Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025
- Bill Number
- H.R. 579
- Origin Chamber
- House
- Congress
- 119th Congress, Session 1
- Policy Area
- Families
- Status
- Passed House
- Latest Action
- 2025-03-05: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- Last Updated
- 2026-07-11T14:43:27Z
AI-Generated Summary
Purpose
The Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 aims to improve the recruitment and retention of foster and adoptive parents by requiring states to create data-driven plans and report more detailed information on family capacity and challenges in the child welfare system. It focuses on better matching families to children's needs, increasing stable placements, and reducing reliance on group homes (congregate care).
Key Provisions
- State Plan Amendments (Section 2): States receiving federal child welfare funding must develop and implement a "family partnership plan" as part of their state plan under the Social Security Act. This plan must:
- Be created with input from birth families, kinship families (relatives), foster and adoptive families, community service providers, technical assistance experts, and youth who have experienced foster care or adoption.
- Outline strategies for:
- Identifying and supporting relatives or connections to the child as placement options.
- Creating tailored recruitment plans for each child entering or in foster care who needs a family.
- Involving children and youth in their own recruitment process.
- Using data to set goals, assess needs, track progress, reduce group home placements, boost permanent homes (permanency), stabilize placements, increase relative (kinship) placements, recruit for teens, sibling groups, and other hard-to-place children, and ensure families match the racial, ethnic, and other needs of children in care.
- Establishing or supporting advisory boards of foster families to improve recruitment and retention.
- Require annual collection and reporting of data on foster family capacity (e.g., number, demographics, and characteristics of licensed families, including those not fully used and why), and use of group homes (in-state and out-of-state placements).
- Include annual updates on feedback from foster, adoptive, and guardianship parents and youth about licensing, training, support, reasons for leaving fostering, or why adoptions or guardianships fail or struggle.
- Analyze and report annually on barriers to recruiting families that reflect the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children in care, plus state efforts to address them.
- Cover any additional recruitment and retention details required by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
- Effective Date: Changes take effect October 1, 2026, but states needing new laws (not just funding appropriations) get a delay until after their next legislative session.
- Annual Child Welfare Report Updates (Section 3): The HHS annual report to Congress on child welfare outcomes must include, starting for fiscal year 2025:
- State-level data on the number, demographics, and characteristics of foster and adoptive families, plus unused potential families and reasons for underuse.
- Summaries of challenges and barriers for foster and adoptive parents (e.g., recruitment, licensing, retention, reasons for quitting or disruptions), based on state surveys.
- Summaries of state-reported barriers to recruiting racially and ethnically diverse families matching children in care, and steps to overcome them.
Significant Changes to Existing Law
- Adds a new subsection (d) to Section 422 of the Social Security Act, mandating family partnership plans for the first time, shifting from general recruitment goals to specific, data-informed strategies and annual reporting on capacity, feedback, and diversity barriers.
- Expands Section 479A's annual report requirements by adding a new paragraph (8), introducing state-by-state foster and adoptive family data, parent/youth feedback summaries, and diversity recruitment challenges—previously, reports focused more on child outcomes without this level of family-specific detail.
- Introduces consultation requirements with diverse stakeholders and youth, emphasizing child- and family-centered approaches over top-down state planning.
Potential Impacts
- On Government Agencies: State child welfare agencies face increased administrative work to develop plans, collect data annually, and consult stakeholders, potentially straining resources but enabling better use of federal funds (under Title IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act). HHS gains more comprehensive data for oversight and national trends, while Congress receives enhanced reporting for policy decisions.
- On Citizens: Children in foster care may benefit from more stable, kinship, or culturally matched placements, fewer group home stays, and greater youth involvement, leading to improved well-being and permanency. Prospective and current foster/adoptive families could see better support, training, and utilization, addressing shortages and reducing burnout. Kinship and birth families gain clearer pathways for involvement.
- On International Relations: No direct impacts, as the bill focuses on domestic U.S. child welfare programs.
Main Stakeholders Affected
- State Child Welfare Agencies: Responsible for plan development, data collection, and implementation.
- Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Families: Directly benefit from recruitment, support, and retention improvements; provide feedback via surveys and advisory boards.
- Children and Youth in Foster Care: Gain from child-specific recruitment, youth engagement, and reduced unstable placements.
- Community-Based Providers and Technical Assistance Groups: Involved in plan consultation and service delivery.
- Federal Government (HHS and Congress): Oversees compliance and uses data for funding and policy.
- Racial and Ethnic Minority Communities: Targeted for recruitment efforts to better match children's backgrounds.
Notable Legal, Constitutional, or Political Implications
- Legal: Strengthens federal conditions on state grants under the Social Security Act, requiring data-driven accountability to ensure federal funds improve child welfare outcomes; includes flexibility for states needing legislative changes, avoiding immediate non-compliance penalties.
- Constitutional: Relies on Congress's spending power to attach conditions to federal funding, which courts have upheld for welfare programs, but could face challenges if seen as overly prescriptive on state operations.
- Political: Promotes evidence-based reforms to address foster care crises (e.g., shortages, disparities in placements), potentially gaining bipartisan support amid ongoing concerns about child welfare backlogs; emphasizes equity in diverse recruitment, aligning with broader social justice priorities without mandating quotas.
This summary was generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies. Refer to the official source document for the authoritative text.
Sponsor
Cosponsors (2)
Rep. Boyle, Brendan F. [D-PA-2], Rep. Nunn, Zachary [R-IA-3]
Recent Actions
- 2025-03-05: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
- 2025-03-04: Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
- 2025-03-04: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H962-963)
- 2025-03-04: Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H962-963)
- 2025-03-04: DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate on H.R. 579.
- 2025-03-04: Considered under suspension of the rules. (consideration: CR H962-964)
- 2025-03-04: Mr. Smith (MO) moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill.
- 2025-01-21: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
- 2025-01-21: Introduced in House
- 2025-01-21: Introduced in House
Bill Versions
- Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 — issued 2025-03-04 — PDF (8 pages)
- Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 — issued 2025-01-21 — PDF (7 pages)
- Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 — issued 2025-03-05 — PDF (7 pages)