Significant Pending Federal Legislation

For summaries of important bills affecting children and information on how to take action in support of these bills, visit the Legislative Action Center on the Children's Defense Fund website.

"Fostering Adoption to Further Student Achievement Act"
S. 1488

This bill would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to change the definition of "independent student." An independent student is one whose parents' income is not considered in determining financial need. Currently, the law defines independent students as those who

  • have reached the age of 24;
  • are orphans or wards of the court;
  • were orphans or wards of the court until reaching the age of 18;
  • are veterans of the armed forces;
  • are married; or
  • have dependents other than a spouse.

The proposed amendment would expand this definition to include students who were adopted from foster care at or after the age of 13. Thus, any child adopted on or after her thirteenth birthday would be considered an independent student for purposes of federal financial aid for college, without regard to her adoptive parents' income.

The purpose of the bill, as its name implies, is to encourage adoption of older children by lessening the financial burden on would-be adoptive parents posed by college tuition. The bill was introduced on May 24, 2007, and referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. The bill, which is co-sponsored by Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Mary Landrieu (D-LA) has been introduced in previous sessions and died in committee without action.

"DREAM Act"
S. 2205

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act would create a path to citizenship for certain undocumented immigrants. The Act would give the Department of Homeland Security the discretion to grant permanent resident status to immigrants who

  • entered the U.S. before the age of 16;
  • have been in the U.S. for the five years immediately preceding the enactment of the law;
  • are deemed to be of good moral character;
  • are not excluded under any other provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act;
  • have not been ordered deported or excluded after turning 16;
  • have earned a high school or equivalent diploma or been admitted to an institution of higher learning; and
  • are under 30 when the law is enacted.

The proposed law would provide a solution for the growing number of undocumented immigrants who came to the United States when they were very young and cannot attend college because they do not qualify for federal financial aid. The bill is cosponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Patrick Leahy (D-VT_, and Richard Lugar (R-IL). On October 24, 2007, the Act failed to obtain the required 60 votes necessary to be brought to debate on the Senate floor (52 voted in favor, 44 against). It has not yet come to a vote before the full Senate.

"Fostering Our Future" and "We Care Act"

The "Fostering Our Future Act of 2005" embodies many of the court improvement recommendations from the Pew Commission Report on Foster Care. The Act has four parts:

First, it provides grants to State dependency court systems for personnel training and caseload tracking and analysis. To be eligible, States must track several performance measures, collaborate and share information with child welfare agencies, and match Federal funding at a 33 percent rate. Each grant program will distribute $10 million (in both FY06 and FY07) so that each recipient State receives $85,000 plus a share of the remainder equivalent to their share of the overall foster care population.

Second, it provides loan forgiveness to full-time dependency attorneys who agree to remain in their jobs for at least three years. Awards, made on a first-come first-served basis and subject to the availability of funds, cannot exceed $6,000/year or $50,000 for any borrower. $20 million is authorized for this appropriation for FY06 and such sums as necessary for the next five years.

Third, it requires a GAO study to compare States on:

  • The legal representation provided for children
  • Children's participation in their own cases
  • Preparation of dependency court judges
  • Case tracking and performance measurement
  • Statewide collaborative foster care councils

Fourth, it expresses four senses of Congress:

  • That State judicial leadership should use performance data to ensure accountability and allocate resources wisely
  • That State courts should enable children and parents to participate in their own proceedings
  • That law schools, bar associations, and law firms should help build the pool of qualified dependency attorneys
  • That attorneys for children should have adequate training, reasonable caseloads, and receive adequate and reasonable compensation

The proposed "We Care Act" would:

  • Require enhanced agency-court collaboration;
  • Require states to establish permanent, multidisciplinary child welfare commissions co-chaired by the child welfare director and chief justice of the state court;
  • Establish a new court personnel training program (that would include attorneys among the potential trainees) with a new $10. million authorized discretionary grant initiative;
  • Fund new work by state courts to establish outcome performance standards, using another new $10 million authorized discretionary grant initiative (this would extend work started by the SANCA Act);
  • Require states to implement practice standards for all attorneys who are representing the child welfare agency (but no new $ for that);
  • Establish a loan forgiveness program related to legal representation of parents and children;
  • Support continued expansion of the CASA program with $17. million per year;
  • Clarify Title IV-E regarding the legality of "open courts" (similar to the CAPTA change in 2003);
  • Reform the process of interstate placement of foster children;
  • Expand criminal background check requirements for foster/adoptive parents, including a mandate to check child abuse/neglect registries;
  • Allow courts to access the federal Parent Locator Service to help find absent parents in foster care or adoption cases; and
  • Assure that courts notify foster and pre-adoptive parents, and relative caretakers, of all court proceedings.

Search for pending federal legislation at  http://thomas.loc.gov/.