Federal
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
Signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006, the legislation ensures that convicted sex offenders of children will be mandated to update their whereabouts every month instead of once a year as previously required and makes failure to do so a felony. The legislation also:
- Establishes a national database which will incorporate the use of DNA evidence collection and tracking of convicted sex offenders with Global Positioning System technology.
- Increases the mandatory minimum incarceration period of 25 years for kidnapping or maiming a child and 30 years for sex with a child younger than 12 or for sexually assaulting a child between 13 and 17 years old.
- Increases the penalties for sex trafficking of children and child prostitution.
- Widens funding to assist local law enforcement in tracking sexual exploitation of minors on the internet.
- Creates a National Child Abuse Registry to protect children from being adopted by convicted child abusers.
Federal
Safe and Timely Interstate Placement of Foster Children Act of 2006
The Act will facilitate the adoption of children in foster care in the following ways:
- Adds new federal requirements relating to the placement of children in foster care across state lines, ensuring that receiving states complete required home studies (assessment of the suitability of a possible placement) of prospective adoptive families within 60 days of receiving the request from the state with responsibility for the child;
- Authorizes payment of incentives of $1,500 per interstate home study for home studies completed within 30 days;
- Requires more frequent visits by caseworkers to children placed outside the state with responsibility for the child (i.e., every 6 months rather than the current requirement of every 12 months).
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