Sec. 102. Supporting normalcy for children in foster care
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Section 475 of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 675 ) is amended by adding at the end the following: The term reasonable and prudent parent standard means the standard characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain a child's health, safety, and best interests while at the same time encouraging the child's emotional and developmental growth, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in foster care under the responsibility of the State to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, and social activities.
For purposes of subparagraph (A), the term caregiver means a foster parent with whom a child in foster care has been placed or a designated official for a child care institution in which a child in foster care has been placed. The term age or developmentally appropriate means activities or items that are generally accepted as suitable for children of the same chronological age or level of maturity or that are determined to be developmentally appropriate for a child, based on the development of cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities that are typical for an age or age group.
In the case of a specific child, the term means activities or items that are suitable for that child based on the developmental stages attained by the child with respect to the child's cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities. . Section 471(a)(24) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 671(a)(24)) is amended— by striking include a and inserting
(A)includes a ; by striking and that such preparation and inserting that such preparation ; by inserting , and that such preparation shall include knowledge and skills relating to the reasonable and prudent parent standard for the child's participation in age or developmentally appropriate activities, including knowledge and skills relating to the developmental stages of a child's cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities, and knowledge and skills relating to applying the standard to decisions such as whether to allow the child to engage in social, extracurricular, and enrichment activities, including sports, field trips, and overnight activities lasting one or more days, and to decisions involving the signing of permission slips and arranging of transportation for the child to and from social, extracurricular, and enrichment activities before the semicolon. Paragraph
(10)of section 471(a) of the Social Security Act ( 42 U.S.C. 671(a) ) is amended to read as follows: provides— for the establishment or designation of a State authority or authorities that shall be responsible for establishing and maintaining standards for foster family homes and child care institutions which are reasonably in accord with recommended standards of national organizations concerned with standards for such institutions or homes, including standards related to admission policies, safety, sanitation, and protection of civil rights, and which shall permit use of the reasonable and prudent parenting standard; that the standards so established under subparagraph
(A)shall be applied by the State to any foster family home or child care institution receiving funds under this part or part B of this title and shall require, as a condition of any contract entered into by the State agency and a child care institution, the presence on-site of at least 1 official who, with respect to any child placed at the child care institution, is designated to be the caregiver who is authorized to apply the reasonable and prudent parent standard to decisions involving the child's access to age or developmentally appropriate items and participation in age or developmentally appropriate activities, and who is provided with training in how to use and apply the reasonable and prudent parent standard in the same manner as prospective foster parents are provided such training under paragraph (24); that the standards so established under subparagraph
(A)include policies and procedures to safeguard foster parents and private entities under contract by the State against frivolous lawsuits involving the application of the reasonable and prudent parent standard; and that a waiver of any standards so established under subparagraph
(A)may be made only on a case-by-case basis for nonsafety standards (as determined by the State) in relative foster family homes for specific children in care; . The amendments made by this section shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, without regard to whether regulations have been promulgated by that date to implement the amendments made by this section.
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