S. 162 — Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025

This section revises state plan requirements for child welfare services under title IV-B, subpart 1 of the Social Security Act (i.e., Promoting Safe and Stable Families program, which provides open-ended federal matching funds to states for family support, preservation, reunification, and adoption promotion services) by requiring, as part of efforts to recruit foster and adoptive families where needed, development and implementation of a family partnership plan meeting requirements specified in new subsection (d) (42 USC 622). New subsection (d) requires the plan to (1) be developed in consultation with birth, kinship, foster and adoptive families, community-based service providers, technical assistance providers, and youth with lived experience; (2) describe state strategies for identifying and supporting relatives as placement resources, child-specific recruitment, engaging youth, using data to set goals (e.g., reduce congregate care, increase kinship placements), and supporting foster family advisory boards; (3) annually report foster family capacity and congregate care utilization data; (4) annually summarize feedback from foster, adoptive parents, and youth on licensure, training, support, and placement disruptions; (5) annually analyze and address barriers to recruiting families matching children's racial and ethnic backgrounds; and (6) include other information required by the Secretary. The amendments take effect on October 1, 2026, with a delay permitted for states requiring legislation to comply.

This section requires the annual report to Congress on state performance in child protection and child welfare programs (i.e., assessing outcomes such as length of stay in foster care, number of placements, adoptions, and caseworker visits using Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data), for FY2025 and succeeding fiscal years, to include State-by-State data on (1) the number, demographics, and characteristics of foster and adoptive families, and the number of potential such families not utilized and the reasons why; (2) challenges and barriers to being a foster or adoptive parent—including with respect to recruitment, licensure, engagement, retention, reasons parents stop fostering, and why adoptions disrupt or dissolve or families struggle—as reported by states based on surveys of such parents; and (3) challenges and barriers to recruiting families reflecting the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children in foster care, and state efforts to overcome those barriers.