Office of Family Assistance

The Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families is the federal agency that administers child welfare, family support, and related social-services grant programs to states, tribal nations, and local entities. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) sits within HHS as the principal grant-making organization for child protective services, foster care, adoption support, child care, and family preservation initiatives across the country.

ACF has obligated $331.79 billion in cumulative federal grant funding across 1,661 awards since 2005, working with 379 distinct recipients. Recent activity shows 147 awards in 2022, 148 in 2023, 147 in 2024, a significant jump to 262 awards in 2025, and 34 awards so far in 2026. The most recent grant award was issued on 2026-07-01.

Grant funding is highly concentrated among a small set of major recipients, with the Navajo Nation Tribal Government, the Department of Human Services, and the Government of Guam–Department of Administration accounting for the largest federal dollar obligations in recent years. By award count over the last five years, five recipients — Nooksack Indian Tribe, Forest County Potawatomi Community, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Sokaogan Chippewa Community, and Coeur D'Alene Tribe — each hold 9 awards and together represent only 6 percent of recent awards, indicating highly fragmented award distribution across a broad base of state and tribal grantees. Tribal nations and state child-welfare agencies dominate the recipient base.

ACF's grant portfolio is structured predominantly around Block Grants, which account for 1,275 awards (77 percent of the total). Project Grants represent 217 awards (13 percent), Cooperative Agreements 156 awards (9 percent), and Formula Grants 13 awards (1 percent). Block Grants provide flexible funding to states and tribes for child-welfare systems and family-support infrastructure; Project Grants and Cooperative Agreements support time-limited service demonstrations, research initiatives, and collaborative program implementation; Formula Grants distribute resources according to statutory allocation methodologies.

No recent federal grant opportunities are recorded in the source. Prospective applicants should monitor grants.gov and ACF's primary program announcements for notices of funding opportunity in child welfare, foster care, family preservation, child care subsidy systems, and related child-and-family service domains.