What This Bill Does
The Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 would amend the Social Security Act to require states to strengthen how they recruit, support, and keep foster and adoptive families. It would add a new “family partnership plan” requirement to state child welfare plans under section 422, with detailed reporting on recruitment, kinship placements, congregate care use, and family retention. The bill also would expand the annual child welfare outcomes report to Congress so it includes state-by-state data on foster and adoptive families starting with fiscal year 2028. The measure does not create a new grant amount or direct payment; instead, it changes the planning and reporting rules states must follow to receive federal child welfare funding.
- States must add a "family partnership plan" to their Social Security Act child welfare plans.
- The plan must cover recruitment, screening, licensing, support, and retention of foster and adoptive families.
- States must report annually on foster family capacity, congregate care use, and unused licensed families.
- The first new state-plan requirements take effect on October 1, 2027, unless state legislation is needed.
- Congress would receive state-by-state foster and adoptive family data starting with fiscal year 2028.
Who This Bill Affects
For families involved in foster care or adoption, this bill would likely mean more targeted recruitment, better matching, and more state attention to why families drop out or are underused. If you are a foster parent, kinship caregiver, or youth in care, the biggest practical change is that states would have to collect and report more detailed information about family capacity, placement stability, and barriers to licensure and retention. For the general public, the effect is indirect but real: the bill aims to reduce unnecessary congregate care placements and improve permanency for children in foster care.
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- Child welfare agencies and state administrators Supporters are likely to favor the bill because it gives states a clearer framework for using data to identify shortages, track unused foster homes, and improve placement stability. The reporting requirements could help agencies target recruitment to teens, sibling groups, and other hard-to-place children.
- Foster and adoptive parents Families who foster or adopt may support the bill because it requires states to collect feedback on licensure, training, support, and why parents stop fostering. That could lead to better support systems and fewer bureaucratic barriers for families willing to take children in.
- Kinship caregivers and youth advocates Kinship caregivers and advocates for children in care may back the bill because it emphasizes relatives and other connected adults as placement resources and requires child-specific recruitment plans. It also pushes states to reduce unnecessary congregate care and improve permanency.
- State child welfare administrators concerned about compliance costs Some state officials may oppose or seek changes because the bill adds detailed annual reporting and planning obligations. They may argue that collecting and updating data on family capacity, demographics, and barriers will require staff time and systems upgrades.
- County or local agencies with limited administrative capacity Local agencies may worry that the new requirements will increase paperwork without providing new funding. They could see the annual surveys, summaries, and state-plan updates as another layer of compliance work on already stretched systems.
- Privacy-minded stakeholders Some stakeholders may be cautious about the breadth of data collection on foster and adoptive families and youth feedback. Even if the bill is aimed at system improvement, more detailed reporting can raise concerns about how sensitive family and child information is handled.
Key Implications
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““developed in consultation with birth, kinship, foster and adoptive families””
States would not be able to write these plans in isolation. The bill requires input from the people most directly affected, which could change how recruitment and support policies are designed.
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““use data to establish goals, assess needs, measure progress””
This turns recruitment into a measurable management task rather than a general outreach effort. States would have to show whether their strategies are actually improving placement stability, kinship placements, and permanency.
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““collect and report on the State's actual foster family capacity and congregate care utilization””
States would have to quantify how many foster homes they have and how often children are placed in group settings. That could expose unused foster homes or overreliance on congregate care.
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““include… a summary of the most recent feedback from foster and adoptive parents and youth””
The bill makes parent and youth experience part of official state planning. Complaints about training, support, or why placements fail would have to be summarized and updated annually.
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““for fiscal year 2028 or any succeeding fiscal year””
The congressional reporting requirement starts later than the state-plan changes. That gives states time to adjust before the new national reporting appears in Congress's annual child welfare outcomes report.
Latest Status
June 11, 2026
Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (text: CR S2770-2771)
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Ask AI about this billData sourced from api.congress.gov.