ACF Awards $7.3 Million to Help States Build Prevention Infrastructure to Reduce Foster Care Entries
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is awarding $7.3 million in Title IV-E Prevention Accelerator Grants to 10 states to strengthen their capacity to implement and sustain evidence-based services that help families stay together and prevent unnecessary entries into foster care.
“Delivering on the promise of A Home for Every Child begins with strengthening families,” said ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams. “With only 2% of federal child welfare spending currently going to programs, ACF’s Prevention Accelerator Grants give states the tools to turn proven prevention strategies into services that can reach more families before challenges become crises. By strengthening prevention, we can preserve families, reduce unnecessary entries into foster care, and ensure foster homes are available for children who truly need them.”
Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina are receiving grants of $600,000 to $750,000 to build the infrastructure needed to successfully implement prevention programs and expand access to critical services.
“We are grateful for this investment, which will allow us to expand the use of Motivational Interviewing alongside existing prevention services, helping families feel more engaged, prepared for change, and supported as they work toward their goals,” said Kansas Department for Children and Families Secretary Laura Howard. “By expanding access to evidence-based prevention services, strengthening and sustaining community-based supports, and creating new pathways for families to get help before they reach a crisis point, we can meet Kansas families where they are and connect them with the right help at the right time.”
The awards advance ACF’s A Home for Every Child initiative, which is aimed at improving the ratio of foster homes to children in need of care. By investing in state child welfare prevention infrastructure, more parents will receive the help they need, preventing unnecessary entries into foster care.
“This grant from ACF is a tremendous investment in the future of prevention and furthers our priority of making prevention services available to the children and families who need them,” said Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services CEO Dr. Steve Corsi. “These funds give us the opportunity to continue building the infrastructure, strengthening systems, and developing the capacity we need to successfully implement and sustain prevention programs that make a real difference. We're grateful for this support and excited with what it will allow us to accomplish.”
The $7.3 million in one-time grant funding will support the 10 jurisdictions as they pilot or expand prevention services.
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Colorado will implement COMPASS, a peer-led Motivational Interviewing coaching system that builds frontline staff fidelity and streamlines county workflows, while integrating MI service coding into its claiming infrastructure to capture federal Title IV-E prevention reimbursements currently going unclaimed.
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Connecticut will build the claiming infrastructure needed to bill Title IV-E for Functional Family Therapy and Multisystemic Therapy, generating revenue to expand capacity and reduce waitlists, and to launch Motivational Interviewing as a new prevention service with its own training, fidelity, and claiming pathway.
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Florida will build and test statewide referral, documentation, and data systems needed to achieve sustainable federal Title IV-E reimbursement for its Healthy Families Florida program, piloting the process in Hillsborough County before rolling it out statewide.
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Idaho will scale its Community Pathways model through regional Assessment Centers for Motivational Interviewing-based screening and referrals, expanding Parent-Child Interaction Therapy statewide and Multisystemic Therapy for older youth, all while building a secure, Title IV-E compliant data system for eligibility, tracking, and claiming to sustain the model and safely reduce foster care entries.
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Iowa will implement Intercept (formerly Youth Villages), an evidence-based, trauma-informed model that prevents foster care entry, reunifies families, and stabilizes placements for youth with complex behavioral health needs.
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Kansas will strengthen its capacity to draw down Title IV-E funding by fully integrating Motivational Interviewing into four state-funded programs and using that integration to refine the data systems needed for eligibility, claims processing, service tracking, and outcome measurement across Family First services.
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Nebraska has proposed to fully implement Motivational Interviewing (MI) by establishing and implementing MI claiming and reimbursement systems, develop provider capacity and referral pathways, establish data and reporting infrastructure, and ensure there is a long-term sustainability plan.
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North Carolina will expand its START program, pairing child welfare staff with peer mentors for families affected by substance use, and build the infrastructure needed to move it from a pilot into a sustainable statewide strategy.
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Ohio will expand access to the evidence-based Triple P parenting program for up to 240 families through Community Pathways referral partnerships, while connecting its new Prevention Services Case Management System to CCWIS to enable Title IV-E claiming, data tracking, and fidelity assessment.
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South Carolina will implement UPSTREAM SC, expanding rapid-response referral pathways and Motivational Interviewing engagement in high-risk counties to prevent unnecessary foster care entries and maximize Title IV-E prevention claiming.
ACF looks forward to working with these 10 states as they strengthen prevention infrastructure and share lessons learned that can help child welfare systems across the country better support children and families.
The Prevention Accelerator awards build on ACF’s broader actions to support prevention, including recent expansions of programs eligible for federal reimbursement through the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse.
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