Administration for Children and Families - ACYF/CB grants

This program will fund projects focused on technology-enabled strategies that improve adoptive matching, placement, and permanency for children in foster care awaiting adoption. The funds, awarded to four regional centers, will be used to design, implement and evaluate these strategies.These centers will focus on children with an adoption permanency goal or who are legally free for adoption due to child welfare involvement. Centers will partner with state, territorial, tribal, and local child welfare agencies and courts to develop secure, accessible technology solutions that improve how families are matched with children in need of permanent homes. Proposed solutions must be interoperable with existing systems and may include tools such as data-informed recruitment support, AI-assisted matching, and predictive analytics.Each center will strengthen data infrastructure, support continuous quality improvement, and develop scalable resources that jurisdictions nationwide can adopt. ACF will define four national service regions to ensure full U.S. coverage. Centers will provide regional innovation support, training, technical assistance, and dissemination of best practices while collaborating nationally on shared learning.Applicants will be expected to demonstrate measurable improvements in match timeliness, placement stability, and adoption finalization outcomes.

To support the Administration for Children and Families" initiative, A Home for Every Child, the Children"s Bureau will award one grant to establish the Foster Parents Network Analytics Hub (HUB) to achieve a foster home-to-child ratio of more than 1:1 in every state by 2029. The HUB will advance the goal by providing states with advanced analytics tools and intensive technical assistance to optimize their foster parent networks.This national demonstration project under Section 426 of the Social Security Act, the HUB will develop a secure, accessible analytics platform integrated with state Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System and Comprehensive Child Welfare Information Systems (SACWIS/CCWIS). It will also deliver rapid technical assistance to help states analyze foster home dynamics, identify capacity gaps, develop targeted retention strategies, and improve placement matching. This initiative exemplifies ACF's commitment to results and evidence by focusing on measurable outcomes, using data and proven practices to improve performance, and ensuring efficient use of taxpayer dollars through rigorous performance monitoring.This five-year cooperative agreement will establish the HUB, prioritizing immediate deployment, measurable impact, and sustainable capacity building.

Despite expanded authority under the Family First Prevention Services Act, title IV-E prevention services account for less than 2% of total program claims. Many title IV-E agencies face implementation barriers including limited infrastructure, provider readiness, evaluation capacity, and complex claiming requirements.To overcome these barriers, the Children's Bureau will fund projects to accelerate and sustain implementation of the title IV-E prevention services program.Funded projects will develop the infrastructure and readiness to implement one or more title IV-E eligible prevention services. Services implemented must include at least one title IV-E eligible prevention service that is either new or not yet fully operationalized within their current title IV-E prevention plans or statewide service array. Core activities include but are not limited to: (1) Building title IV-E claiming and reimbursement systems; (2) Developing provider capacity and referral pathways; (3) Establishing data and reporting infrastructure. Title IV-E agencies must demonstrate how services and infrastructure will transition to title IV-E claiming within 18 months. Award recipients will work with an internal or external evaluator to provide rapid and real-time feedback as they prepare to implement the program(s) and share lessons learned with the field.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), through the Children's Bureau, will fund a cooperative agreement to develop, implement, and evaluate a demonstration program of post-adoption support services for birth parents who have voluntarily placed their children for private domestic adoption. This initiative is founded on the recognition that the well-being of all parties in an adoption is essential. Birth parents often benefit from access to support and resources following their placement for adoption.This demonstration program will provide services including, but not limited to, support groups and supportive services and resources. The goal is to identify and promote effective models of support that contribute to the positive adjustment and well-being of birth parents. A central component of this project is a rigorous evaluation to measure the effectiveness of the services provided and to develop a model that can be replicated by other organizations nationally. This work directly supports ACF's mission to promote the social well-being of families and individuals.

The Regional Partnership Grant (RPG) Program supports regional partnerships between child welfare, substance abuse treatment and juvenile or state courts. The goal is to support family-centered treatment programs and services for children who are in an out-of-home placement or are at risk of being placed in an out-of-home placement due to caregiver's substance abuse. Projects will also work to expand the scope of evidence-based services for families impacted by substance-use disorders. Projects are required to have regional partnerships with legislatively required partners, including a planning and implementation phase, to provide a cost-sharing match, and report on performance indicators. RPG funds may support family-based, comprehensive, long-term substance-use disorder treatment, including medication-assisted treatment and in-home substance-use disorder treatment and recovery services, as well as early intervention and prevention services, children and family counseling, mental health services, parenting skills training, and the replication of successful models for delivering family-based, comprehensive, long-term substance use disorder treatment services. This project is for one 60-month project period, comprised of five 12-month budget periods. It includes a Planning Phase and an Implementation Phase.

The goal of this funding opportunity is to increase the number of state and tribal child welfare agencies that replicate and implement an evidence-based Kinship Navigator Program (KNP) rated as promising, supported, or well-supported by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. Tribal child welfare agencies may replicate one of the approved models and adapt program manuals as needed to align with tribal policies, practices, and culture, while maintaining the model"s core components; tribal consortia are encouraged to apply. Priority will be given to agencies that do not currently operate a Title IV-E Kinship Navigator Program as defined in Section 427(a)(1) of the Social Security Act. For organizations that are not state or tribal child welfare agencies applications should include documentation of partnership with the Title IV-E agency in implementing the Title IV-E Kinship Navigator program.The Evidence-Based Kinship Navigator Programs that may be replicated can be found on the Prevention Services Clearinghouse website.Applicants must focus on one of the following priority areas in their application, which will be competed separately: (1) replicating an existing Clearinghouse-rated model, or (2) developing a Tribal adaptation of an existing Clearinghouse-rated model.

The purpose of this funding opportunity is to support the implementation and rigorous evaluation of existing Kinship Navigator Programs (KNPs). The goal is to increase the number of programs that qualify for federal Title IV-E Kinship Navigator funding by building strong evidence of improved outcomes for kinship caregivers and the children in their care. Strengthening the evidence base will position more programs for review by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. This opportunity is intended for states and tribal communities that are not currently operating a Title IV-E Kinship Navigator Program.To achieve this goal, projects will focus on the following objectives: Administering KNP services, Collaborative planning, Evaluating the KNP, Complete a final evaluation report that demonstrates positive outcomes for kinship families.

The primary purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) is to support community-based efforts in tribal and migrant communities to strengthen families and protect children by preventing child abuse and neglect before it occurs. Funded projects will develop, operate, expand, enhance, and coordinate initiatives, programs, and activities to reduce the likelihood of child abuse and neglect, consistent with the goals outlined by Title II of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). This legislation specifies that 1 percent of the available funding from Title II will be reserved to fund tribes, tribal organizations, and migrant programs. Projects will focus on building protective factors that help tribal and/or migrant children, youth, and families build resilience and develop skills, characteristics, knowledge, and relationships that decrease risk and contribute to positive outcomes. Successful projects will demonstrate measurable progress toward increasing access to family support and prevention services tailored to the needs of tribal and/or migrant families, improving child safety and well-being, and increasing knowledge and implementation of evidence-informed practices to prevent child abuse and neglect.