The Children's Bureau seeks to improve the safety, permanency and well-being of children through leadership, support for necessary services, and productive partnerships with states, tribes, and communities. It has the primary responsibility for administering federal programs that support state child welfare services. Additionally, it provides matching federal funds to states, tribes, and communities to help them operate every aspect of their child welfare systems, including the prevention of child abuse and neglect, the support of permanent placements through adoption and subsidized guardianship, and the information systems necessary to support these programs. The funds for these programs come from multiple sources.
State & Tribal Funding
The Children's Bureau provides matching funds to states, tribes, and communities to help them operate every aspect of their child welfare systems, including the prevention of child abuse and neglect, adoption, and the information systems necessary to support these programs.
State & Tribal Child and Family Services Plan
In order to receive federal funding under title IV-B, a 5-year Child and Family Services Plan (CFSP) and annual updates to the plan must be submitted by each state and tribal agency requesting title IV-B funds. The CFSP is a strategic plan that sets forth a state’s or tribe’s vision and goals to strengthen its child welfare system.
Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Awards
The Children’s Bureau provides incentive funding to title IV-E agencies that achieve improved performance in increasing the number of children in foster care who find permanent homes through either adoption or legal guardianship.
The Adoption Incentives program began in fiscal year 1998 as part of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) and has since been reauthorized several times (as part of the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 and, the Fostering Connections and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, as part of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 and, most recently, as part of the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018). There have been changes in award calculation and payment amounts over the years. For more information about the incentive award program, see Program Instruction ACYF-CB-PI-15-08.
Adoption Incentive Awards History - Includes the cumulative Adoption Incentive earning history by state from fiscal year 1998 to fiscal year 2022.