Assistance program
Adoption Assistance
$31.7 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Administration for Children and Families, Health and Human Services, Department of
- Assistance
- Formula Grants
- CFDA number
- 93.659
- What it does
- This program provides Federal Financial Participation (FFP) to states, Indian tribes, tribal organizations and tribal consortia (tribes) in adoption subsidy costs for the adoption of children with special needs who cannot be reunited with their families and who meet certain eligibility tests. This assistance is intended to prevent inappropriately long stays in foster care and to promote the healthy development of children through increased safety, permanency and well-being.
- Who benefits
- Eligible beneficiaries include certain children who are legally freed for adoption where an adoption assistance agreement has been entered into prior to the finalization of an adoption. These children must: (1) have been determined by the state or tribe to be special needs, e.g., a special factor or condition which makes it reasonable to conclude that they cannot be adopted without adoption assistance; a state or tribe determination that the child cannot or should not be returned home; and a reasonable effort has been made to place the child without providing financial or medical assistance and (2) meet one of the relevant statutory categorical eligibility criteria. These criteria differ during the phase-in period (federal fiscal years (FFYs) 2010 through June 30, 2024) based on the FFY in which the adoption assistance agreement was entered into and the child's circumstances at that time. See section 473 of the Act for additional details on program eligibility requirements. FFP is available from the time of placement for adoption in accordance with state, local or tribal law or final adoption decree to age 18 (21 if the state/tribe finds that a disability means aid should continue or where provided through an adoption assistance agreement that was entered for a child that had attained at least 16 years of age before the agreement became effective) as long as the parent supports the child. No child adopted prior to the approval of the state or tribal Title IV-E plan is eligible for FFP. No means test applies to adopting parents, but the amount of subsidy is agreed to by agency and parents and may be readjusted by joint agreement.
- Who applies
- Funds are available to states (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and American Samoa) and to tribes with approved Title IV-E plans.
- Authorized by
- Social Security Act
- Program site
- http://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments