Child Welfare Services

What this funds

The Social Security Act of 1935 created Child Welfare Services "for the purpose of enabling the United States, through the Children's Bureau, to cooperate with state public welfare agencies in establishing, extending, and strengthening, especially in predominantly rural areas, public [child] welfare services . . . for the protection and care of homeless, dependent, and neglected children, and children in danger of becoming delinquent." Since that time, there have been numerous updates, including an increase of authorized funding to its current level, changing the name of the program to the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program, adding requirements for states to engage in activities to address the developmental needs of children participating in the programs and to reduce the length of time that children under the age of five are without a permanent family, and expanding oversight of the health care needs of children in foster care. The Family First Prevention Services Act (P.L. 115-123) reauthorized the program through FY 2021, made further amendments to health care oversight requirements, and revised requirements relating to the collection of data on child maltreatment fatalities and the development of state plans to prevent such fatalities. The Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 (P.L. 117-348) amended the program by requiring ACFC to reserve funds to make competitive grants to enhance collaboration between state child welfare and juvenile justice systems in years in which the appropriation for the The Supporting America's Children and Families Act (P.L. 118-258) reauthorized the program through FY 2029. Beginning in FY 2026, the law also amends several state plan requirements. State child welfare agencies now need to describe the steps being taken to provide information about available legal representation to children and parents, include additional information relating to compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (P. L. 95-608), involve mental health providers in developing the state's health care coordination and oversight plan for children in foster care, and provide additional information relating to mental health services and oversight of prescription medications. The Child Welfare Services program provides formula grants to help state and tribal public child welfare agencies to develop and expand their child and family services programs by: ' protecting and promoting the welfare of all children; ' preventing the neglect, abuse, or exploitation of children; ' supporting at-risk families through services which allow children, when appropriate, to remain safely with their families or to return to their families in a timely manner; ' promoting the safety, permanence, and well-being of children in foster care and adoptive families; Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 82 ' providing training, professional development, and support to ensure a well-qualified child welfare Services are available to children and their families without regard to income. Three percent of the appropriation is reserved for grants to tribes. Tribal grant allotments are awarded by formula, based on the tribe's population of children under age 21. After reserving the funds for tribes, the balance of the funds is awarded to state agencies. Each state receives a base amount of $70,000. Additional funds are distributed in proportion to the state's population of children under age 21, multiplied by the complement of the state's average per capita income. The state match requirement is 25 This program is linked to the title IV-E Foster Care and Permanency programs, as well as the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program. See other chapters in this document for more information about those programs. The same state or tribal agency must administer or supervise the administration of all of these programs. The broad goal of all the programs is to strengthen the families of at-risk children. Taken together, these programs provide a continuum of services to help children and their families. Funding for the program - net of any authorized changes such as transfers or reprogramming - for five The FY 2027 request for the Child Welfare Services Program is $268.7 million, the same as the FY 2026 level. This funding will support grants to help improve state and tribal child welfare services programs with a goal of keeping families together when appropriate. For FY 2027, an estimated 213 awards will be made with an average award of $1,255,366 and a range Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 83 Result / Target for Recent Target Target FY 2026 Target 7G For those children Result / (Summary of Maintain that has no more than (Baseline) 7H Percentage of foster (Baseline) percentage point 1PP Administration for Children, Families, and Communities Page 84

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

Contracts funded by this line

30 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 30 — most confidently matched first, largest within a confidence tier. These are not necessarily the largest 8.

Confidence mix · 30 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.

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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.