Court Improvement Equity Act

Court Improvement Equity Act

This bill allows the Northern Mariana Islands to access state grant funds for child welfare court improvements in foster care and adoption proceedings under the Court Improvement Program (CIP).

Under current law, the Northern Mariana Islands may not receive a CIP grant because the CIP program requires that a participating state or U.S. territory be eligible to operate a Title IV-E program (i.e., be eligible to receive federal payments for the provision of foster care and adoption assistance). This bill allows the Northern Mariana Islands, the only U.S. territory not currently eligible for the Title IV-E program, to participate in the CIP program.