In January 2025, the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act, (P.L. 118–258, also known as Supporting America’s Families Act) was signed into law. The law reauthorizes Title IV-B programs—which provide flexible federal child welfare grant funds to states and tribes to serve children, youth, and families—and improves related policies and funding. The bill’s passage is powerful evidence of Congress’ bipartisan commitment to keeping more children and youth safely with their families and out of foster care, ensuring safe, high-quality caregiving for children who do enter foster care, and promoting lifelong connections to family for all children
It also represents an exciting opportunity for child welfare agencies to increase support for children, youth, parents, caregivers, families, and the child welfare workforce in every community.
Title IV-B is one of the most flexible federal child welfare funding sources, allowing for meaningful state innovation. For example, it can pay for upstream, community-level prevention services, like Family Resource Centers, which may not qualify for other child welfare funding streams. It also supports the evaluation of promising programs, which, if proven effective, become eligible for sustained funding through the Title IV-E Family First Prevention Clearinghouse.
Resources for Going Deeper:
The IV-B Blueprint created a primer on Title IV-B, walking through a number of frequently asked questions about the funding source.
Information Memorandum on The Supporting America’s Children and Families Act: This policy document, issued by the federal Children’s Bureau in June, 2025, walks through key provisions of the new legislation.
Child Welfare: Purposes, Federal Programs, and Funding: This overview of child welfare funding sources was created by the Congressional Research Service, which provides nonpartisan research to members of the U.S. Congress.
Title IV-B Spending by Child Welfare Agencies in SFY 2022: This fact sheet from Child Trends provides an overview of Title IV-B funding and how spending has changed over time.
Realizing the full benefits of these new federal policy gains depends on high-quality implementation in states and communities.
That’s why we created The IV-B Blueprint, a new set of tools explaining what’s inside the reauthorization bill and sharing our tips to unpack strategic Title IV-B implementation. The IV-B Blueprint aims to help states craft and refine their child welfare agency goals and strategies by leveraging implementation of the Strengthening America’s Families Act. As states go through the process to develop their plans - and comply with annual requirements to report on progress - they have a unique opportunity to take stock of their existing prevention and family support systems and map out how to strengthen those systems by embracing new innovations.
A Note About Timing:
This work is happening right now! In September 2025, the Children’s Bureau released an Update on Implementing Provisions of Public Law (Pub. L.) 118-258, The Supporting America’s Children and Families Act. The Information Memorandum provides an update on timing for implementation:
“State, tribal, and territorial title IV-B agencies must implement the provisions of Pub. L. 118-258 beginning on October 1, 2025. State, tribal, and territorial agencies will be required to report on their implementation efforts in the next Annual Progress and Services Report (APSR) due by June 30, 2026, for fiscal year (FY) 2027. More information will be included in the next APSR Program Instructions (PIs).”
We hope this series will help states as they refine and expand their prevention strategies during implementation of the Supporting America’s Families Act. Together, we can make a positive difference in the lives of children, youth, parents, kinship caregivers, foster families, adoptive families, case workers, and communities in every state!
We Created The IV-B Blueprint To:
Provide a series of concise Explainers for each section of the Strengthening Families Act’s changes to Title IV-B.
Detail how Title IV-B’s flexible funds can be used to help families and communities thrive.
Connect the dots between provisions of the Act; research and data that can support implementation; experts with deep knowledge of the topics; and those who have lived experience in the system.
Offer resources to help turn new opportunities into meaningful state innovation and change.
Share examples of research-based best practices, approaches, and recommendations for implementation.
Feature the voices of practitioners, young people, agency leaders, and issue experts sharing implementation strategies.
Tips From the Advocacy Hub:
Each explainer features core action steps to help build the IV-B Blueprint in your state or community by walking implementers through how to apply these recommendations to their topic.
Review your state’s existing IV-B plan.
Every state has a Child and Family Services Plan that outlines the goals and vision for the child welfare system, along with the specific policies and practices they plan to use to achieve those goals. Knowing what is already in your plan is an important starting point for understanding how to grow.
Get to know the current landscape of policies and practice.
Lots is happening in your communities and state! Explore the existing policies and practices to identify strengths to build on and gaps to fill.
Review relevant data.
Review program evaluations, financing data, service utilization data, and outcome data. These will inform conversations on how to leverage IV-B funding to continue existing or expand on service availability.
Engage key stakeholders, including those who have experienced the system.
For strong implementation, you need to bring together the full constellation of people who will be impacted by the new policy or practice. Always actively engage lived experts in these discussions and in your planning.
Take action.
Begin to act on the information you’ve gathered about the existing landscape and needs of children and families.
Who the IV-B Blueprint is for:
This series is designed for advocates, program leaders, and policymakers, specifically:
State advocates for children and families, including youth and other lived experts, who are key catalysts for driving system changes at the local and state levels
State legislators interested in supporting best practices in child welfare and sponsoring aligned legislation
State and local agency leaders responsible for managing Title IV-B programs, including making updates to ensure maximum benefit to children and families
Service providers and community partners who are caring partners who offer services across the child welfare continuum and who often lead the way in innovation.
National organizations advocating for federal policy improvements and supporting state implementation efforts
