Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens planning and state accountability to help foster youth with housing, education, and employment transitions, but it creates new administrative requirements and timing complexities that could divert resources, delay benefits, and still leave gaps (notably legal representation) for the youth it aims to help.
Current and former foster youth will get more comprehensive case plans that explicitly address housing stability and family permanency, reducing the risk of homelessness and unnecessary separations after aging out of care.
Students in or aging out of foster care will have education-related barriers considered and employment entry barriers addressed in planning, which can improve school continuity, graduation outcomes, and job readiness.
States must have chief executive officer certification of compliance, increasing accountability of state child welfare systems to consider legal barriers facing foster youth.
If states fail to comply with the certification requirements, children and youth could face loss of federal benefits or uneven service availability across states.
States will face administrative burdens and upfront costs to revise case planning and certify compliance, which could divert limited resources away from direct services and impose costs on taxpayers.
Giving states an extended compliance window and special timing treatment could delay realization of program benefits for residents and, in some cases, delay federal payments under section 477 while states enact required laws.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires states to certify that foster-care case planning addresses legal issues affecting foster youth’s housing, education, employment entry, and family connections.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Danny K. Davis · Last progress February 12, 2026
Requires state chief executives to certify that their foster-care case planning and related processes explicitly consider how legal issues affect current and former foster youth’s housing, education, job entry, and family connections, and to describe efforts to address those issues (for example, court records, legal recognition of family relationships, and custody/permanency matters). The change becomes effective one year after enactment and applies to HHS-approved state plans on or after that date, with a limited delay option when a state must pass non-appropriation legislation to comply.