that continually handle investigations, prosecutions, and interventions in child abuse cases; (2) develop and coordinate multidisciplinary investigation, intervention, and prosecution activities; (3) promote the "Children's Advocacy Center Model," an evidence-based, trauma-informed approach, and coordinated teamwork responding to child abuse; and (4) create and share standards of care and best practices for evaluating programs, and support the organizational capacity of state chapters and local centers so they can meet those standards. (b) Grants for trafficking victims. The Administrator may also give grants for specialized programs that identify and directly help victims of severe trafficking who were under 18 when the offense happened, and victims of human trafficking and child pornography. (c) Grant criteria. (1) The Administrator must set the rules used to judge grant applications under subsections (a) and (b), consistent with other listed sections. (2) Those rules may require a program to include any of these elements: (A) a written agreement among law enforcement, child protective services, health, and other agencies to coordinate investigation, prosecution, treatment, and counseling; (B) a proper site — called a "children's advocacy center" — for interviewing, treating, and counseling child victims and their nonoffending family members; (C) referring qualifying abuse cases to the center within 24 hours whenever practical, and never later than 72 hours; (D) forensic interviews by trained staff, used by law enforcement, health, and child protective agencies; (E) follow-up services like medical care, mental health care, and victim advocacy; (F) holding interviews and meetings with the child at the center or a linked agency whenever practical; (G) coordinating each investigation step to avoid repeating forensic interviews with the child; (H) naming a director for the center; (I) naming a coordinator for the multidisciplinary team; (J) assigning a volunteer or staff advocate to each child and, when appropriate, their family, throughout the process; (K) coordinating with state chapters that oversee and support local centers, teams, and communities on things like mental health counseling, forensic interviewing, team coordination, and victim advocacy; and (L) any other criteria the Administrator sets by regulation. (d) Spreading out the grants. The Administrator must make sure grants go to all eligible states — large and small — and to rural, suburban, and urban areas. (e) Talking with regional centers. Any grant recipient under this section must periodically consult with the regional children's advocacy centers in its census region that receive grants under section 20303. (f) Grants to state chapters. The Administrator must make sure part of the grant money goes to state chapters, so they can provide oversight, training, and technical help to local centers on evidence-informed practices, including mental health counseling, forensic interviewing, team coordination, and victim advocacy.