S. 4634 — CONNECT Act

This section revises the purposes of the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood to emphasize developing sustained supportive relationships with adults (including kin or fictive kin), mentors, and peers to reduce isolation and build lifelong connections, and to support youth still in foster care in exercising rights under section 475A to participate in permanency planning and receive related services and referrals. It requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue guidance within one year of enactment, after consulting youth with lived experience, on eligible services, best practices for mentoring and connections, outreach standards, and documentation protocols. The changes take effect one year after enactment.