42 U.S.C. § 5105 : US Code - Section 5105: Research and assistance activities

Search 42 U.S.C. § 5105 : US Code - Section 5105: Research and assistance activities

(a) Research
(1) Topics
The Secretary shall, in consultation with other Federal
agencies and recognized experts in the field, carry out a
continuing interdisciplinary program of research, including
longitudinal research, that is designed to provide information
needed to better protect children from abuse or neglect and to
improve the well-being of abused or neglected children, with at
least a portion of such research being field initiated. Such
research program may focus on -
(A) the nature and scope of child abuse and neglect;
(B) causes, prevention, assessment, identification,
treatment, cultural and socio-economic distinctions, and the
consequences of child abuse and neglect, including the effects
of abuse and neglect on a child's development and the
identification of successful early intervention services or
other services that are needed;
(C) appropriate, effective and culturally sensitive
investigative, administrative, and judicial systems, including
multidisciplinary, coordinated decisionmaking procedures with
respect to cases of child abuse;
(D) the evaluation and dissemination of best practices
consistent with the goals of achieving improvements in the
child protective services systems of the States in accordance
with paragraphs (1) through (12) of section 5106a(a) of this
title;
(E) effective approaches to interagency collaboration between
the child protection system and the juvenile justice system
that improve the delivery of services and treatment, including
methods for continuity of treatment plan and services as
children transition between systems;
(F) an evaluation of the redundancies and gaps in the
services in the field of child abuse and neglect prevention in
order to make better use of resources;
(G) the nature, scope, and practice of voluntary
relinquishment for foster care or State guardianship of low
income children who need health services, including mental
health services;
(H) the information on the national incidence of child abuse
and neglect specified in clauses (i) through (xi) of
subparagraph (H); (!1) and
(I) the national incidence of child abuse and neglect,
including -
(i) the extent to which incidents of child abuse are
increasing or decreasing in number and severity;
(ii) the incidence of substantiated and unsubstantiated
reported child abuse cases;
(iii) the number of substantiated cases that result in a
judicial finding of child abuse or neglect or related
criminal court convictions;
(iv) the extent to which the number of unsubstantiated,
unfounded and false reported cases of child abuse or neglect
have contributed to the inability of a State to respond
effectively to serious cases of child abuse or neglect;
(v) the extent to which the lack of adequate resources and
the lack of adequate training of individuals required by law
to report suspected cases of child abuse have contributed to
the inability of a State to respond effectively to serious
cases of child abuse and neglect;
(vi) the number of unsubstantiated, false, or unfounded
reports that have resulted in a child being placed in
substitute care, and the duration of such placement;
(vii) the extent to which unsubstantiated reports return as
more serious cases of child abuse or neglect;
(viii) the incidence and prevalence of physical, sexual,
and emotional abuse and physical and emotional neglect in
substitute care;
(ix) the incidence and prevalence of child maltreatment by
a wide array of demographic characteristics such as age, sex,
race, family structure, household relationship (including the
living arrangement of the resident parent and family size),
school enrollment and education attainment, disability,
grandparents as caregivers, labor force status, work status
in previous year, and income in previous year; and
(x) the incidence and outcomes of abuse allegations
reported within the context of divorce, custody, or other
family court proceedings, and the interaction between this
venue and the child protective services system.
(2) Research
The Secretary shall conduct research on the national incidence
of child abuse and neglect, including the information on the
national incidence on child abuse and neglect specified in
subparagraphs (i) through (ix) of paragraph (1)(I).
(3) Report
Not later than 4 years after June 25, 2003, the Secretary shall
prepare and submit to the Committee on Education and the
Workforce of the House of Representatives and the Committee on
Health, Education, Labor and Pensions of the Senate a report that
contains the results of the research conducted under paragraph
(2).
(4) Priorities
(A) The Secretary shall establish research priorities for
making grants or contracts for purposes of carrying out paragraph
(1).
(B) Not later than 2 years after June 25, 2003, and every 2
years thereafter, the Secretary shall provide an opportunity for
public comment concerning the priorities proposed under
subparagraph (A) and maintain an official record of such public
comment.
(b) Provision of technical assistance
(1) In general
The Secretary shall provide technical assistance to State and
local public and private agencies and community-based
organizations, including disability organizations and persons who
work with children with disabilities, to assist such agencies and
organizations in planning, improving, developing, and carrying
out programs and activities, including replicating successful
program models, relating to the prevention, assessment,
identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
(2) Evaluation
Such technical assistance may include an evaluation or
identification of -
(A) various methods and procedures for the investigation,
assessment, and prosecution of child physical and sexual abuse
cases;
(B) ways to mitigate psychological trauma to the child
victim;
(C) effective programs carried out by the States under this
subchapter and subchapter III of this chapter; and
(D) effective approaches being utilized to link child
protective service agencies with health care, mental health
care, and developmental services to improve forensic diagnosis
and health evaluations, and barriers and shortages to such
linkages.
(3) Dissemination
The Secretary may provide for and disseminate information
relating to various training resources available at the State and
local level to -
(A) individuals who are engaged, or who intend to engage, in
the prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse
and neglect; and
(B) appropriate State and local officials to assist in
training law enforcement, legal, judicial, medical, mental
health, education, and child welfare personnel in appropriate
methods of interacting during investigative, administrative,
and judicial proceedings with children who have been subjected
to abuse.
(c) Authority to make grants or enter into contracts
(1) In general
The functions of the Secretary under this section may be
carried out either directly or through grant or contract.
(2) Duration
Grants under this section shall be made for periods of not more
than 5 years.
(3) Preference for long-term studies
In making grants for purposes of conducting research under
subsection (a) of this section, the Secretary shall give special
consideration to applications for long-term projects.
(d) Peer review for grants
(1) Establishment of peer review process
(A) The Secretary shall, in consultation with experts in the
field and other federal (!2) agencies, establish a formal,
rigorous, and meritorious peer review process for purposes of
evaluating and reviewing applications for grants under this
section and determining the relative merits of the projects for
which such assistance is requested. The purpose of this process
is to enhance the quality and usefulness of research in the field
of child abuse and neglect.
(B) In establishing the process required by subparagraph (A),
the Secretary shall appoint to the peer review panels only
members who are experts in the field of child abuse and neglect
or related disciplines, with appropriate expertise in the
application to be reviewed, and who are not individuals who are
officers or employees of the Administration on Children and
Families. The panels shall meet as often as is necessary to
facilitate the expeditious review of applications for grants and
contracts under this section, but may not meet less than once a
year. The Secretary shall ensure that the peer review panel
utilizes scientifically valid review criteria and scoring
guidelines for review committees.
(2) Review of applications for assistance
Each peer review panel established under paragraph (1)(A) that
reviews any application for a grant shall -
(A) determine and evaluate the merit of each project
described in such application;
(B) rank such application with respect to all other
applications it reviews in the same priority area for the
fiscal year involved, according to the relative merit of all of
the projects that are described in such application and for
which financial assistance is requested; and
(C) make recommendations to the Secretary concerning whether
the application for the project shall be approved.
The Secretary shall award grants under this section on the basis
of competitive review.
(3) Notice of approval
(A) The Secretary shall provide grants and contracts under this
section from among the projects which the peer review panels
established under paragraph (1)(A) have determined to have merit.
(B) In the instance in which the Secretary approves an
application for a program without having approved all
applications ranked above such application (as determined under
paragraph (2)(B)), the Secretary shall append to the approved
application a detailed explanation of the reasons relied on for
approving the application and for failing to approve each pending
application that is superior in merit, as indicated on the list
under paragraph (2)(B).
(e) Demonstration programs and projects
The Secretary may award grants to, and enter into contracts with,
States or public or private agencies or organizations (or
combinations of such agencies or organizations) for time-limited,
demonstration projects for the following:
(1) Promotion of safe, family-friendly physical environments for
visitation and exchange
The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to
entities to assist such entities in establishing and operating
safe, family-friendly physical environments -
(A) for court-ordered, supervised visitation between children
and abusing parents; and
(B) to safely facilitate the exchange of children for visits
with noncustodial parents in cases of domestic violence.
(2) Education identification, prevention, and treatment
The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to
entities for projects that provide educational identification,
prevention, and treatment services in cooperation with preschool
and elementary and secondary schools.
(3) Risk and safety assessment tools
The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to
entities for projects that provide for the development of
research-based strategies for risk and safety assessments
relating to child abuse and neglect.
(4) Training
The Secretary may award grants under this subsection to
entities for projects that involve research-based strategies for
innovative training for mandated child abuse and neglect
reporters.