42 U.S.C. § 13002 : US Code - Section 13002: Local children's advocacy centers

Search 42 U.S.C. § 13002 : US Code - Section 13002: Local children's advocacy centers

(a) In general
The Administrator, in coordination with the Director and with the
Director of the Office of Victims of Crime, shall make grants to
develop and implement multidisciplinary child abuse investigation
and prosecution programs.
(b) Grant criteria
(1) The Director shall establish the criteria to be used in
evaluating applications for grants under this section consistent
with sections 5673 and 5676 of this title.
(2) In general, the grant criteria established pursuant to
paragraph (1) may require that a program include any of the
following elements:
(A) A written agreement between local law enforcement, social
service, health, and other related agencies to coordinate child
abuse investigation, prosecution, treatment, and counseling
services.
(B) An appropriate site for referring, interviewing, treating,
and counseling child victims of sexual and serious physical abuse
and neglect and nonoffending family members (referred to as the
"counseling center").
(C) Referral of all sexual and serious physical abuse and
neglect cases to the counseling center not later than 24 hours
after notification of an incident of abuse.
(D) Joint initial investigative interviews of child victims by
personnel from law enforcement, health, and social service
agencies.
(E) A requirement that, to the extent practicable, the same
agency representative who conducts an initial interview conduct
all subsequent interviews.
(F) A requirement that, to the extent practicable, all
interviews and meetings with a child victim occur at the
counseling center.
(G) Coordination of each step of the investigation process to
minimize the number of interviews that a child victim must
attend.
(H) Designation of a director for the multidisciplinary
program.
(I) Assignment of a volunteer or staff advocate to each child
in order to assist the child and, when appropriate, the child's
family, throughout each step of judicial proceedings.
(J) Such other criteria as the Director shall establish by
regulation.
(c) Distribution of grants
In awarding grants under this section, the Director shall ensure
that grants are distributed to both large and small States and to
rural, suburban, and urban jurisdictions.
(d) Consultation with regional children's advocacy centers
A grant recipient under this section shall consult from time to
time with regional children's advocacy centers in its census region
that are grant recipients under section 13001b of this title.