Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 111 Part 3.djvu/38

 Ill STAT. 2126 PUBLIC LAW 105-89—NOV. 19, 1997 "(2) failed to grant an opportunity for a fair hearing, as described in section 471(a)(12), to an individual whose allegation of a violation of paragraph (1) of this subsection is denied by the State or not acted upon by the State with reasonable promptness.". 42 USC 5111 (c) STUDY OF INTERJURISDICTIONAL ADOPTION ISSUES. — note. (1) IN GENERAL. —The Comptroller General of the United States shall— (A) study and consider how to improve procedures and policies to facilitate the timely and permanent adoptions of children across State and county jurisdictions; and (B) examine, at a minimum, interjurisdictional adoption issues— (i) concerning the recruitment of prospective adoptive families from other States and counties; (ii) concerning the procedures to grant reciprocity to prospective adoptive family home studies from other States and counties; (iii) arising from a review of the comity and full faith and credit provided to adoption decrees and termination of parental rights orders from other States; and (iv) concerning the procedures related to the administration and implementation of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children. (2) REPORT TO THE CONGRESS.— Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit to the appropriate committees of the Congress a report that includes— (A) the results of the study conducted under paragraph (1); and (B) recommendations on how to improve procedures to facilitate the interjurisdictional adoption of children, including interstate and intercounty adoptions, so that children will be assured timely and permanent placements. SEC. 203. PERFORMANCE OF STATES IN PROTECTING CHILDREN. (a) ANNUAL REPORT ON STATE PERFORMANCE. —Part E of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 670 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 42 USC 679b. "SEC. 479A. 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 parts B and E 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 ii^alysis 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;

�