crs_reports: R48912

Congressional Research Service reports with summaries, authors, and topic classifications.

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R48912 Child Welfare Funding in the President’s FY2027 Budget: In Brief 2026-04-16T04:00:00Z 2026-04-23T12:07:59Z Active Reports Emilie Stoltzfus Child Welfare, Labor, HHS & Education Appropriations 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. https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R48912/R48912.3.pdf https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/HTML/R48912.html

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