HR 5583 — Promoting Permanency Through Kinship Families Act

Bill Text

• Introduced Introduced in House Current html September 26, 2025

Compared against current U.S. Code AI-generated reading aid — verify against the official bill.

The bill amends the Social Security Act to enhance state requirements for child welfare services, with a focus on promoting kinship care while ensuring thorough documentation and evidence in placement decisions.

• 42 U.S.C. 622(b)(7)

  provide for the diligent recruitment → substantiate with clear and convincing data and analysis that the agency administering or supervising the administration of the plan is addressing disproportionality in the State child welfare system, and disparities in access to community-based services, array, and contracting, provide for locating and involving relatives and fictive kin as a regular and ongoing part of case planning, for addressing barriers to family involvement, and provide for the diligent recruitment

  This change requires states to provide more comprehensive data and strategies related to the involvement of relatives and fictive kin in child welfare services.

• 42 U.S.C. 671(a)(19)

  shall consider → shall make and document prompt, active, and continuous efforts to identify and locate relatives or fictive kin as a potential kinship guardianship, foster or adoptive placement, and family support resources, and must consider

  This change mandates states to actively and continuously seek out relatives or fictive kin for potential placements, rather than just considering them.

• 42 U.S.C. 675(5)(A)

  and → ;

  This change alters punctuation for clarity in the case review requirements.

• 42 U.S.C. 675(5)(A)

  , and → ;

  This change alters punctuation for clarity in the case review requirements.

• 42 U.S.C. 675(5)(A)

  (iii) if the State determines that kinship guardianship, foster, or adoptive placement with any relative or fictive kin is not in the child's best interest or that the relative or fictive kin does not meet the requirements of a relative caregiver, documents the basis for that determination with clear and convincing evidence; (iv) if the State determines that the child requires placement in an environment other than a home environment, ensures that the State shall make prompt, active, and continuous efforts to identify and locate relatives or fictive kin to serve as visitation resources of the child and potential future placement resources; (v) if the State determines that efforts to identify and locate relatives and fictive kin would be futile or inconsistent with the child's best interests, documents the basis of its determination with clear and convincing evidence; and (vi) if the child is residing in a kinship placement, describes reasonable efforts the State will make to maintain the child in the kinship home and not remove the child from the kinship home except to effectuate a permanency goal of reunification or upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence that remaining in the kinship placement is contrary to the welfare of the child.

  This change introduces detailed documentation requirements for case reviews regarding kinship placements, enhancing accountability.

• 42 U.S.C. 675(5)(E)

  (E) in the case of a child who has been in foster care under the responsibility of the State for 24 consecutive months, or, if a court of competent jurisdiction has determined a child to be an abandoned infant (as defined under State law) or has made a determination that the parent has committed murder of another child of the parent, committed voluntary manslaughter of another child of the parent, aided or abetted, attempted, conspired, or solicited to commit such a murder or such a voluntary manslaughter, or committed a felony assault that has resulted in serious bodily injury to the child or to another child of the parent, the State may file or join a petition for modification or termination of parental rights and, concurrently, identify, recruit, process, and approve a qualified family (including the child's extended family) for an adoption, only after demonstrating by clear and convincing evidence that the State-- (i) has demonstrated compelling reasons why such modification or termination is in the best interest of the child; (ii) has provided to the family of the child such services, supports, and time needed to address the reasons for the child's removal and enable the family to safely reunify; and (iii) if the child is living with a kinship (including fictive kinship) caregiver, has provided a meaningful opportunity for such caregiver to express an opinion as to whether such modification or termination is in the best interests of the child and has documented such opinion in the case plan of the child; except that, in the case of a child to whom this subparagraph applies solely because the child has been in foster care under the responsibility of the State for 24 consecutive months, the State may not file or join such a petition if a parent of the child is actively engaged in services to address the reasons the child entered care (including treatment for substance use disorder, mental health concerns, or parenting skills), if based principally on the incarceration of a parent, or if based principally on the detention of the parent by the Department of Homeland Security or the deportation of the parent;

  This change provides criteria and processes for states to follow regarding parental rights termination in certain circumstances, emphasizing the best interests of the child.

Action History

1. September 26, 2025

   Introduced in House

2. September 26, 2025

   Introduced in House

3. September 26, 2025

   Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

Sponsors

• Sydney Kamlager-Dove · Primary
• Gwen Moore · Cosponsor
• Mary Gay Scanlon · Cosponsor

Subjects