Child Abuse Discretionary Activities

What this funds

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (P.L. 93-247) of 1974 created the Child Abuse Discretionary Activities program to fund competitive research and demonstration grants and contracts that seek to expand the evidence base for child welfare programs with the goal of improving child outcomes as lessons learned are adopted by communities across the country. The program funds research on the causes, prevention, identification, and treatment of child abuse and neglect and on investigative, administrative, and judicial procedures related to child abuse and neglect. It also funds projects to compile, publish, and disseminate training materials; provide technical assistance; demonstrate and evaluate methods and procedures to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect; and develop or expand effective collaboration between child protective services and domestic violence agencies. In addition, the program funds a national clearinghouse - the Child Welfare Information Gateway - that gathers and disseminates information on child abuse and neglect and on promising programs of prevention and The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act Reauthorization Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-320) reauthorized the program through FY 2015 and added areas of focus to the program: collaboration between domestic violence and child protection systems, issues facing American Indian and Alaska Native populations, the unique needs of children under age 3, and children with disabilities. Starting in FY 2026, the Jenna Quinn Law (P. L. 118-193) authorizes HHS to issue grants to eligible entities for increasing evidence- based or evidence-informed training on sexual abuse prevention education and reporting to teachers and school employees, students, caregivers, and other adults who work with children. Research and demonstration grants are awarded competitively to public and private agencies, including state and local government agencies, universities, and non-profit and faith-based organizations. The statute provides that contracts may be awarded to public, non-profit, and private organizations. Projects supported by grants and contracts awarded under this program may run up to five years, depending upon the availability of funds. Examples of currently funded projects include the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Quality Improvement Center on Helplines and Hotlines, and research related to the national incidence of child abuse and neglect. Starting in FY 2022, and every year since, Congress has included a General Provision to expand funding flexibility for research projects in ACFC. All research funding provided for in the Appropriations Act can remain available for five years following appropriation. This has allowed for additional time for research and evaluation projects within the Child Abuse Discretionary program. Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 78 Funding for the program - net of any authorized changes such as transfers or reprogramming - for five Funding for this program is also used to pay information technology support, grants paneling, and other The FY 2027 request for Child Abuse Discretionary Activities is $36.0 million, the same as the FY 2026 level. Funding will support a wide range of child abuse and neglect prevention and treatment activities, including addressing child maltreatment fatalities. A grant initiative will continue to support states and jurisdictions in advancing innovations in data collection, analysis, and system response in order to ensure the safety of children and to build better cross-agency systems of prevention and intervention related to Other activities will build knowledge about the screening, assessment, and oversight activities related to the assessment of risk and safety for children and families. Comprehensive assessments in child welfare are the cornerstone of practice in determining a child's needs for immediate protective safety and to guide Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 79

Extracted from Administration for Children, Families, and Communities, p. 10. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

Contracts funded by this line

20 linked contracts. These are obligations — lifetime awarded money — and they are not comparable to the request above and are never added to it. No total is shown: an award linked to several lines is counted in full on each, so the sum would not be a fact.

Showing 8 of 20 — most confidently matched first, largest within a confidence tier. These are not necessarily the largest 8.

Confidence mix · 20 medium

Linked contracts are a floor, not a census. Coverage is bounded by how distinctively a program is named and, for performer links, to RDT&E and Procurement — O&M and military construction publish no performers. Budget figures are FY2027 request dollars; contract figures are obligations. The two measure different things and must never be summed together.

Ask this budget line

Answers come from the figures on this page and nothing else. These dollars are parsed from Health & Human Services's Congressional Justification and are approximate — confirm anything that matters against the cited page.