SB 162, the Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025, amends parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act to strengthen how states recruit, support, and retain foster and adoptive families. The bill requires each state’s child welfare plan to include a family partnership plan developed with input from birth families, kinship caregivers, foster and adoptive parents, service providers, technical assistance providers, and youth with lived foster care or adoption experience.
The required plan would direct states to identify and engage relatives and other connected adults as placement resources, create child-specific recruitment plans for children who need foster or adoptive homes, involve youth in recruitment efforts, and use data to set goals and measure progress. It also requires states to address placement stability, reduce unnecessary congregate care placements, improve kinship care and teen/sibling-group recruitment, and support foster family advisory boards. In addition, states must annually collect and report data on foster family capacity, congregate care use, unused licensed capacity, and feedback from families and youth about licensure, training, support, and reasons placements fail or families stop fostering.
The bill also expands federal reporting by requiring the annual child welfare outcomes report to Congress to include state-by-state information on foster and adoptive family demographics, unused family capacity, barriers to becoming or remaining a foster or adoptive parent, and challenges in recruiting families that reflect the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children in foster care. These reporting requirements are intended to give federal and state policymakers more detailed data to guide recruitment and retention efforts.
The bill’s impact would be to add new planning, data collection, and reporting obligations for states receiving federal child welfare funds, with implementation generally beginning October 1, 2027. States needing legislation to comply may receive additional time before being deemed out of compliance. The bill would not directly change eligibility rules for foster care or adoption, but it would require states to formalize recruitment strategies and document outcomes more extensively under the Social Security Act.
The overall sentiment reflected in the bill text is strongly supportive of improving foster and adoptive parent recruitment through data-driven planning and family engagement. No committee transcript or vote record is provided, but the Senate passed the bill, suggesting at least chamber-level support. The main points of potential contention are likely the added administrative burden on states, the need for new data systems and reporting processes, and the requirement that states analyze racial and ethnic matching and barriers to recruitment, which may raise implementation or policy concerns in some states.
The bill amends section 422 of the Social Security Act to require state child welfare plans to include a detailed family partnership plan focused on foster and adoptive parent recruitment, retention, kinship engagement, and data-driven performance measures. It also amends section 479A to expand the annual child welfare outcomes report to Congress with state-level data on foster/adoptive family capacity, unused licensed homes, congregate care use, and barriers to recruitment and retention. States would face new planning and reporting duties tied to federal child welfare funding, with a delayed compliance option where state legislation is needed.
The bill appears broadly favorable and reform-oriented, emphasizing better use of data, stronger family engagement, and improved placement outcomes for children in foster care. The fact that it passed the Senate indicates support for the policy direction, though no committee debate or vote breakdown is available. The tone of the legislation is collaborative and problem-solving rather than punitive, with an emphasis on state flexibility and consultation with affected families and youth.
No formal committee discussion or recorded vote opposition is provided, so specific objections are not documented in the materials. Likely areas of contention include whether the new requirements impose significant administrative and reporting burdens on states, whether states will need new legislation or systems to comply, and how prescriptive federal standards should be regarding recruitment, racial and ethnic matching, and the use of data to evaluate foster care capacity and congregate care utilization. Some stakeholders may also differ on the bill’s emphasis on data collection versus direct service funding.