Adoption and Permanency Programs Flat Funded in Spending Bills
The summer appropriations season has begun in both the House and Senate. The House Appropriations Committee passed its Labor-HHS-Education bill (H.R.9029), which covers most programs affecting adoption and permanency issues, on July 12. The Senate passed its version of the bill (S. 4942) on August 1. Both bills are awaiting floor action.
Both bills have essentially flat-funded most programs of interest to VFA members. Highlights include:
Adoption Assistance Payments: The Adoption Assistance Program provides funds to states, territories, and tribes to subsidize the placement of children in foster care with special needs or other circumstances that would make them difficult to place with adoptive families. Both bills provide $4.659 billion for this program in FY 2025, a slight decrease from the $4.706 billion in FY 2024.
Adoption and Legal Guardian Incentive Payments: This program provides incentive payments to states to reward increased adoptions from the foster care system. The House and Senate bills both provide $75 million for FY 2025, flat funding the program compared to FY 2024.
Adoption Opportunities Program: The House and Senate bills both provide $54 million for this program in FY 2025, a $1 million increase over the $53 million budgeted for FY 2024. For more information on this program, see the next story.
Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program: This mandatory programprovides subsidies for relatives taking legal guardianship of a child. The Senate bill allocates $300 million for the program. The House allocates $365 million.
Kinship Navigator Programs: The Senate appropriations bill allocated $10 million in the Promoting Safe and Stable Families program (see below) for Kinship Navigator Programs. In report language accompanying the bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee encouraged HHS "to encourage states to collaborate with agencies with experience serving kinship families both inside and outside foster care, and to demonstrate how they are preparing their navigator programs to meet evidence-based kinship navigator standards included in the Family First Prevention Services Act." The House bill has no similar provision.
Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (PSSF): This program, which is part of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, provides flexible funding for a variety of child welfare-related purposes. The House and Senate bills both provide $417.5 million for the program in FY 2025, including $345 million in mandatory funding and $72.5 million in discretionary funding. This is flat funding compared to FY 2024.
Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse: The Title IV-E Clearinghouse reviews evaluations of programs and services that are categorically eligible for funding under the Family First Prevention Services Act to determine if they are evidence-based and thus qualify for funding. The Senate bill provides $2.75 million in discretionary funding for the clearinghouse in FY 2025. The House bill provides no discretionary funding, noting that the clearinghouse receives $1 million in dedicated mandatory funding.
