HR4972-119

What This Bill Does

The Create Accountable Respectful Environments for Children Act adds cottage family homes to federal foster care law. It amends title IV-E so foster children can be placed in cottage family homes and defines those homes as licensed or approved public or private child care agency homes that maintain child-family connections, help keep sibling groups together, provide age-appropriate activities, use trauma-informed care, prohibit seclusion and mechanical or chemical restraints, permit only limited short-term physical restraint to prevent injury, create a way for children to alert staff about concerns or mistreatment, use continuous quality improvement informed by children's views, operate in a single-family style residence with no more than two children per bedroom unless in the children's best interest, and provide 24-hour substitute care through live-in parents applying the reasonable and prudent parent standard. HHS may not prohibit, limit, penalize, or sue over state or local decisions to treat a cottage family home as a foster family home or to treat an entity as a cottage family care home when the state deems it necessary for children or families. The amendments apply to title IV-E payments for calendar quarters after enactment, with a six-month grace period if state legislation is needed.

Who Benefits and How

Foster children benefit from a defined cottage family home option with trauma-informed care, sibling-group support, age-appropriate activities, and limits on restraints. Sibling groups in foster care benefit because cottage family homes must be able to facilitate placement together when daily contact strengthens family ties. Cottage family home operators benefit because title IV-E law would recognize the model as a foster care placement option. State child welfare agencies benefit from federal protection when they treat qualifying cottage family homes as foster family homes.

Who Bears the Burden and How

HHS foster care administrators may not prohibit, limit, penalize, or sue over covered state cottage-family-home determinations. State child welfare agencies must ensure cottage family homes meet licensing, trauma-informed care, restraint, alert-system, quality-improvement, bedroom, and live-in parent standards. Public child care agencies operating cottage homes must comply with the detailed federal definition. Private child care agencies operating cottage homes must maintain child-family contact, sibling supports, and rights-alert systems.

Key Provisions

• Adds cottage family homes to title IV-E foster care placement and payment rules.
• Defines cottage family homes with licensing, family-connection, sibling, trauma-informed care, restraint, alert-system, quality-improvement, bedroom, and live-in parent standards.
• Prohibits HHS from penalizing or challenging state treatment of cottage family homes as foster family homes.
• Provides immediate applicability to title IV-E payments with a six-month state legislation grace period when needed.