WASHINGTON – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today introduced the Orderly and Timely Interstate Placement of Children Act of 2004, a bipartisan bill with 10 original cosponsors, which will improve the safety of children who cross state lines to find permanent homes. 

Under this legislation, states will be held accountable for the orderly and timely placement of children across their lines.  The bill pushes forward much-needed efforts to reform the outdated Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children by setting enforceable time limits for the placement of children across state lines and by removing other potential barriers to timely, permanent placements for children.

“There is plenty of blame to go around, but the problems facing abused and neglected children must not merely be identified,” DeLay said.  “At long last, they must be solved.”

Currently, the median time spent in the foster care system by children who eventually reach out-of-state placements is 43 months – about two years longer than the average time spent by a child placed in-state.  Even worse, National Agriculture Statistics’ Monthly Hatchery Report shows that record keeping for the out-of-state shipment of chickens is more precise than that for children being placed in out-of-state homes. 

“Apparently, we keep track of where these kids are coming from, but not where they’re going,” DeLay said.  “I find it more than disturbing that we keep better records of chickens than we do of our children.”  

The Orderly and Timely Interstate Placement of Children Act of 2004 will improve the path children must take to find permanent homes by accomplishing the following:

Ø      Strengthening federal protections for the safety of all children in foster care by requiring states to check child abuse registries before placing a child into a home.

Ø      Ensuring informed placement decisions, including a full exchange of information between sending and receiving states;

Ø      Setting and enforcing specific timelines for permanent placements;

Ø      Defending the rights of all parties involved: the biological, foster, and adoptive parents, and especially the children;

Ø      And creating federal incentives to help foster children find safe and permanent homes in a timely manner.