42 U.S.C. § 1320a–9 — Demonstration projects

(a) Authority to approve demonstration projects. (1) The Secretary^* may authorize States to conduct projects under this section that the Secretary finds are likely to promote the objectives of part B or E of subchapter IV. (2) During fiscal years 2012 through 2014, the Secretary could authorize no more than 10 such projects in each fiscal year. (3) A new project^* first approved in fiscal year 2012, 2013, or 2014 could be conducted only by a State^* meeting these conditions. (A) The State had to identify one or more goals. (i) The project had to be designed to accomplish one or more of these goals: (I) increase permanency for all infants, children, and youth by reducing, when possible, the time they spend in foster placements and promoting a successful transition to adulthood for older youth; (II) increase positive outcomes for infants, children, youth, and families in their homes and communities, including tribal communities, and improve the safety and well-being of infants, children, and youth; or (III) prevent child abuse and neglect and prevent infants, children, and youth from reentering foster care. (ii) For a project designed to accomplish one or more of those goals, the State could choose to establish a program (I) that permits foster-care maintenance payments under part E of subchapter IV to be made to a long-term therapeutic family treatment^* center, as described in paragraph (8)(B), for a child living there; or (II) that identifies and addresses domestic violence that endangers children and results in children being placed in foster care. (B) The State had to show that it was ready. In a narrative description, it had to identify changes it had made or planned to make in its child-welfare policies, procedures, or other program elements that would let it use this authority effectively and achieve the project’s goal or goals. (C) The State had to show that it had put in place, or planned to put in place within three years after submitting its application or two years after the Secretary approved the project, whichever was later, at least two policies described in paragraph (7). (i) At least one of those policies had to be one the State had not already put in place when it submitted its application. (ii) After the three-year period following approval, the Secretary could end the State’s authority to conduct the project if the State had not made significant progress on the policies it proposed. (4) The Secretary may not authorize a project for a State that does not provide health-insurance coverage to any child with special needs, as determined under section 673(c), for whom an adoption-assistance agreement between a State and an adoptive parent or parents is in effect. (5) When considering an application from a State whose child-welfare program is subject to a court order finding that it failed to comply with part B or E of subchapter IV or with the Constitution, the Secretary had to consider how approving the project would affect the order’s terms and conditions related to the failure and the State’s ability to carry out an approved corrective-action plan under section 1320a–2a. (6) When evaluating an application, the Secretary must not consider whether the project requires children and families to be randomly assigned to project groups and control groups. (7) The child-welfare program improvement policies are: (A) establishing and widely sharing a bill of rights for infants, children, and youth in foster care. The bill must clearly state protections such as frequent visits with parents, siblings, and caseworkers, access to attorneys, and participation in age-appropriate extracurricular activities. The State must also have procedures to ensure those protections are provided. (B) developing and carrying out a plan for meeting the health and mental-health needs of infants, children, and youth in foster care. The plan must ensure that their health and mental-health care is specific to the individual child, comprehensive, appropriate, and consistent. This may include giving the infant, child, or youth a medical home, regular wellness medical visits, and addressing trauma when appropriate. (C) including in the State plan under section 671 an amendment that implements the option under section 671(a)(28) to enter into kinship-guardianship assistance agreements. (D) electing in the State plan under section 671 to define “child,” for foster-care maintenance payments, adoption-assistance payments, and kinship-guardianship assistance payments, to include people described in each of section 675(8)(B)(i)(I), (II), and (III) who have not reached age 21. (E) developing and carrying out a plan that ensures congregate care is used appropriately and reduces the placement of children and youth in congregate care. (F) Among infants, children, and youth in out-of-home placements, substantially increasing above the number in fiscal year 2008 the number of cases in which siblings are in the same foster-care, kinship-guardianship, or adoptive placement. (G) developing and carrying out a plan to improve recruitment and retention of high-quality foster-family homes trained to help infants, children, and youth quickly secure permanent families. The plan may support foster families by increasing maintenance payments to better meet the needs of infants, children, and youth in foster care and by expanding training, respite care, and other support services for foster parents. (H) establishing procedures to help youth prepare to leave foster care. These may include arranging age-appropriate extracurricular activities; appropriate access to cell phones and computers and opportunities to obtain a driver’s license; notice of all sibling placements when siblings are in care and information about where siblings are when they are out of care; and counseling and financial support for postsecondary education. (I) including in the State plan under section 671 a description of State procedures for: (i) making sure that youth in foster care who are at least 16 take part in discussions, including during development of the transition plans required under section 675(1)(D) and (5)(H), about whether they want to reconnect with their biological family, including parents, grandparents, and siblings, and, if so, what skills and strategies they will need to reconnect successfully and safely; (ii) giving appropriate guidance and services to youth who affirm that they intend to reconnect with biological family members, so they can manage the reconnections successfully and safely; and (iii) when appropriate, trying to include biological family members in the reconnection efforts. (J) establishing one or more of these programs, designed to prevent infants, children, and youth from entering foster care or to provide permanency for infants, children, and youth in foster care: (i) an intensive family-finding program; (ii) a kinship-navigator program; (iii) a family-counseling program, such as a family-group decision-making program, which may include in-home peer support for families; (iv) a comprehensive family-based substance-abuse treatment program; (v) a program making special efforts to identify and address domestic violence that endangers infants, children, and youth and puts them at risk of entering foster care; or (vi) a mentoring program. (8) In this subsection, “youth” means, for a State, an individual who is at least 12 but has not reached the age at which the State’s plans under parts B and E of subchapter IV no longer consider the individual a child. “Long-term therapeutic family treatment center” means a State-licensed or State-certified program that lets parents and their children live together in a safe environment for at least six months and provides, on site or by referral, substance-abuse treatment, children’s early-intervention services, family counseling, legal services, medical care^*, mental-health services, nursery and preschool, parenting-skills training, pediatric care, prenatal care, sexual-abuse therapy, relapse prevention, transportation, and job or vocational training or classes leading to a secondary-school diploma or a certificate of general equivalence.
(b) Waiver authority. The Secretary may waive compliance with a requirement of part B or E of subchapter IV if applying it would prevent a State from carrying out a project under this section or from effectively achieving the project’s purpose. The Secretary may not waive (1) any provision of section 622(b)(8) or section 679; or (2) any provision of part E to the extent the waiver would impair a qualified child’s or family’s entitlement to benefits under an approved State plan.
(c) Treatment as program expenditures. For parts B and E of subchapter IV, the Secretary must treat a State’s expenses for conducting a project under this section as expenses under subpart 1 or 2 of part B, or under part E, as the State chooses.
(d) Duration of demonstration. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), a project may be conducted for no more than five years unless the Secretary decides it should continue. (2) A project may not be conducted after September 30, 2019.
(e) Application. A State seeking to conduct a project must submit an application in the form the Secretary requires. It must include: (1) a description of the project, its geographic area, the children or families it would serve, and its services; (2) the period during which it would operate; (3) expected benefits compared with continuing the State’s approved plan or plans; (4) estimated costs or savings; (5) program requirements needing waivers; (6) the proposed evaluation design; (7) an accounting of additional Federal, State, and local investments, and private investments coordinated with the State, made during the two fiscal years before the application to provide the services in paragraph (1), plus an assurance that the State will account for the same spending each year of an approved project; and (8) any additional information the Secretary requires.
(f) Evaluations. Each State authorized to conduct a project must obtain an evaluation by an independent contractor, using a Secretary-approved design that provides for: (1) comparing project service-delivery methods with methods under State plans for efficiency, economy, and other appropriate program-management measures; (2) comparing outcomes for children and families, and groups of children and families, under the project with outcomes under State plans to assess how effectively the project achieves program goals; and (3) any other information the Secretary requires.
(g) Reports. (1) Each authorized State must (A) periodically report to the Secretary on the specific programs, activities, and strategies used to improve outcomes for infants, children, youth, and families, and on the results achieved for infants, children, and youth while the project is conducted. The report must include infants, children, and youth prevented from entering foster care, infants, children, and youth in foster care, and infants, children, and youth who move from foster care to permanent families; and (B) post a copy of each report on the State child-welfare program’s website at the same time it submits the report to the Secretary. (2) The Secretary must submit to the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee (A) periodic reports based on the State reports; and (B) a report based on the State evaluations required under subsection (f), including an analysis of those results and recommendations for administrative or legislative changes the Secretary considers appropriate.
(h) Cost neutrality. The Secretary may not authorize a project unless the Secretary determines that the total Federal funds spent under or because of it over its approved term, or another period the Secretary considers appropriate, will not exceed the Federal funds the State would have spent under its approved plans under parts B and E of subchapter IV if it did not conduct the project.
(i) Indian tribes operating IV–E programs considered States. An Indian tribe, tribal organization, or tribal consortium^* that elected to operate a program under part E of subchapter IV in accordance with section 679c is treated as a State for this section.