Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

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Child Welfare Funding in the President’s

FY2027 Budget: In Brief

April 16, 2026

Congressional Research Service

https://crsreports.congress.gov

R48912

SUMMARY

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s

FY2027 Budget: In Brief

R48912

April 16, 2026

Emilie Stoltzfus

Specialist in Social Policy

The President’s FY2027 budget requests $11.619 billion in federal child welfare spending under

the child welfare authorities included in Title IV-E (Payments for Foster Care, Prevention, and

Permanency) and Title IV-B (Child and Family Services) of the Social Security Act (SSA), the

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), Adoption Opportunities, and the Victims

of Child Abuse Act (VCAA). Comparable funding is expected to be $11.662 billion for FY2026,

and was $11.319 billion for FY2025. Federal child welfare programs are generally administered by the Children’s Bureau, an

agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF).

The three competitive grant programs included in the VCAA, however, are administered by the Office of Justice Programs,

within the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The FY2027 budget documents do not include any proposals to amend federal child welfare program law, and funding

requested for mandatory programs is provided based on current law only. At the same time, a message from the ACF

Assistant Secretary, which is included in the agency’s budget justifications, states that the budget “advances the

Administration’s commitment to child welfare through the implementation of the Fostering the Future for American Children

and Families Executive Order.” It also notes that ACF will continue to lead its “A Home for Every Child Initiative.” The

budget request explicitly provides that Title IV-E funding will support several activities that are aligned with the Fostering

the Future executive order. These include promoting modernization of child welfare information systems; expanded use of

“technological solutions,” such as predictive analytics and artificial intelligence; clearer state child welfare performance

metrics and evaluation and related public data; and more easily accessed supports and services for youth transitioning from

foster care to adulthood. In addition, it seeks a general provision in the annual appropriations act to permit any unused funds

provided for Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments to be redirected to support a “Fostering the Future Fund

demonstration project” to offer support intended to enable youth to successfully transition to adulthood outside the foster care

system.

Funding obligated or requested for Title IV-E foster care and for Title IV-E adoption or guardianship assistance (i.e.,

permanency assistance) has represented between 86% and 89% of total annual regular child welfare funding in each year

since FY2019. However, Title IV-E foster care has represented a declining share of that total, falling from 54% of total

funding in FY2019 to an expected 44% in FY2027. At the same time, the share for Title IV-E permanency assistance has

risen from 33% in FY2019 to an expected 42% for FY2027. The principal cause of these opposing trends appears to be an

expected continued decline in the number of children receiving Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments alongside an

expected continued increase in the number receiving permanency assistance. Multiple factors are likely to impact these

caseload changes.

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

Contents

Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 1

Child Welfare Priorities in the Budget ...................................................................................... 1

Funding Amounts Requested .................................................................................................... 2

Trends in Title IV-E Foster Care and Permanency Assistance Funding .................................... 4

Tables

Table 1. Recent or Requested Child Welfare Funding, FY2023-FY2027 ....................................... 3

Contacts

Author Information.......................................................................................................................... 6

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

Overview

The President’s FY2027 budget seeks $11.619 billion in child welfare funding under the

authorities included in Title IV-E (Payments for Foster Care, Prevention and Permanency) and

Title IV-B (Child and Family Services) of the Social Security Act (SSA), the Child Abuse

Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), Adoption Opportunities, and the Victims of Child Abuse

Act (VCAA). Funding under these same authorities is estimated to be $11.662 billion for FY2026

and totaled $11.319 billion for FY2025. (All funding discussed or shown in this report is in

nominal dollars.) With the exception of VCAA, these child welfare programs are administered at

the federal level by the Children’s Bureau, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF). VCAA programs are

administered within the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) at the U.S. Department of Justice

(DOJ).

Child Welfare Priorities in the Budget

The FY2027 budget does not propose or discuss changes to any federal child welfare program

law. With regard to programs with mandatory funding (e.g., the Title IV-E program), it notes that

the funding request reflects current law only and “does not constitute Administration policy.”1 At

the same time, in an opening message to the congressional budget justification for his agency,

Assistant Secretary Alex Adams signals certain priorities.2 He writes that the budget “advances

the Administration’s commitment to child welfare reform through the implementation of the

Fostering the Future for American Children and Families Executive Order [Fostering the Future

E.O.],” which directs activities intended to improve child welfare system accountability and

transparency, modernize information systems, and help young people formerly in foster care more

easily access services.3 Additionally, he notes that the agency will continue work on its “A Home

for Every Child Initiative,” which seeks—through prevention services and/or foster family

recruitment and retention efforts—a greater than one-to-one ratio between the number of children

in care and the number of family homes prepared and willing to provide foster care.4

Consistent with specific aims of the Fostering the Future E.O., the ACFC budget justification

notes that Title IV-E program funds (which include mandatory support for the Chafee Foster Care

Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood) will do the following:

•

promote modernization of state child welfare information systems and use of

effective foster care management and outcome-tracking platforms;

expand states’ use of technology, including predictive analytics and tools

1 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children, Families and Communities

(ACFC), FY2027 Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees, “All Purpose Table,” p. 8, note 5,

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2027-acfc-cj.pdf (hereinafter, “HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justification of

Estimates”).

2 HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justification of Estimates, p. 2. The Administration proposes to merge the ACF with the

Administration for Community Living (ACL) and would rename this agency as the Administration for Children,

Families and Communities, hence the document is the HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justification of Estimates. To date,

Congress has continued to fund ACF and ACL accounts separately.

3 Executive Order 14359, November 13, 2025, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/19/2025-20406/

fostering-the-future-for-american-children-and-families.

4 HHS, ACF, “ACF Unveils a New Initiative to Strengthen American Families,” November 24, 2025, https://acf.gov/

media/press/2025/acf-unveils-new-initiative-strengthen-american-families-home-every-child.

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

•

publish an annual scorecard that measures and is used to evaluate state-level

achievement on key outcomes and metrics;

sustain an online platform to help young people who have been in foster care by

using tools that assess current needs, develop personalized plans, and provide

guidance on accessing federal, state, and local services and supports; and

assist individuals transitioning out of foster care by promoting educational

attainment, employment improvement, financial literacy, and self-sufficiency.5

The budget documents do not provide further information about the use of Title IV-E funds for

this work or any expected costs associated with these specific activities. However, under Title IVE (§476(a) of the SSA), the HHS Secretary is authorized to provide technical assistance to states

to develop the programs authorized under Title IV-E and is required to (1) periodically evaluate

the programs authorized under Title IV-E and Title IV-B of the SSA, and (2) collect and publish

data concerning foster care and adoption.6 Further, a portion of the Chafee program funding must

be annually reserved to support evaluation of innovative service programs for youth in, or

formerly in, foster care and for related technical assistance, data collection, and performance

measurement (§477(g)(2) of the SSA).

The budget also includes proposed appropriations language intended to permit HHS to transfer

any unused funds provided for Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments (ALGIP) to

a “Fostering the Future Fund demonstration project.” The project intends to “support youth

transitioning from the foster care system and provide funding to Chafee Foster Care Programs.”7

Directing unused appropriated funding for this purpose aligns with proposals in the Fostering the

Future E.O. and the proposed appropriations language notes that transferred funds may be used to

carry out the E.O.8 ALGIP provides funds to states that improve the rate at which children who

need a new permanent family are able to leave foster care through adoption or legal guardianship.

The amount of funding awarded under ALGIP is linked to a state’s level of performance; a state

that doesn’t show improvement (vis-a-vis its recent efforts) does not earn incentives.9

Funding Amounts Requested

Overall, the FY2027 budget anticipates a moderate decline in federal spending required for

Payments for Foster Care, Prevention, and Permanency authorized in Title IV-E of the SSA. Most

funding under this program is authorized on a mandatory and open-ended basis and the budget

request reflects the Administration’s estimate of funds necessary to meet the federal cost-sharing

commitment with states and tribes under current law. The anticipated decline in Title IV-E

spending overall is fully attributed to the foster care component of the program (-$175 million).

By contrast, the budget anticipates some spending increases for IV-E permanency assistance,

5 HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justification of Estimates, “Payments for Foster Care and Permanency,” pp. 213-214.

6 Annual ACF budget justifications have long indicated spending under the Title IV-E foster care line item for

training/technical assistance, program support, and/or research/evaluation. See, for example, ACF Budget Justifications

for FY2004, p. C-17; FY2012, p. 344; FY2020, p. 309; and FY2024, p. 353. Comparable tables are not in the FY2026

or FY2027 ACFC budget justifications. However, as is also true with earlier ACF justifications (beginning with

FY2014), it does reference Section 476(a) and (b) of the SSA when listing the “Authorizing Legislation” under which

the IV-E foster care budget request is made. See HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justifications of Estimates, p. 203.

7 HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justification of Estimates, “Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments,” p. 90.

8 HHS, General Provisions, proposed Section 223, FY2027 Budget Appendix, p. 500.

9 The incentive program was begun in FY1998, and on limited occasions funds not used have been rescinded (e.g., P.L,

118-147 rescinded $70 million and P.L. 109-149 rescinded $22.5 million) or have lapsed, meaning they were returned

to the federal Treasury because they were not earned within the time frame established by law (e.g., $14.5 million in

FY2003 funds). Appropriation laws typically stipulate that ALGIP funding is available for two award years.

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

including for adoption (+$88 million) and guardianship (+$32 million). Some growth is also

anticipated for IV-E prevention services (+$26 million) and IV-E kinship navigators (+$3

million).10 (See also the “Trends in Title IV-E Foster Care and Permanency Assistance Funding”

section.)

For child welfare programs with capped mandatory or discretionary funding, the budget generally

seeks funding at the level provided for them in FY2026. Among the programs administered by the

HHS Children’s Bureau, the single exception is a requested reduction in spending (-$10 million)

for the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention (CBCAP) program, which is authorized in

Title II of CAPTA. Under the DOJ-administered VCAA, combined funding requested for three

grant programs is $7 million less than the level appropriated for FY2026.11

Table 1 shows federal child welfare funding made available in recent years, alongside funding

requested as part of the President’s FY2027 budget request. The funding amounts are nominal

and not adjusted for inflation.

Table 1. Recent or Requested Child Welfare Funding, FY2023-FY2027

(nominal dollars in millions)

FY2023

TOTAL

$10,868

FY2024

$10,953

FY2025

$11,319

FY2026

FY2027

Request

$11,662

$11,619

Federal Payments for Foster Care, Prevention, and Permanency—Title IV-E of the SSA

Foster Care

$5,113

$5,147

$5,354

$5,298

$5,123

Adoption Assistance

$3,960

$3,999

$4,136

$4,397

$4,485

Guardianship Assistance

$306

$322

$343

$386

$418

Prevention Services

$166

$169

$170

$203

$229

Kinship Navigator

$17

$16

$19

Development of Tribal IV-E Plans and

Tribal-Related Technical Assistance

Prevention Services Clearinghouse and Related

Work

John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood—Title IV-E, §477 of the SSA

General grant

$143

Education and Training Vouchers

$44

Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services

$279

$269

Child Welfare Research, Training, or

Demonstrations

$19

$22

MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable

Families (PSSF)

$412

$398

$459

=(PSSF Mandatory - post sequestrationa +

PSSF Discretionary)

($325 +

$87)

($325 +

$73)

($325 +

$73)

($396 +

$63)

($396 +

$63)

Child and Family Services—Title IV-B of the SSA

10 Differences shown are between the FY2027 request and the estimated FY2026 obligations as given in HHS, FY2027

Budget Appendix, p. 482. The appendix data match what is given in the ACFC budget justifications (p. 7) except that

the appendix shows separate IV-E kinship navigator funding, while the ACFC table includes it in the Foster Care line.

11 FY2027 Budget Appendix, pp. 734, 740.

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

FY2023

FY2024

FY2025

FY2026

FY2027

Request

Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)

State Grants

$105

Discretionary Activities

$38

$36

Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention

Grants

$71

$61

Children’s Justice Act Grants/Tribal Children’s

Justice

$20

Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentives

$75

Adoption Opportunities

$51

$53

Children’s Advocacy Centers and Related

Technical Assistance

$41

$43

$41

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs)

$15

$14

Training for Judicial Practitioners

Other Adoption-Related Programs

Victims of Child Abuse Act (VCAA)

Source: Table prepared by the Congressional Research Service based on the President’s FY2027 budget and

final appropriations laws (P.L. 118-47, P.L. 118-42, P.L. 119-4, P.L. 119-75, and P.L. 119-74). Amounts under

“Federal Payments for Foster Care, Prevention and Permanency” are based on actual or, for FY2026 and

FY2027, estimated obligations as given in the most current appendix to the President’s budget with relevant data.

Notes: Programs/activities shown in italics receive funding made available outside of the annual appropriations

acts. All other funding is annually appropriated, whether mandatory or discretionary.

a. Sequestration is the automatic cancellation of previously provided budget authority to meet specific budget

goals. Under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act, as amended, PSSF mandatory funding

has been subject to sequestration in each year beginning with FY2013. The amount of sequestration has

varied, but it was 5.7% for each of the years shown in this table.

Trends in Title IV-E Foster Care and Permanency Assistance

Funding

Funding obligated or requested under the Title IV-E program for foster care and for adoption or

guardianship assistance (i.e., permanency assistance) has represented between 86% and 89% of

total annual regular child welfare funding in each year beginning with FY2019.12 However, Title

IV-E foster care support represents a declining share of that total, falling from 54% in FY2019 to

an expected 44% in FY2027. At the same time, the share for Title IV-E permanency assistance

has risen from 33% in FY2019 to an expected 42% for FY2027. The principal cause for these

opposing trends is the expected continued decline in the number of children receiving Title IV-E

foster care maintenance payments alongside of an expected continued increase in those receiving

permanency assistance. Multiple factors are likely to impact these caseload changes.

12 Regular child welfare funding excludes supplemental or additional funding provided in any of FY2019-FY2026 as

disaster supplemental funding or related to the COVID-19 pandemic, or via fixed grants under the Family First

Transition Act, or the American Rescue Plan Act. FY2019 total regular child welfare funding (i.e., comparable to

funding shown in Table 1) was $9.655 billion, of which $5.321 billion was for foster care and $3.182 billion was for

permanency assistance; information based on actual IV-E foster care, adoption assistance, and guardianship obligations

given in the FY2021 Budget Appendix, with funding for all other programs included in the table as provided in P.L.

115-245 (and P.L. 116-6 for VCAA).

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

There has been an overall decline in the number of children in foster care—there were 431,000 on

the last day of FY2019 compared to 343,000 on the last day of FY2024.13 Further, the share of

these children who receive a Title IV-E foster care maintenance payment fell from 40% in an

average month during FY2019 (when about 164,000 children received this support) to 33% in

FY2024 (when roughly 112,000 did so).14 In addition to its expectation that increasing use of

Title IV-E prevention services will lead to fewer children in foster care, the FY2027 budget links

two factors to the decline in IV-E foster care maintenance payment receipt/eligibility: (1) a static

income test that must be applied to determine if the child is removed from a family with need (as

that test was applied by a state in July 1996, based on a prior federal law cash aid program), and

(2) newer limits on eligibility for IV-E foster care support (added via the Family First Prevention

Services Act) for children placed in most group care/non-foster family home settings.

By contrast, funding for Title IV-E permanency (adoption or guardianship) assistance has grown,

as the number of children receiving this assistance in an average month rose from 543,000 in

FY2019 to 601,000 by FY2024.15 This growth occurred even as the number of children who left

foster care for adoption or legal guardianship fell from a peak of nearly 90,000 in FY2019 to

fewer than 66,000 in FY2024. Children typically leave foster care for adoption or guardianship

when they are between 5 and 9 years of age; for those who then receive IV-E permanency

assistance, the support is likely to continue until at least their 18th birthday (i.e., usually a decade

or more).16 By contrast, among all children in foster care on the last day of FY2024, the average

length of stay in care was 24.2 months.17 Beginning in October 2008, states have been able to

choose to include guardianship assistance in their Title IV-E program plans and more have opted

to do so in recent years. As of FY2019, 30 states sought federal cost sharing for IV-E

guardianship; as of FY2023 (the most recent data available), 40 states had done so. (As of

September 2025, 43 states had made the IV-E plan changes needed to seek this support.18) The

FY2027 budget cites expanded eligibility for IV-E adoption assistance as part of the reason for

the adoption assistance caseload growth.

13 Based on CRS analysis of data reported to HHS via the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System

(AFCARS) by the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and as received from the National Data Archive

on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) at Cornell University, AFCARS Foster Care AB File, FY2019 version 2 and

FY2024 version 2.

14 HHS, ACFC, FY2027 Justification of Estimates, p. 210.

15 HHS, ACF, Children’s Bureau, Title IV-E Program Expenditure and Caseload Data, FY2019 for Adoption

Assistance and Guardianship Assistance, https://acf.gov/cb/report/title-iv-e-programs-expenditure-and-caseload-data;

for FY2024, see HHS, ACFC FY2026 Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees, p. 138.

https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2026-acfc-cj.pdf.

16 Based on CRS analysis of data reported to HHS via the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System

(AFCARS) by the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and as received from National Data Archive on

Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) at Cornell University, AFCARS Foster Care AB File, FY2019 version 2 and

FY2024 version 2.

17 Sarah Catherine Williams et al., “State Level Data for Understanding Child Welfare in the United States,” data

visualization (see “Foster care,” “2024,” “Other information on children in foster care”), Child Trends, March 13, 2026,

https://www.childtrends.org/publications/state-level-data-for-understanding-child-welfare-in-the-united-states.

18 HHS, ACF, Children’s Bureau, Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance, “Program Highlights (as of September 2025),”

page current as of January 6, 2026, https://acf.gov/cb/grant-funding/title-iv-e-guardianship-assistance.

Congressional Research Service

Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief

Author Information

Emilie Stoltzfus

Specialist in Social Policy

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R48912 · VERSION 2 · NEW

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