Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 114 Part 2.djvu/384

 114 STAT. 1266 PUBLIC LAW 106-314—OCT. 17, 2000 Public Law 106-314 106th Congress An Act Oct. 17, 2000 [S. 2272] Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Coiirts Act of 2000. Intergovernmental relations. 42 USC 670 note. 42 USC 670 note. To improve the administrative efficiency and effectiveness of the Nation's abuse and neglect courts and for other pvirposes consistent with the Adoption and Safe Famihes Act of 1997. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the "Strengthening Abuse and Neglect Courts Act of 2000". SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) Under both Federal and State law, the courts play a crucial and essential role in the Nation's child welfare system and in ensuring sEifety, stability, and permanence for abused and neglected children under the supervision of that system. (2) The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-89; 111 Stat. 2115) establishes explicitly for the first time in Federal law that a child's health and safety must be the paramount consideration when any decision is made regarding a child in the Nation's child welfare system. (3) The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 promotes stability and permginence for abused and neglected children by requiring timely decisionmaking in proceedings to determine whether children can safely return to their families or whether they should be moved into safe and stable adoptive homes or other permanent family arrangements outside the foster care system. (4) To avoid unnecessary and lengthy stays in the foster care system, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 specifically requires, among other things, that States move to terminate the parental rights of the parents of those children who have been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months. (5) While essential to protect children and to carry out the general purposes of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, the accelerated timelines for the termination of parental rights and the other requirements imposed under that Act increase the pressure on the Nation's already overburdened abuse and neglect courts. (6) The administrative efficiency and effectiveness of the Nation's abuse and neglect courts would be substantially improved by the acquisition and implementation of computerized case-tracking systems to identify and eliminate existing backlogs, to move abuse and neglect caseloads forward in a

�