Foster Care Assistance Plans Get Updated Extension
Published Date: 7/9/2025
Notice
Summary
The Administration for Children and Families wants to extend and update their plan that helps kids in foster care, adoption, and guardianship programs for three more years. This plan supports families and kids by improving services and making sure help keeps flowing smoothly. The changes will keep important programs running through July 2028 without interruption.
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Three-Year Extension of Title IV-E Plan
The Administration for Children and Families is requesting a 3-year extension of the Plan for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance—Title IV-E (OMB#: 0970-0433), which currently expires on July 31, 2025. If you are a parent or guardian of a child in foster care, adoption, or guardianship programs, this seeks to keep program approval and federal plan oversight in place for an additional three years.
Plan Now Covers Guardianship, Prevention, Kinship
The Title IV-E plan being extended incorporates the plan requirements for optional guardianship assistance, Title IV-E prevention services, and the Title IV-E kinship navigator programs. If you or your family use these programs, they are explicitly included in the Title IV-E plan the Administration is renewing.
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Key Dates
Department and Agencies
Related Federal Register Documents
2026-16414, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System
This document withdraws a proposed rule that was published in the Federal Register on January 11, 2008. The proposed rule would have amended the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations at 45 CFR 1355.40 and the appendices to Part 1355 to modify the requirements for States to collect and report data to ACF on children in out-of-home care and in subsidized adoption or guardianship arrangements with the State. This document also withdraws the provision of the 2008 proposed rule that implemented the AFCARS penalty requirements of the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 (Pub. L. 108-145).
2026-11530, Employment and Training Services for Noncustodial Parents in the Child Support Program; Rescission
The government plans to cancel a recent rule that let child support agencies offer job training to noncustodial parents using federal funds. This change affects agencies and parents involved in the child support program and could shift how support services are funded and delivered. Comments on this proposal are open until August 10, 2026, so folks have time to weigh in before it’s final.
2026-09383, Restoring Flexibility To Support Head Start Program Access
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2026-06632, Work Participation Rate Calculation Changes: Recalibration of the Caseload Reduction Credit and Prohibition of Small Checks in Work Participation Rate Calculation
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2026-16933, Privacy Act of 1974; System of Records
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2026-16392, Announcement of the Intent To Award Sole-Source Awards to the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands
The ACF, OHS announces the intent to award two sole-source grants in the total amount of up to $7,200,000, or $3,600,000 each, to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to support the establishment and provision of Early Head Start (EHS) and/or Head Start Preschool (HSP) services. These awards are made pursuant to new statutory authority and recent appropriations providing $8 million to extend Head Start eligibility and services in the Freely Associated States, as authorized under the Compacts of Free Association Amendments Act of 2024 (Division G, Title II of Public Law 118-42), and the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
Previous / Next Documents
Previous: 2025-12659, Submission for Office of Management and Budget Review; Head Start Program Information Report
The Office of Head Start wants to keep using its current reports for three more years without any changes. These reports help track how Head Start programs are doing and who they serve. This means programs can keep reporting the same way until at least mid-2028, with no new costs or paperwork surprises.
Next: 2025-12700, Information Collection Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission Under Delegated Authority
The FCC is asking the public and other agencies to help review and improve its paperwork rules to make things easier and clearer for everyone, especially small businesses. They want to make sure the info they collect is useful and not too much of a hassle. This is a chance to share ideas before any changes happen, so keep an eye out and speak up!