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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 622. State plans for child welfare services
(a) Joint development
In order to be eligible for payment under this subpart, a State
must have a plan for child welfare services which has been
developed jointly by the Secretary and the State agency designated
pursuant to subsection (b)(1) of this section, and which meets the
requirements of subsection (b) of this section.
(b) Requisite features of State plans
Each plan for child welfare services under this subpart shall -
(1) provide that (A) the individual or agency that administers
or supervises the administration of the State's services program
under subchapter XX of this chapter will administer or supervise
the administration of the plan (except as otherwise provided in
section 103(d) of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act
of 1980), and (B) to the extent that child welfare services are
furnished by the staff of the State agency or local agency
administering the plan, a single organizational unit in such
State or local agency, as the case may be, will be responsible
for furnishing such child welfare services;
(2) provide for coordination between the services provided for
children under the plan and the services and assistance provided
under subchapter XX of this chapter, under the State program
funded under part A of this subchapter, under the State plan
approved under subpart 2 of this part, under the State plan
approved under the State plan approved (!1) under part E of this
subchapter, and under other State programs having a relationship
to the program under this subpart, with a view to provision of
welfare and related services which will best promote the welfare
of such children and their families;
(3) provide that the standards and requirements imposed with
respect to child day care under subchapter XX of this chapter
shall apply with respect to day care services under this subpart,
except insofar as eligibility for such services is involved;
(4) provide for the training and effective use of paid
paraprofessional staff, with particular emphasis on the full-time
or part-time employment of persons of low income, as community
service aides, in the administration of the plan, and for the use
of nonpaid or partially paid volunteers in providing services and
in assisting any advisory committees established by the State
agency;
(5) contain a description of the services to be provided and
specify the geographic areas where such services will be
available;
(6) contain a description of the steps which the State will
take to provide child welfare services and to make progress in -
(A) covering additional political subdivisions,
(B) reaching additional children in need of services, and
(C) expanding and strengthening the range of existing
services and developing new types of services,
along with a description of the State's child welfare services
staff development and training plans;
(7) provide, in the development of services for children, for
utilization of the facilities and experience of voluntary
agencies in accordance with State and local programs and
arrangements, as authorized by the State;
(8) provide that the agency administering or supervising the
administration of the plan will furnish such reports, containing
such information, and participate in such evaluations, as the
Secretary may require;
(9) provide for the diligent recruitment of potential foster
and adoptive families that reflect the ethnic and racial
diversity of children in the State for whom foster and adoptive
homes are needed;
(10) provide assurances that the State -
(A) since June 17, 1980, has completed an inventory of all
children who, before the inventory, had been in foster care
under the responsibility of the State for 6 months or more,
which determined -
(i) the appropriateness of, and necessity for, the foster
care placement;
(ii) whether the child could or should be returned to the
parents of the child or should be freed for adoption or other
permanent placement; and
(iii) the services necessary to facilitate the return of
the child or the placement of the child for adoption or legal
guardianship;
(B) is operating, to the satisfaction of the Secretary -
(i) a statewide information system from which can be
readily determined the status, demographic characteristics,
location, and goals for the placement of every child who is
(or, within the immediately preceding 12 months, has been) in
foster care;
(ii) a case review system (as defined in section 675(5) of
this title) for each child receiving foster care under the
supervision of the State;
(iii) a service program designed to help children -
(I) where safe and appropriate, return to families from
which they have been removed; or
(II) be placed for adoption, with a legal guardian, or,
if adoption or legal guardianship is determined not to be
appropriate for a child, in some other planned, permanent
living arrangement; and
(iv) a preplacement preventive services program designed to
help children at risk of foster care placement remain safely
with their families; and
(C)(i) has reviewed (or within 12 months after October 31,
1994, will review) State policies and administrative and
judicial procedures in effect for children abandoned at or
shortly after birth (including policies and procedures
providing for legal representation of such children); and
(ii) is implementing (or within 24 months after October 31,
1994, will implement) such policies and procedures as the State
determines, on the basis of the review described in clause (i),
to be necessary to enable permanent decisions to be made
expeditiously with respect to the placement of such children;
(11) contain a description, developed after consultation with
tribal organizations (as defined in section 450b of title 25) in
the State, of the specific measures taken by the State to comply
with the Indian Child Welfare Act [25 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.];
(12) contain assurances that the State shall develop plans for
the effective use of cross-jurisdictional resources to facilitate
timely adoptive or permanent placements for waiting children;
(13) contain a description of the activities that the State has
undertaken for children adopted from other countries, including
the provision of adoption and post-adoption services; and
(14) provide that the State shall collect and report
information on children who are adopted from other countries and
who enter into State custody as a result of the disruption of a
placement for adoption or the dissolution of an adoption,
including the number of children, the agencies who handled the
placement or adoption, the plans for the child, and the reasons
for the disruption or dissolution.
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