42 U.S.C. § 12351: Findings and purpose

Summary

Require the federal government to help start and grow family resource and support programs that focus on preventing problems, helping families early, and getting children ready for school. Congress found big changes in family life: since 1966 the number of women working outside the home rose 92% and two‑earner families rose over 50%. Sixty‑one percent of children born today will live in a single‑parent family before age 20, and one in three single female household heads lives below the Federal poverty level. One in four children under 6 lives below that level. Parents have started local support programs in the past 10 years, and federal investment will bring long‑term benefits.

Title 42, §12351

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

(a)Findings

Congress finds that—

(1)fundamental changes in the demographics and economics of family life in the United States over the past 20 years have had a profound effect on children and their parents;

(2)since 1966, the number of women working outside the home has increased by 92 percent and the number of two earner families has increased by over 50 percent;

(3)61 percent of the children born today will live in a single-parent family before reaching the age of 20, with one out of every three single female heads of households living on income below the Federal poverty level;

(4)one out of every four children under the age of 6 in the United States currently lives below the Federal poverty level;

(5)over the past 10 years, parents have increasingly come together with other parents to organize family resource and support programs that promote healthy child development and increase parental competency, particularly families at risk; and

(6)Federal investment in promoting the development of family resource and support programs will reap long-term benefits for individual families and the nation as a whole.

(b)Purpose

It is the purpose of this part to—

(1)stimulate the development and expansion of family resource and support programs that are prevention oriented;

(2)encourage early intervention of such programs with families to ameliorate problem situations before such situations become crises; and

(3)assist parents in enhancing their children’s development to ensure that their children enter school prepared and ready to learn.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This part, referred to in subsec. (b), was in the original “this Act”, and was translated as reading “this chapter”, meaning chapter 3 (§§ 955–960) of subtitle A of title IX of Pub. L. 101–501, known as the Family Resources Act, to reflect the probable intent of Congress.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective Oct. 1, 1990, see section 1001(a) of Pub. L. 101–501, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1990 Amendment note under section 8621 of this title.

§12351 Findings and Purpose

Summary

Title 42, §12351

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Effective Date

Citations & Metadata