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Fresh Starts for Foster Youth Act
To require States to consider legal issues affecting youth as part of case planning and to provide States with the option to use funds from the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood to support access to legal services and counseling.
Summary
- Amends the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood to include "legal counseling access" as an eligible service for foster youth.
- Requires states to certify that their case planning processes consider legal issues affecting foster youth housing, education, employment, family connections, court records, legal family relationship recognition, and custody and permanency matters.
- Applies to state plans approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services on or after one year following enactment.
- Allows states additional time for compliance if state legislation (other than appropriations) is required, up to one year after the state legislature's next regular session.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX] (R-TX)
1 cosponsor
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to John Cornyn’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- CAPITAL GROUP $22,500
- ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ $16,500
- PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES $13,686
- WINKLEVOSS CAPITAL MANAGEMENT $13,200
- BLACKSTONE $12,600
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for John Cornyn → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jun 16, 2026 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. · senate
- Jun 16, 2026 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 16, 2026
Mr. Cornyn (for himself and Mr. Whitehouse) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To require States to consider legal issues affecting youth as part of case planning and to provide States with the option to use funds from the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood to support access to legal services and counseling.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Fresh Starts for Foster Youth Act”.
SEC. 2. LEGAL CONSULTING AND ACCESS UNDER THE JOHN H. CHAFEE FOSTER CARE PROGRAM FOR SUCCESSFUL TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD.
Section 477 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 677) is amended—
(1) in subsection (a)(4), by inserting “legal counseling access,” after “education,”; and
(2) in subsection (b)(3), by adding at the end the following:
“(L) A certification by the chief executive officer of the State that the relevant case planning and other processes employed by the State take into consideration certain legal issues affecting housing, education, entry into employment, and family connections of current and former foster youth and the efforts required to address the issues, including with respect to State court records, legal recognition of family relationships, and matters relating to custody and permanency.”.
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.
(a) In General.—The amendments made by this Act shall take effect on the date that is 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act and shall apply to payments under section 477 of the Social Security Act pursuant to plans approved by the Secretary of Health and Human Services on or after such date.
(b) Delay Permitted if State Legislation Required.—If the Secretary of Health and Human Services determines that State legislation (other than legislation appropriating funds) is required in order for a State plan developed pursuant to section 477 of the Social Security Act to meet the additional requirements imposed by the amendments made by this Act, the plan shall not be regarded as failing to meet any of the additional requirements before the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the first regular session of the State legislature that begins after the date of the enactment of this Act. For purposes of the preceding sentence, if the State has a 2-year legislative session, each year of the session is deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature. <all>
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