---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 678"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "678"
heading: "Rule of construction"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/678"
units:
  - "Chapter 7 — Social Security"
  - "Subchapter IV — Grants to States for Aid and Services to Needy Families with Children and for Child-Welfare Services"
  - "Part E — Federal Payments for Foster Care, Prevention, and Permanency"
---

# §678. Rule of construction


Nothing in this part shall be construed as precluding [State](/usc/42/619.md?p=5) courts from exercising their discretion to protect the health and safety of children in individual cases, [including](/usc/42/1301.md?p=b) cases other than those described in [section 671(a)(15)(D) of this title](/usc/42/671.md?p=a-15-D).


## Source credit

(Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title IV, § 478, as added Pub. L. 105–89, title I, § 101(d), Nov. 19, 1997, 111 Stat. 2117.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Prior Provisions

A prior section 678, act Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title IV, § 478, as added Oct. 22, 1986, Pub. L. 99–514, title XVIII, § 1883(b)(10)(A), 100 Stat. 2917, excluded from AFDC unit child for whom foster care maintenance payments are made, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 101–508, title V, § 5052(b), (c), Nov. 5, 1990, 104 Stat. 1388–228, applicable with respect to benefits for months beginning on or after the first day of the sixth calendar month following November 1990.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective Nov. 19, 1997, except as otherwise provided, with delay permitted if State legislation is required, see section 501 of Pub. L. 105–89, set out as an Effective Date of 1997 Amendments note under section 622 of this title.