If you are concerned about the health or safety of a child click here.
If you are concerned about the health or safety of a child click here.
CLM tracks federal legislation and budget items that affect the well-being of children and families and the providers that serve them. Check out CLM's brief overview of Federal Priorities and key issues below.
A national “baby bonds” program, introduced in the 2023 American Opportunity Accounts Act by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), would authorize federally funded and managed savings accounts for children under the age of 18. The goal being to build a foundation for economic opportunity for all Americans, while breaking the generational cycles of poverty for underserved communities in the process, combatting the racial wealth gap.
The government would automatically deposit into managed savings accounts money for each child when they're born (annually adjusted for inflation). Funds would sit in the interest-bearing accounts and each year, a child could receive additional deposits from the government depending on family income. The investments would be excluded from asset limits for other government benefits. A child can access the funds at 18 for allowable uses such as educational expenses or buying a home.
For more information on how this bill would impact families across the country and in Massachusetts, check out our blog post.
Connecticut was the first state to establish a baby bonds program, followed by the District of Columbia and more recently
California. We urge Congress to pass a national baby bonds program informed by the lessons learned at the state and local level.
The U.S. Department of Education plays an important role in ensuring the equitable education of marginalized populations, with funding to support schools in educating students living in low-income communities, children experiencing homelessness, children living in foster care, and children with disabilities. The funding associated with these programs, which are reauthorized every five years by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), are passed to schools by formula through state education agencies. States can also apply for waivers from some ESEA requirements.
Additionally, the 1982 Supreme Court ruling Plyler v. Doe established that denying undocumented children access to free public K-12 education violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Massachusetts receives approximately $1.272 billion in federal education dollars across Title I, school nutrition, and special education funding.
DESE has issued recent guidance and special advisories upholding protection for targeted populations:
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Federal Special Education Entitlement Grant provides funds to ensure that eligible students with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education that includes special education and related services designed to meet their individual needs in the least restrictive environment. This funding has been critical over the years in deinstitutionalizing special education and supporting students with special needs to be successful in their local school.
Federal IDEA funding by Massachusetts school district (DESE)
The Trump Administration is using the Executive Order function to disrupt federal governmental activity on a wide variety of fronts. Executive Orders only apply to federal funding and policies. Many of these Executive Orders that would harm children have been paused by lawsuits filed by states and national organizations.
Tracking Executive Orders:
Litigation related to Executive Orders impacting children, families, and service providers:
Additional responses to recent Executive Orders impacting children, families, and service providers:
April 2025
CLM watches various federal budget items related to child welfare and related issues, in partnership with our national coalitions.
See the latest Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) budget tracker here.
In early April the House and Senate both opened their processes for taking in FY2026 budget requests from their members.
On March 14, 2025, Congress passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) to avoid a federal government shut-down, extending funding for the federal government through September 30 with few changes to spending levels, mostly eliminating earmarks. The CR includes a $13 billion (1.7%) reduction to non-defense discretionary spending; including:
Recent news about the Continuing Resolution (Roll Call)
Bill Text
On April 10, 2025 the House passed their version of a reconciliation budget bill. This bill includes much deeper cuts than the Senate version.
On April 5, 2025, the Senate passed their version of a reconciliation budget bill, including all of President Trump's majority priorities, including a provision to cut $880 million from the Committee that oversees Medicaid, despite proposed amendments to protect funding for essential services like Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the Social Services Block Grant, and Head Start.
In Spring 2025, the House and Senate introduced versions of budget reconciliation packages that would align with Trump Administration priorities. Budget reconciliation is a mechanism to adjust current FY funding to align with a new Administration's priorities.
See a summary of the House reconciliation budget here.
See a summary of the Senate reconciliation budget here.
CLM is deeply concerned about proposed or potential cuts to Medicaid and basic assistance programs that would directly harm children, families, and service providers.
The federal department of Health and Human Services is the home to many programs that support the well-being of children, as well as the various programs and funding streams that make up the child welfare system.
The Administration of Children and Families (ACF) is the hub for many child well-being and related programs, including the Children's Bureau, which focuses on programs that reduce child abuse and neglect, increase the number of adoptions, and strengthen foster care. Much of their role includes administering funding, grants, and technical assistance to states, and collecting data, to ensure that funds are used appropriately.
In April 2025, the Trump Administration began consolidating offices, closing regional offices, and laying off workers from HHS, threatening the continuation of program implementation and flow of funds to states and local communities for vital human services.
Included in these cuts are:
HHS also announced in February that it was rescinding agency policy of public commenting on most rulemaking. We are deeply concerned about the effect of cutting off public insight and data to the rulemaking process at HHS.
CLM is encouraging members to sign on to this letter to urge Congressional leadership to protect the Social Services Block Grant.
CLM is committed to upholding services for children living in the Commonwealth, regardless of immigration status. Targeting immigrants without a criminal charge has a chilling effect on children and their families accessing resources that support healthy child development, attending school, accessing health care, and obtaining employment. We urge families to know their rights when it comes to immigration enforcement.
April 2025
CLM monitors priorities and concerns for children and families, including in light of the next federal Administration's potential funding and policy changes. While impending changes to Medicaid are uncertain, Congressional Republicans have proposed a budget resolution that would include Medicaid cuts as part of the Administration's emphasis on improving program efficiency and program integrity, and eliminating "waste, fraud, and abuse." These cuts could result in:
In Massachusetts, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are combined into one program called MassHealth. MassHealth members may be able to get doctors visits, prescription drugs, hospital stays, and many other important services. Behavioral health services are more impacted by Medicaid cuts than other children and family services in the Commonwealth.
Learn more about how Massachusetts uses Medicaid funding here.
Overview
Medicaid is a public insurance program that provides health coverage to low-income families and individuals, including children, parents, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities. 32.97 million children, and 88.4 million people overall, were enrolled in Medicaid as of Sept. 2023. (HHS Source).
See Medicaid/CHIP enrollment percentages by Congressional district here.
Benefits
There are many benefits of Medicaid, such as that it:
Eligibility
In order to receive federal funding, states must cover certain “mandatory” populations, including:
Covered Services
Covered services include hospital care (both inpatient and outpatient), physicians’ services, nursing home care, home health care, and certain additional services for children. States have the authority to cover other services and populations and have used that authority extensively. Moreover, many states seek and receive waivers of federal statutory limitations that allow them to provide benefits and cover groups that would otherwise be excluded.
Cost
Medicaid is funded jointly by the federal government and the states with the federal government covering about 65 percent of the total, depending on the year. For 2023, the Federal Government will spend an estimated $607 billion on Medicaid, which is the 65% of the total estimated spending ($934 billion). Benefits for children account for only $70 billion (15.8%).
Comparison to Medicare
Medicaid is sometimes confused with Medicare, the federally administered, federally funded health insurance program for people over 65 and some people with disabilities. There is some overlap with nearly 10 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities, known as “dual eligibles”, enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid.
In December 2024, the U.S. Senate passed the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act (HR 9076), preventing the expiration of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act and updating the program for the first time since 2008 by incorporating improvements. The House passed the bill in September. This bill reauthorizes Title IV-B of the Social Security Act for five years, boosts annual funding for the program, and initiates several policy shifts to modernize the program.
CLM, along with approx. 270 other organizations, advocated for the passage of this comprehensive bill. We thank Congress for reauthorizing Title IV-B of the Social Security Act with key improvements to enhance the wellbeing of children and families.
The legislation folded together 16 different legislative efforts, which are highlighted comprehensively as follows:
Title IV-B of the Social Security Act is a critical child welfare law comprised of substantial formula federal grants supporting states' child welfare systems. These grants provide flexible funding for states to invest in maltreatment prevention, child protection, family preservation, child welfare workforce training, reunification services, and support for kinship, foster, and adoptive caregivers.
Title IV-B is made up of two programs: the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services program and the MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable Families program. The funds from both parts can be used in a similar fashion, and most years total up to between $500 million and $600 million.
Subpart 1 - Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program: promote State flexibility in the development and expansion of a coordinated child and family services program that utilizes community-based agencies and ensures all children are raised in safe, loving families to do the following:
- protect/promote the welfare of all children,
- prevent neglect, abuse, or exploitation, support at-risk families, such as through services which allow children, where
appropriate, to remain safely with their families or return to their families in a timely manner, |
- promote the safety, permanence, and well-being of children in foster care and adoptive families; and
- provide training, professional development and support to ensure a well-qualified child welfare workforce.
Subpart 2 - MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program: establish, expand, and operate coordinated programs of community-based family support services, family preservation services, family reunification services, and adoption promotion and support services to prevent child maltreatment, assure children’s safety, preserve intact families when possible, address problems so that reunification can occur in a safe an stable manner (in accordance with the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997), and provide support services to adoptive families.
Note: the Trump Administration officially refers to this group as "Unaccompanied Alien Children" (UAC).
Under the UAC program, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement promptly places UAC in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interests of the child, taking into consideration danger to self, danger to the community, and risk of flight. ORR looks at each child’s unique situation and incorporates child welfare principles when making placement, clinical, case management, and release decisions that are in the best interest of the child. The age of these individuals, their separation from parents and relatives, and the hazardous journey they take make UAC especially vulnerable to human trafficking, exploitation, and abuse.
The Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants (ORI) partners with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to jointly administer the Commonwealth's Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program. (URMP). This program establishes legal responsibility under State law, to ensure that eligible unaccompanied youth receive the full range of assistance, care, and services which are available to all foster children in the State in a variety of settings: in foster homes, group home settings, or in other residential settings as appropriate for each individual child. State-contracted provider facilities are state licensed and must meet ORR requirements to ensure a high level of quality of care.
Between January - March 2025, the Trump Administration froze and then cancelled the contract that funds the legal services program for UAC, effectively ended all federal funding for this program and cutting off children from legal services to support their application for refugee status and other pathways to legal residence in the United States. Effectively, this funding means the ending of foster care and other related services for unaccompanied minors. In Massachusetts, several hundred unaccompanied minors have lost their lawyers, with the more than 2,000 children who receive services short of full representation also facing the loss of assistance.
The national program Kids In Need of Defense (KIND) is organizing advocacy to restore legal protection and other services for unaccompanied refugee minors. Learn more and take action here. A lawsuit was also filed to restore these services (see below).
This a prior session bill that has not yet been reintroduced in the current Congress.
The John Lewis Every Child Deserves a Family Act (ECDFA) would prohibit any child welfare agency receiving federal financial assistance from discriminating against any potential foster or adoptive family on the basis of religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. In addition, ECDFA would prevent discrimination against any foster youth because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Congress needs to ensure that young people in foster care have access to adequate support and services as they transition to adulthood and independence.
Congress must:
- Increase funding for the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood and fully fund Education and Training Vouchers.
The Chafee Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood provides funds to states to assist them in offering supportive
services for youth who experience foster care at age 14 or older, including former foster youth up to a certain age. The program
seeks to address poor education, employment, and other outcomes experienced by many such foster youth as they transition to
adulthood. This includes the Educational and Training Vouchers Program (ETV) for Youth Aging out of Foster Care.
- Extend foster care to at least age 21 nationally
- Provide greater and simpler access to student loans and on-campus services
- Support youth who experience foster care in obtaining driver’s licenses
- Increase state-level access to the federal Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) vouchers and provide greater targeted housing assistance
The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) was signed into law in 2018, expanding entitlement funding, focused on preventing children and their families from becoming involved in the child welfare system by providing evidence-based services to children who are considered “candidates for foster care." It amended Title IV-E (Foster Care) and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (Child and Family Services) to child welfare programs and policy. Highlights include as follows:
See the latest from the Prevention Services Clearinghouse here.
Massachusetts mostly uses Family First to fund programming through Family Support and Stabilization, where applicable.
The Expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC), passed as part of the American Rescue Plan Act to provide relief for families during the COVID-19 pandemic, has been hailed as the most successful anti-child poverty policy option available. The credit expansion lifted more than 3.5 million children out of poverty and research shows that most families spent their monthly CTC payments on necessities such as food, clothing, and housing. The expansion of the CTC had no negative effect on employment.
Congress must:
- Expand the Child Tax Credit by:
The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) provides funding to states for state child protective services, including investigation, protection and any treatment services. It requires states to meet certain provisions such as mandated reporting. Title II of CAPTA is referred to as the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention program, or CB-CAP. It supports community-based efforts to develop, operate, expand, and coordinate programs and activities to prevent child abuse and neglect.
Congress must:
- Reauthorize CAPTA with a higher authorized funding level and with additional attention to child fatalities, children born exposed
to substances, and enhanced legal representation for children and families
- Reject all efforts to narrow and politicize the broad federal definition of child maltreatment
- Reauthorize the Adoption Opportunities Act with greater research on adoption disruption and dissolution and more support for
post-adoption services
The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 (FFPSA) created a federal category of residential settings called qualified residential treatment programs (QRTPs) that provide short-term care for children in foster care with assessed emotional or behavioral needs in a residential setting. The health care needs of children in foster care are covered by Medicaid. Today, however, QRTPs may not receive Medicaid financing because of the Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion, a law that prohibits Medicaid payments to an institution with more than 16 beds that primarily provides care for people with mental health conditions.
The Ensuring Medicaid Continuity for Children in Foster Care Act of 2023 (H.R.4056) would provide a narrow exemption from the IMD exclusion to ensure children in foster care receiving care in QRTPs can continue to receive care provided in these settings without losing their federal Medicaid coverage. The bill would lift the Exclusion in a manner consistent with guardrails from the Families First Prevention Services Act, which include screenings to place children appropriately in and out of care and requirements to discharge children from facilities expeditiously so that they can return to their families as quickly as possible.
Numerous local, state, and national organizations have joined in advocating for this reform to ensure Congress understands the issue and the need to support access to trauma-responsive, youth-driven, family-focused QRTPs nationwide (see IMD Federal Policy Brief from the National Association of Medicaid Directors). Please join us in asking Congress to ensure services for children in QRTPs are fully funded by Medicaid.
The Children’s League of Massachusetts is a registered 501 (C)(4).
For press inquiries please email rachel@childrensleague.org.