§679 — Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare | U.S. Code

§679 Collection of data relating to adoption and foster care

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 7— - SOCIAL SECURITY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER IV— - GRANTS TO STATES FOR AID AND SERVICES TO NEEDY FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN AND FOR CHILD-WELFARE SERVICES › Part Part E— - Federal Payments for Foster Care, Prevention, and Permanency › § 679

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Within 90 days after October 21, 1986, the Secretary must create an Advisory Committee on Adoption and Foster Care Information. The committee will study how to set up, run, and pay for a national system to collect adoption and foster care data. The study must say what kinds of information are needed to track how often and what kinds of adoptions and foster care happen and to help make national policy; check whether private and international adoptions should be included; test which data collection methods work; and estimate the cost and administrative effects of each method. The committee must include people from private child welfare groups, state and local child-welfare and statistics agencies, family courts, federal statistical agencies, and groups involved in private or international adoptions. The committee must send its report to the Secretary and Congress by October 1, 1987, and then it ends. By July 1, 1988 the Secretary must send Congress a plan for creating, running, and funding the national data system, say whether private adoptions can be included, and explain how the system would affect the agencies that must run it. The plan must list any law changes needed and describe a fallback system if those changes do not pass. By December 31, 1988 the Secretary must issue final rules to implement either the proposed system or the fallback. Any system must avoid pulling resources away from child-welfare agencies, use uniform definitions and methods so data are reliable, provide national information on demographics, foster care status (numbers, length, placement type, availability for adoption, and goals), placements, removals, adoptions and terminations, out-of-state placements, help given by federal, state, and local programs, and the annual number of foster children identified as sex-trafficking victims before entering care and while in care. The Secretary must also make rules requiring each State with an approved plan to report how many children enter foster care after a finalized adoption or guardianship and may collect details (for example, how long the prior placement lasted, ages at adoption and later entry to care, the type of agency involved, and other useful facts).

Title 42, §679

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)(1)Not later than 90 days after October 21, 1986, the Secretary shall establish an Advisory Committee on Adoption and Foster Care Information (in this section referred to as the “Advisory Committee”) to study the various methods of establishing, administering, and financing a system for the collection of data with respect to adoption and foster care in the United States.

(2)The study required by paragraph (1) shall—

(A)identify the types of data necessary to—

(i)assess (on a continuing basis) the incidence, characteristics, and status of adoption and foster care in the United States, and

(ii)develop appropriate national policies with respect to adoption and foster care;

(B)evaluate the feasibility and appropriateness of collecting data with respect to privately arranged adoptions and adoptions arranged through private agencies without assistance from public child welfare agencies;

(C)assess the validity of various methods of collecting data with respect to adoption and foster care; and

(D)evaluate the financial and administrative impact of implementing each such method.

(3)Not later than October 1, 1987, the Advisory Committee shall submit to the Secretary and the Congress a report setting forth the results of the study required by paragraph (1) and evaluating and making recommendations with respect to the various methods of establishing, administering, and financing a system for the collection of data with respect to adoption and foster care in the United States.

(4)(A)Subject to subparagraph (B), the membership and organization of the Advisory Committee shall be determined by the Secretary.

(B)The membership of the Advisory Committee shall include representatives of—

(i)private, nonprofit organizations with an interest in child welfare (including organizations that provide foster care and adoption services),

(ii)organizations representing State and local governmental agencies with responsibility for foster care and adoption services,

(iii)organizations representing State and local governmental agencies with responsibility for the collection of health and social statistics,

(iv)organizations representing State and local judicial bodies with jurisdiction over family law,

(v)Federal agencies responsible for the collection of health and social statistics, and

(vi)organizations and agencies involved with privately arranged or international adoptions.

(5)After the date of the submission of the report required by paragraph (3), the Advisory Committee shall cease to exist.

(b)(1)(A)Not later than July 1, 1988, the Secretary shall submit to the Congress a report that—

(i)proposes a method of establishing, administering, and financing a system for the collection of data relating to adoption and foster care in the United States,

(ii)evaluates the feasibility and appropriateness of collecting data with respect to privately arranged adoptions and adoptions arranged through private agencies without assistance from public child welfare agencies, and

(iii)evaluates the impact of the system proposed under clause (i) on the agencies with responsibility for implementing it.

(B)The report required by subparagraph (A) shall—

(i)specify any changes in law that will be necessary to implement the system proposed under subparagraph (A)(i), and

(ii)describe the type of system that will be implemented under paragraph (2) in the absence of such changes.

(2)Not later than December 31, 1988, the Secretary shall promulgate final regulations providing for the implementation of—

(A)the system proposed under paragraph (1)(A)(i), or

(B)if the changes in law specified pursuant to paragraph (1)(B)(i) have not been enacted, the system described in paragraph (1)(B)(ii).

(c)Any data collection system developed and implemented under this section shall—

(1)avoid unnecessary diversion of resources from agencies responsible for adoption and foster care;

(2)assure that any data that is collected is reliable and consistent over time and among jurisdictions through the use of uniform definitions and methodologies;

(3)provide comprehensive national information with respect to—

(A)the demographic characteristics of adoptive and foster children and their biological and adoptive or foster parents,

(B)the status of the foster care population (including the number of children in foster care, length of placement, type of placement, availability for adoption, and goals for ending or continuing foster care),

(C)the number and characteristics of—

(i)children placed in or removed from foster care,

(ii)children adopted or with respect to whom adoptions have been terminated, and

(iii)children placed in foster care outside the State which has placement and care responsibility,

(D)the extent and nature of assistance provided by Federal, State, and local adoption and foster care programs and the characteristics of the children with respect to whom such assistance is provided; 11 So in original. The semicolon probably should be a comma. and

(E)the annual number of children in foster care who are identified as sex trafficking victims—

(i)who were such victims before entering foster care; and

(ii)who were such victims while in foster care; and

(4)utilize appropriate requirements and incentives to ensure that the system functions reliably throughout the United States.

(d)To promote improved knowledge on how best to ensure strong, permanent families for children, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations providing for the collection and analysis of information regarding children who enter into foster care under the supervision of a State after prior finalization of an adoption or legal guardianship. The regulations shall require each State with a State plan approved under this part to collect and report as part of such data collection system the number of children who enter foster care under supervision of the State after finalization of an adoption or legal guardianship and may include information concerning the length of the prior adoption or guardianship, the age of the child at the time of the prior adoption or guardianship, the age at which the child subsequently entered foster care under supervision of the State, the type of agency involved in making the prior adoptive or guardianship placement, and any other factors determined necessary to better understand factors associated with the child’s post-adoption or post-guardianship entry to foster care.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2014—Subsec. (c)(3)(E). Pub. L. 113–183, § 103, added subpar. (E). Subsec. (d). Pub. L. 113–183, § 208, added subsec. (d). 1994—Subsec. (c)(3)(C)(iii). Pub. L. 103–432 added cl. (iii).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 1994 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 103–432 effective with respect to fiscal years beginning on or after Oct. 1, 1995, see section 209(d) of Pub. L. 103–432, set out as a note under section 675 of this title. Termination of Advisory CommitteesAdvisory committees established after Jan. 5, 1973, to terminate not later than the expiration of the 2-year period beginning on the date of their establishment, unless, in the case of a committee established by the President or an officer of the Federal Government, such committee is renewed by appropriate action prior to the expiration of such 2-year period, or in the case of a committee established by the Congress, its duration is otherwise provided by law. See section 1013 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.