AIDEN (Advancing Integrated Data for Equitable National Child Welfare)

Key Points

• The bill requires the Attorney General to give a survey to every person in federal prison. This survey asks if they were ever in foster care or if child welfare workers visited their home when they were kids. It also asks about the types of abuse they might have faced, like physical or emotional abuse.
• New prisoners would take this survey when they first arrive at prison. People who are already in prison would get the survey within six months of the law passing. The survey is meant to help the government understand how childhood experiences might lead to problems later in life.
• States must also start surveying their own prisoners if they want to keep receiving certain federal grants. This means almost every prison in the country would eventually collect this data. The information will be shared with the Children's Bureau to help improve how states handle child welfare cases.
• To protect privacy, the reports sent to the government cannot include the names of the prisoners or their families. The goal is to use the data to see which support services work best and which ones need to be fixed to keep kids out of trouble in the future.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.