358
Opinion of the Court
As quoted above, 42 U. S. C. § 671(a)(15) requires that to obtain federal reimbursement, a State have a plan which "provides that, in each case, reasonable efforts will be made . . . to prevent or eliminate the need for removal of the child from his home, and . . . to make it possible for the child to return to his home . . . ." As recognized by petitioners, respondents, and the courts below, the Act is mandatory in its terms. However, in the light shed by Pennhurst, we must examine exactly what is required of States by the Act. Here, the terms of § 671(a) are clear: "In order for a State to be eligible for payments under this part, it shall have a plan approved by the Secretary." Therefore the Act does place a requirement on the States, but that requirement only goes so far as to ensure that the State have a plan approved by the Secretary which contains the 16 listed features.8
Respondents do not dispute that Illinois in fact has a plan approved by the Secretary which provides that reasonable efforts at prevention and reunification will be made. Tr. of Oral Arg. 29-30.9 Respondents argue, however, that § 1983
8 Contrary to respondents' assertion that finding 42 U. S. C. § 671(a) to require only the filing of a plan for approval by the Secretary would add a new "prerequisite for the existence of a right under § 1983," Brief for Respondents 22, n. 6, our holding today imposes no new "prerequisites" but merely counsels that each statute must be interpreted by its own terms.
9 The state plan filed by Illinois relies on a state statute and DCFS internal rules to meet the "reasonable efforts" requirement. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Human Development Services Administration for Children, Youth and Families, Children's Bureau, State Plan for Title IV-E of the Social Security Act Foster Care and Adoption Assistance, State Illinois 2-13 (1988).
The Illinois statute to which the plan refers imposes a requirement that before temporary custody may be ordered, the court must find that reasonable efforts have been made or good cause has been shown why "reasonable efforts cannot prevent or eliminate the necessity of removal of the minor from his or her home." Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 37, ¶ 802-10(2) (1989). The statute further provides: "The Court shall require documentation by representatives of [DCFS] or the probation department as to the reason-
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