42 U.S.C. § 679b : US Code - Section 679B: Annual report

Search 42 U.S.C. § 679b : US Code - Section 679B: Annual report

The Secretary, in consultation with Governors, State
legislatures, State and local public officials responsible for
administering child welfare programs, and child welfare advocates,
shall -
(1) develop a set of outcome measures (including length of stay
in foster care, number of foster care placements, and number of
adoptions) that can be used to assess the performance of States
in operating child protection and child welfare programs pursuant
to part B of this subchapter and this part to ensure the safety
of children;
(2) to the maximum extent possible, the outcome measures should
be developed from data available from the Adoption and Foster
Care Analysis and Reporting System;
(3) develop a system for rating the performance of States with
respect to the outcome measures, and provide to the States an
explanation of the rating system and how scores are determined
under the rating system;
(4) prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to ensure
that States provide to the Secretary the data necessary to
determine State performance with respect to each outcome measure,
as a condition of the State receiving funds under this part; and
(5) on May 1, 1999, and annually thereafter, prepare and submit
to the Congress a report on the performance of each State on each
outcome measure, which shall examine the reasons for high
performance and low performance and, where possible, make
recommendations as to how State performance could be improved.