# 119-hr-4972: Create Accountable Respectful Environments (CARE) for Children Act

119-hr-4972, Create Accountable Respectful Environments (CARE) for Children Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Steube, W. Gregory [R-FL-17] (R-FL); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-09-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4972
- As of: 2026-09-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-4972
- Congress: 119
- Title: Create Accountable Respectful Environments (CARE) for Children Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-08-15
- Sponsor: Rep. Steube, W. Gregory [R-FL-17] (R-FL)
- Cosponsors: 25
- Policy area: Families
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-09-21

## Summary

**Creates a new 'cottage family home' foster placement category** that would expand foster options and aim to preserve sibling groups and improve child safety with clear care standards. It would also make placements in these homes eligible for foster care maintenance payments and set rules on living arrangements, restraints, and oversight. - Families and children: Would encourage keeping siblings together and require trauma-informed care, access to age-appropriate activities, and regular family contact while banning seclusion, mechanical and chemical restraints, and any prone physical restraint. - Foster parents and providers: Defines cottage family homes as single-family residences with live-in parents who provide 24-hour substitute care and generally limits bedrooms to no more than 2 children per bedroom unless it is in the children's best interest. It would allow foster care maintenance payments for children placed in these homes and remove time limits on those payments for such placements. - State agencies: Would require State plans to authorize cottage family homes as a placement option and protects states from penalties for treating these homes as foster family homes when serving children's best interests. - Oversight and child voice: Requires a system for children to report concerns and a continuous quality improvement process that regularly solicits feedback from children about care quality.

## Cosponsors (25)

- Rep. Dunn, Neal P. [R-FL-2] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Cammack, Kat [R-FL-3] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [D-FL-25] (D-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Soto, Darren [D-FL-9] (D-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Gimenez, Carlos A. [R-FL-28] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Franklin, Scott [R-FL-18] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Ezell, Mike [R-MS-4] (R-MS), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Guest, Michael [R-MS-3] (R-MS), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bilirakis, Gus M. [R-FL-12] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Rutherford, John H. [R-FL-5] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Edwards, Chuck [R-NC-11] (R-NC), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Mills, Cory [R-FL-7] (R-FL), 2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Buchanan, Vern [R-FL-16] (R-FL), 2025-09-02T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Haridopolos, Mike [R-FL-8] (R-FL), 2025-09-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Bean, Aaron [R-FL-4] (R-FL), 2025-09-16T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Moskowitz, Jared [D-FL-23] (D-FL), 2025-09-17T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Donalds, Byron [R-FL-19] (R-FL), 2025-09-23T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Patronis, Jimmy [R-FL-1] (R-FL), 2025-09-23T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Vindman, Eugene Simon [D-VA-7] (D-VA), 2025-10-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Kelly, Trent [R-MS-1] (R-MS), 2025-10-08T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Van Duyne, Beth [R-TX-24] (R-TX), 2025-10-24T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Kustoff, David [R-TN-8] (R-TN), 2025-11-17T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Pfluger, August [R-TX-11] (R-TX), 2026-04-13T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Scott, Austin [R-GA-8] (R-GA), 2026-05-12T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Davis, Donald G. [D-NC-1] (D-NC), 2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Safety and care rules for cottage homes: benefit, medium. The bill would set safety and care rules for “cottage family homes.” Homes must be licensed, support family and sibling contact, and let kids join age‑appropriate activities. Care would be trauma‑informed, with seclusion and mechanical or chemical restraints banned; prone restraints banned; only br…
- Foster payments for cottage family homes: benefit, medium. If enacted, State foster care plans would need to list cottage family homes as a placement option. Children placed in these homes would qualify for foster care maintenance payments, with no time limit on these payments. The changes would apply to payments for calendar quarters starting on or after…
- States get more say on cottage homes: mixed, low. The bill would bar HHS from blocking, penalizing, or suing a State for treating a cottage family home as a foster family home when the State says it serves children’s best interests. This would keep more authority with States and could reduce federal oversight.

## Related bills

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- 119-hr-1628: 761st Tank Battalion Congressional Gold Medal Act
- 119-hr-909: Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2025
- 119-hr-452: Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act
- 119-hres-719: Honoring the life and legacy of Charles Charlie James Kirk.
- 119-hres-166: Expressing support for the Iranian people's desires for a democratic, secular, and nonnuclear Republic of Iran, and condemning the Iranian regime's terrorism,…

## Sources
- [119-hr-4972 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4972)

## Related
- [119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage A…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-842)
- [119-hr-1628: 761st Tank Battalion Congressional Gold Medal Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-1628)
- [119-hr-909: Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-909)
- [119-hr-452: Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-452)
- [119-hres-719: Honoring the life and legacy of Charles Charlie James Kirk.](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hres-719)
- [119-hres-166: Expressing support for the Iranian people's desires for a democratic, secular,…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hres-166)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4972 (as of 2026-09-21).