Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Representative Feenstra
Passed House
Summary
Use data to recruit and retain foster and adoptive families aligned with children’s needs. This bill would create a required Family Partnership Plan for each state that sets child-specific recruitment, licensing, and retention strategies and expands annual data and reporting on foster family capacity and congregate care use.
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- Families and caregivers: States would collect and publish annual summaries of foster, kinship, and prospective adoptive parents' feedback on licensure, training, supports, and reasons fostering or adoptions end.
- State child welfare agencies: States would develop Family Partnership Plans in consultation with birth, kinship, foster, and adoptive families, community providers, and youth with lived experience, collect annual data on licensed family capacity and underutilization, and analyze barriers to recruiting families that reflect children’s racial and ethnic backgrounds. Plans take effect October 1, 2026, with a limited delay if state law is required.
- Children and youth: The bill would require child-specific recruitment plans and authentic youth involvement to reduce congregate care, increase permanency and placement stability, and improve recruitment and retention for teens, sibling groups, and other special populations.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
More time for state plan changes
If enacted, the new State plan rules would start October 1, 2026. The HHS Secretary could allow more time if a State needs new legislation (not appropriations) to comply. In that case, the State would not be marked noncompliant until the first day of the next calendar quarter after the first regular legislative session ends following enactment. In States with two-year sessions, each year would count as its own regular session.
New data plans to recruit foster families
If enacted, States would have to create a family partnership plan to recruit, license, support, and keep foster and adoptive families. States would write the plan with input from birth, kin, foster and adoptive families, service providers, and youth with foster care experience. Every child who needs a family would get a child-specific recruitment plan, and youth would be involved in their own recruitment. States would use data to set goals, reduce group (congregate) care, increase permanency and stability, improve kin placements, and better match families to kids, including teens and sibling groups. States would create or support foster family advisory boards. At least once a year, States would report numbers, demographics, and traits of licensed and prospective families, whether they are used, and reasons some are not used. States would also report counts and details of children in group care, in-State and out-of-State. Each year, States would summarize recent feedback from foster/adoptive parents and youth on licensing, training, supports, and why fostering, adoption, or guardianship ends or struggles. States would also analyze barriers to recruiting and using families who reflect children’s racial and ethnic backgrounds, and the steps to overcome them. These State plan pieces would start October 1, 2026, with a possible delay if a State needs new laws. Starting in fiscal year 2025, HHS would publish State-by-State data on families and unused pools (with reasons), and summaries of barriers and efforts to build a racially and ethnically representative pool, based on State reports and surveys of foster and adoptive parents.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Feenstra
IA • R
Cosponsors
Rep. Boyle, Brendan F. [D-PA-2]
PA • D
Sponsored 1/21/2025
Rep. Nunn, Zachary [R-IA-3]
IA • R
Sponsored 3/3/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov