Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025
The Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 would amend parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act to strengthen how states recruit and retain foster and adoptive families. The centerpiece is a new mandatory “Family Partnership Plan” that states must develop and implement with broad input from birth, kinship, foster and adoptive families, service providers, and youth with lived experience. The plan would require child-specific recruitment, proactive engagement of children in recruitment, data-driven goals to improve placement stability and reduce reliance on congregate care, support for kinship placements, and the establishment or support of foster family advisory boards. States would also be required to annually report on their foster family capacity, utilization, and congregate care usage, plus feedback from families and youth about licensure, training, and retention. Additionally, the bill would expand the annual Child Welfare Outcomes Report to Congress to include state-by-state data on foster and adoptive families, barriers to recruitment and retention, and efforts to recruit a racially and ethnically representative pool of families. The changes would take effect mostly in 2026 (with a potential delay if state law is needed) and would add ongoing reporting requirements to monitor progress and identify challenges.
Key Points
- 1Create a mandatory Family Partnership Plan (amending Section 422(b)(7) of the Social Security Act) to guide identification, recruitment, screening, licensing, support, and retention of foster and adoptive families.
- 2Plan requirements include: broad consultation with families and youth; child-specific recruitment plans for every child entering foster care; authentic youth engagement in recruitment; data-driven goals to improve permanency, kinship placements, teen/sibling group recruitment, and alignment of family types with child needs; and the establishment or support of foster family advisory boards.
- 3Annual data collection and reporting as part of the plan, covering foster family capacity, licensing, utilization, and reasons for underutilization or lack of placements, plus congregate care usage (in-state and out-of-state).
- 4Plan must include an ongoing feedback mechanism from foster/adoptive parents and youth about licensure, training, support, and factors leading to fostering cessation or adoption disruptions; plus analysis of barriers to recruiting families reflecting the racial/ethnic background of children and strategies to address those barriers.
- 5Expanded annual reporting to Congress (in the Child Welfare Outcomes Report) to include state-by-state data on foster/adoptive families, barriers to recruitment/retention, and efforts to diversify the family pool to reflect the demographics of children in care.
- 6Effective date: general implementation October 1, 2026, with a potential delay if state legislation is required to implement the plan; specific transitional provisions for states with different legislative cycles.