Strengthening Child Welfare Services

Blueprint of Public Policy Priorities for the 119th Congress, 2025-2026

Priority:

• Strengthen child welfare service delivery to enhance child and family well-being

Legislative Initiatives:

• Reauthorizing the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), Expanding Resources for Social Workers, and Extending Citizenship to Adult Intercountry Adoptees

Goal:

• Strengthen child and family well-being by supporting child welfare workers, fund CAPTA, and close a loophole that denies adult intercountry adoptees their right to citizenship

Background:

NASW has long worked to strengthen child welfare services and enhance child and family well-being. Child welfare social workers carry high caseloads and often have inadequate supervision, significant safety concerns, limited training and resources, and shockingly low pay, all while making crucial decisions that impact the lives of children and families. Social workers in every state are lacking the resources, education, and training they need to make life these altering decisions. To help child welfare social workers do their crucial work, Congress must protect and increase funding for child welfare workers to provide for increased salaries, stipends, loan forgiveness, and educational leave to help to incentivize the work and grow the field all while helping to better distribute caseloads and decrease burnout for social workers². The 119th Congress can advance the well-being of children and families by addressing these issues.

After the 2024 reauthorization of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, which increased child welfare funding for numerous programs, Congress now has an opportunity to prioritize the funding of child welfare programs through the reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). Over 540,000 children experienced child abuse and neglect across all 50 states and Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C, and an estimated 1,762,516 children were recipients of prevention services in 2023.³ These numbers offer a glimpse into the large number of children and families who benefit from CAPTA and the importance of reauthorization. Finally, Congress can close a gap in the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 and ensure that the tens of thousands of international adoptees who were brought to America as children receive citizenship.⁴ As the Trump Administration targets immigrant communities and people not born in the United States, Congress must protect those who were adopted by citizens are risk of deportation because their adoptive parents never filed paperwork.

Recommendations:

Given the urgency of these issues, NASW urges policymakers to:

1. Reauthorize CAPTA, Expand Resources for Child Welfare Social Workers, and Extend Citizenship to Adult Intercountry Adoptees.