§280f — Title 42 The Public Health and Welfare | U.S. Code

Summary

The Secretary must create and keep a program to prevent, find, and help people with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The program can include public and professional education, ways to teach school-age and high‑risk youth, and community awareness. It must help coordinate services across health, foster care, education, and justice systems. It also supports research to improve diagnosis and to develop culturally and language‑appropriate prevention and treatment methods. The program helps States and Tribes build screening, diagnosis, training, and support services, and funds demonstration projects that test coordinated services like advocacy, schooling, job training, counseling, and medical care. The Secretary may give grants, agreements, and contracts and offer technical help. Eligible applicants include States, Indian Tribes or Tribal organizations, local governments, colleges or research institutions, and nonprofits. Applicants must apply and explain their planned activities. The Secretary may ask applicants to name a FASD coordinator and describe an advisory committee and strategic plan. FASD‑informed means using culturally and linguistically appropriate, evidence‑based or practice‑based supports to improve life for people with FASD and their families.

Title 42, §280f

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

(a)The Secretary shall establish or continue activities to support a comprehensive fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (referred to in this section as “FASD”) education, prevention, identification, intervention, and services delivery program, which may include—

(1)an education and public awareness program to support, conduct, and evaluate the effectiveness of—

(A)educational programs targeting health professions schools, social and other supportive services, educators and counselors and other service providers in all phases of childhood development, and other relevant service providers, concerning the prevention, identification, and provision of services for infants, children, adolescents, and adults with FASD;

(B)strategies to educate school-age children, including pregnant and high-risk youth, concerning FASD;

(C)public and community awareness programs concerning FASD; and

(D)strategies to coordinate information and services across affected community agencies, including agencies providing social services such as foster care, adoption, and social work, agencies providing health services, and agencies involved in education, vocational training, and civil and criminal justice;

(2)supporting and conducting research on FASD, as appropriate, including to—

(A)develop appropriate medical diagnostic methods for identifying FASD; and

(B)develop effective culturally and linguistically appropriate evidence-based or evidence-informed interventions and appropriate supports for preventing prenatal alcohol exposure, which may co-occur with exposure to other substances;

(3)building State and Tribal capacity for the identification, treatment, and support of individuals with FASD and their families, which may include—

(A)utilizing and adapting existing Federal, State, or Tribal programs to include FASD identification and FASD-informed support;

(B)developing and expanding screening and diagnostic capacity for FASD;

(C)developing, implementing, and evaluating targeted FASD-informed intervention programs for FASD;

(D)providing training with respect to FASD for professionals across relevant sectors; and

(E)disseminating information about FASD and support services to affected individuals and their families; and

(4)an applied research program concerning intervention and prevention to support and conduct service demonstration projects, clinical studies and other research models providing advocacy, educational and vocational training, counseling, medical and mental health, and other supportive services, as well as models that integrate and coordinate such services, that are aimed at the unique challenges facing individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder or fetal alcohol effect and their families.

(b)(1)The Secretary may award grants, cooperative agreements and contracts and provide technical assistance to eligible entities to carry out subsection (a).

(2)To be eligible to receive a grant, or enter into a cooperative agreement or contract, under this section, an entity shall—

(A)be a State, Indian Tribe or Tribal organization, local government, scientific or academic institution, or nonprofit organization; and

(B)prepare and submit to the Secretary an application at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Secretary may require, including a description of the activities that the entity intends to carry out using amounts received under this section.

(3)The Secretary may require that an eligible entity include in the application submitted under paragraph (2)(B)—

(A)a designation of an individual to serve as a FASD State or Tribal coordinator of activities such eligible entity proposes to carry out through a grant, cooperative agreement, or contract under this section; and

(B)a description of an advisory committee the entity will establish to provide guidance for the entity on developing and implementing a statewide or Tribal strategic plan to prevent FASD and provide for the identification, treatment, and support of individuals with FASD and their families.

(c)For purposes of this section, the term “FASD-informed”, with respect to support or an intervention program, means that such support or intervention program uses culturally and linguistically informed evidence-based or practice-based interventions and appropriate resources to support an improved quality of life for an individual with FASD and the family of such individual.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 280f, act July 1, 1944, ch. 373, title III, § 399H, formerly § 399G, as added Pub. L. 105–392, title IV, § 419(d), Nov. 13, 1998, 112 Stat. 3593; renumbered § 399H and amended Pub. L. 106–310, div. A, title V, § 502(4)(A), (B), Oct. 17, 2000, 114 Stat. 1115, required the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a comprehensive Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effect prevention, intervention and services delivery program and to establish the National Task Force on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effect, prior to the general amendment of this part by Pub. L. 119–44.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Report Pub. L. 119–44, title I, § 104(b), Dec. 1, 2025, 139 Stat. 673, provided that: “Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act [Dec. 1, 2025], and every year thereafter, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall prepare and submit to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives a report containing— “(1) a review of the activities carried out pursuant to section 399H and 399I of the Public Health Service Act [42 U.S.C. 280f, 280f–1], as amended, to advance public education and awareness of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (referred to in this section as ‘FASD’); “(2) a description of—“(A) the activities carried out pursuant to such section 399H and 399I [42 U.S.C. 280f, 280f–1] to identify, prevent, and treat FASD; and “(B) methods used to evaluate the outcomes of such activities; and “(3) an assessment of activities carried out pursuant to such section 399H and 399I [42 U.S.C. 280f, 280f–1] to support individuals with FASD.”

§280f Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Prevention, Intervention, and Services Delivery Program