SOO_Innovative Technology Solutions and Services for Child Welfare to Advance a Home for Every Child.pdf

Statement of Objectives (SOO)

Innovative Technology Solutions and Services for Child Welfare to Advance a Home for Every Child

AGENCY: Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

1 GENERAL INFORMATION

1.1 Introduction and Purpose

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for innovative, modular, and interoperable solutions that support child welfare technology modernization for title IV-E agencies at the state level. Through this RFI, ACF seeks input from vendors on standards-aligned technologies and services that can assist states, territories, and tribes in exploring, planning, implementing, and maintaining child welfare technology solutions.

ACF invites industry perspectives on capability statements, approaches to modularity, considerations for vendors of varying sizes, and innovative strategies to support the planning, implementation, maintenance and operations (M&O) of child welfare technology.

A key objective for advancing ACF’s strategic goals is to strengthen the ability to identify, assess, and share information about technology solutions, services, and capabilities that support the needs of children, families, and the agencies and partners that serve them. This objective is important as ACF works with title IV-E agencies to modernize aging child welfare systems, reduce fragmentation across technology environments, and support mission-driven priorities such as Fostering the Future and a Home for Every Child. This includes efforts to improve outcomes for children and youth in foster care, strengthen prevention and permanency, expand safe and supportive placement options, and better equip child welfare agencies and partners with timely, actionable information.

1.2 Background

The Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS) Final Rule, effective August 1, 2016, established the federal framework for how states, territories, and Tribal title IV-E agencies may claim federal financial participation for child welfare information systems that support the administration of title IV-E and title IV-B programs. The rule was designed to provide jurisdictions with flexibility to develop systems that reflect variations in child welfare practice while promoting improved data quality, interoperability, cost-effectiveness, and program outcomes. Nearly a decade after the CCWIS Final Rule took effect, child welfare technology modernization has progressed unevenly across jurisdictions. Many title IV-E agencies have experienced extended planning and implementation timelines, challenges transitioning from

Administration for Children and Families | Office of the Assistant Secretary | www.acf.hhs.gov 2 legacy systems, and difficulty aligning technology investments with evolving child welfare practice, data exchange needs, and federal requirements. These challenges highlight the need for more flexible acquisition approaches, modular technology frameworks, and clearer information about the vendor and solution landscape.

ACF has taken several steps to better understand these challenges and prepare for this Request for Information (RFI) and the development of a catalog of market research. ACF conducted a nationwide review to assess the current state of CCWIS modernization across jurisdictions, including progress, barriers, implementation timelines, and common areas of need. ACF also partnered with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) on a June 2026 research report, Child Welfare Technology System Implementation Shows Minimal Progress: After 10 Years and $2 Billion, Modern Information Systems Are Still Out of Reach, which examined the status of CCWIS implementation and identified key challenges affecting modernization efforts.

ACF also engaged directly with the field through listening sessions with state leaders and CCWIS leads to better understand jurisdictional experiences, priorities, and pain points. In June 2026, ACF hosted an Industry Day to hear from vendors and solution providers about current capabilities, emerging technologies, modular approaches, implementation models, and opportunities to better support title IV-E agencies. Together, these activities have informed ACF’s understanding of the current child welfare technology environment and reinforced the need for greater transparency, clarity, and shared market awareness.

This work is further aligned with Executive Order 14359, Fostering the Future for American Children and Families, signed on November 13, 2025, which signaled the Administration’s commitment to strengthening child welfare outcomes, improving support for children and youth in foster care, and modernizing systems that support child welfare programs. In support of these priorities, ACF is shifting from a posture focused primarily on compliance oversight to a stronger role as a strategic advisor and partner to states, territories, and tribes. This includes encouraging earlier federal-state partnership in a jurisdiction’s child welfare technology journey and helping agencies make more informed decisions before, during, and after planning and implementation. ACF is also advancing this approach through the Child Welfare Technology Incubator (CWTI), which provides states with a trusted, risk-free space to work directly with ACF to clarify expectations, strengthen planning, and explore technology solutions that reduce risk and support successful technology implementation. For the most up-to-date information on ACF’s child welfare technology initiatives, visit the Child Welfare Technology Incubator website linked above.

This modernization agenda also supports ACF’s A Home for Every Child initiative by helping jurisdictions strengthen the availability, stability, and quality of family-based placements;

improve the recruitment, approval, and retention of foster and kinship caregivers; prevent unnecessary entries into foster care; and accelerate safe reunification and other permanency outcomes. Thoughtfully applied technology can improve how agencies identify needs, connect families and caregivers with timely supports, coordinate services across programs and partners, reduce administrative burden, and use data to better understand where gaps exist and whether interventions are producing the intended results. These capabilities can help jurisdictions make https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/ccwis-implementation-shows-minimal-progress https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/ccwis-implementation-shows-minimal-progress https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/fostering-the-future-for-american-children-and-families/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/fostering-the-future-for-american-children-and-families/ https://acf.gov/cb/training-technical-assistance/state-tribal-info-systems/child-welfare-technology-incubator https://acf.gov/cb/training-technical-assistance/state-tribal-info-systems/child-welfare-technology-incubator https://acf.gov/a-home-for-every-child

Administration for Children and Families | Office of the Assistant Secretary | www.acf.hhs.gov 3 more timely, informed, and family-centered decisions that improve the ratio of available homes to children in need of placement by increasing the numerator through the recruitment and retention of safe, supported homes while reducing the denominator by preventing unnecessary entries into foster care.

States, territories, and tribes increasingly require modular, adaptable technology solutions that support jurisdiction-specific workflows and use cases; align with federal standards and requirements; enable interoperability and secure data exchange across systems; support reasonable implementation timelines; and allow for non-disruptive vendor transitions through modular entry and exit points. These needs are especially important as jurisdictions seek to modernize child welfare systems in ways that are sustainable, scalable, and responsive to children, families, caseworkers, providers, and community partners.

To address these challenges, ACF seeks to develop a comprehensive understanding of the vendor landscape, including the capabilities, services, implementation approaches, and innovations available to support child welfare technology modernization. Information gathered through this RFI will help inform a catalog of market research for title IV-E agencies and other jurisdictions.

The catalog is not intended to serve as a purchasing vehicle, procurement mechanism, or list of pre-approved offerings. It will provide greater transparency into the market, help jurisdictions understand available solution options, identify gaps in current capabilities, and determine where vendors may be best positioned to support child welfare modernization.

ACF will continue to mature the catalog as a decision-support resource for states, territories, tribes, and other title IV-E jurisdictions. The catalog is intended to improve awareness of available solution options, identify capability gaps, and support more consistent, evidence-informed decisions across planning, procurement, implementation, and maintenance and operations. Because no single provider or solution can meet the diverse needs of all title IV-E agencies and the broader child welfare ecosystem, ACF may publish the catalog to support market awareness, inform acquisition strategies, assist with the development of requirements and Requests for Proposals (RFPs), and advise on technical reviews.

As part of this effort, ACF will conduct the market research with cross-functional government review teams to better understand the capabilities, limitations, and suitability of available solutions. This process will help ACF make more informed recommendations, support mission-aligned modernization, and ensure that technology investments are responsive to the needs of children, youth, families, communities, and the agencies and partners that serve them. By improving visibility into the industry landscape, ACF aims to help jurisdictions compare potential approaches, promote modular and interoperable solutions, and support more efficient, effective, and sustainable child welfare technology ecosystems. This approach builds on successful federal modernization efforts, including the market research catalogs developed through the Grants Quality Service Management Office (Grants QSMO) Marketplace and Cyber QSMO initiatives. These initiatives have demonstrated the value of independently reviewed market research and decision-support resources in enabling organizations to make informed investment decisions.

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2 SCOPE OF OBJECTIVES

ACF seeks to understand innovative solutions and services that demonstrate alignment to ACF priorities, modularity, interoperability, and secure modern infrastructure. Solutions should show a clear understanding of applicable regulatory and compliance requirements and translate those requirements into outcome-driven system capabilities. They should support modular architecture consistent with 45 CFR 1355.53 design requirements and RFO 39.102 modular contracting.

Approaches should enable states to procure capabilities incrementally, reduce vendor lock-in, introduce emerging technologies, and adapt or replace components without disrupting existing functionality.

Responses should also define entry and exit points that support non-disruptive vendor transitions.

Solutions should include strong data governance, secure standards-based data exchange, support for federal reporting, and interoperability with partner systems such as health and human services agencies, education systems, and courts. Responses should describe how data accuracy, completeness, and timeliness will be monitored and how issues will be remediated. Responses should also describe strategic approaches for continuous modernization and improvement, including how solutions will evolve over time to incorporate changing program needs, regulatory requirements, technologies, and best practices.

3 RESPONSE AREAS

ACF seeks responses on modular, standards-aligned solutions and services organized by submitted solution or service, applicable Response Areas, and Lifecycle Phases. This structure is intended to help ACF understand the vendor landscape with specific products, services, modules, platforms, technical capabilities, managed services, advisory services, accelerators, and reusable assets that may support states, territories, and Tribes in modernizing child welfare information systems.

3.1 Response Area Selection Rules

Each Respondent may submit up to three (3) total solutions or services. Each solution or service must be submitted separately using a new form submission and a unique RFI response attachment.

ACF is limiting submissions to three (3) solutions or services per Respondent to encourage focused, high-quality responses; reduce duplicative or overly broad capability statements; and better distinguish vendors, service providers, and solution partners with demonstrated depth in particular child welfare technology functions, technical domains, service areas, or reusable offerings.

For each submitted solution or service, Respondents shall:

• Identify the specific solution or service being proposed: The submission must describe a distinct offering, not a general corporate capability statement.

Administration for Children and Families | Office of the Assistant Secretary | www.acf.hhs.gov 5

• Identify and rank the applicable Response Areas: For each solution or service, Respondents may identify and rank up to five (5) Response Areas from Section 3.2 that the offering supports. The ranked Response Areas should reflect where the solution or service provides the strongest, most mature, and most relevant capabilities.

• Defend the top-ranked Response Areas in the narrative response: Respondents shall provide a narrative explanation supporting the ranking of the top one (1) to three (3) Response Areas. The narrative should explain why those Response Areas best represent the offering’s primary value, maturity, and relevance to child welfare modernization.

• Identify the lifecycle phase or phases supported: For each solution or service, Respondents shall identify whether the offering supports Planning, Implementation, Maintenance and Operations, or any combination of these lifecycle phases. Respondents shall explain how the offering is used during each selected lifecycle phase.

• Describe applicability to A Home for Every Child: Respondents shall explain how the proposed solution or service may support the A Home for Every Child initiative, including whether and how it may increase the number of safe, supported homes available to children through recruitment and retention (the numerator), reduce the number of children who need foster care placement through effective prevention (the denominator), or both.

• Describe the maturity of the offering: Respondents shall describe whether the solution or service is in concept, prototype, pilot, production, or broadly reusable form, including any relevant implementation history or deployment experience.

• Provide a tailored narrative response: Each submitted solution or service must include a tailored narrative response with emphasis on the top-ranked Response Area or Areas.

If a Respondent offers more than three solutions or services, the Respondent should select the three offerings that best represent its strongest, most mature, and most relevant capabilities for consideration.

3.2 Response Areas

Respondents shall select up to five (5) of the following Response Areas:

Response Area 1 Strategy, Governance, and Readiness Services

Advanced Planning Document (APD), Federal Funding, Cost Allocation, and Modular Acquisition Services

3 Project, Program, and Vendor Management Services 4 Independent Verification and Validation, Quality Assurance, and Oversight Services 5 Business Process Redesign, Human-Centered Design, and Requirements Services 6 Organizational Change Management, Training, and Workforce Adoption Services 7 Intake, Hotline, Screening, and Mandated Reporter Capabilities 8 Investigation, Assessment, Safety, and Risk Capabilities

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Response Area 9 Case Management, In-Home Services, and Service Delivery Capabilities 10 Placement, Permanency, Adoption, Guardianship, and Youth Services Capabilities 11 Licensing, Resource Family Approval, Provider, and Kinship Capabilities 12 Eligibility, Financial Management, Payments, and Federal Claiming Capabilities 13 Data Governance, Data Quality, Master Data Management, and Data Conversion Services 14 Federal Reporting, Operational Reporting, and Business Intelligence Capabilities 15 Predictive Analytics, Predictive Risk Modeling, Risk Scoring 16 Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Emerging Technologies

Interoperability, Data Exchange, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and Partner Integration Services

18 Technical Architecture, DevSecOps, Testing, and Release Engineering Services 19 Cloud Hosting, Platform Services, Infrastructure, and Disaster Recovery 20 Cybersecurity, Privacy, Confidentiality, Accessibility, and Compliance Services 21 Maintenance, Operations, Help Desk, and Continuous Improvement Services

3.3 Lifecycle Phases

For each selected Response Area, Respondents shall identify the lifecycle phase or phases supported which include Planning, Implementation, and M&O.

• Planning includes activities that occur before or during early CCWIS modernization.

These activities may include regulatory scope and readiness assessments, governance and decision rights design, technical and data strategy development, APD and funding strategy development, business process analysis, procurement and vendor strategy planning, change management and training planning, requirements definition, security and privacy planning, staffing planning, cost estimation, and implementation preparation.

• Implementation includes activities required to finalize technical design and configuration, build and integrate system components, execute data conversion and migration, conduct testing and quality assurance, deliver training and knowledge transfer, manage change and adoption, deploy the system and transition to operations, maintain compliance evidence, and provide go-live support for a new or updated solution, module, platform, or service.

• Maintenance and Operations includes activities required to establish operational support;

monitor data quality and reporting; maintain security and privacy; manage enhancements and continuously improve the system; update APDs and maintain financial management;

oversee vendor performance; refresh training and change management; prepare for audits and federal reviews; and eventually transition or replace a solution, module, platform, or service after implementation.