The CAPTA State Grant Program Represents Less Than One Percent of Child Welfare Spending but Places Many Requirements on States to Drive System Design

This brief highlights the types of activities for which states can use CAPTA State Grant Program funding, analyzes appropriated funding for the grant program in the context of total child welfare funding, summarizes the assurances tied to receipt of program funding, and acknowledges ongoing efforts to improve transparency and data utility while reducing burdens for states. Key findings include:

• States use CAPTA State Grant Program funds to support child protective services (CPS). Funds tend to be invested in system infrastructure improvements including workforce training, policy and protocol development, data system enhancements and reporting, and quality assurance.
• To receive funding for the CAPTA State Grant Program, states are required to comply with a broad set of statutory assurances that govern reporting laws, investigative procedures, data systems, and interagency coordination. Over time, Congress has incrementally expanded the list of these statutory assurances, which aim to promote child safety and drive child welfare infrastructure improvements.
• CAPTA State Grant Program funding has increased over time, but remained relatively stable over the past five years, ranging from around $95 to $105 million from Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) to FY26. It represents a very small share of overall child welfare spending - less than one percent of the roughly $34 billion spent on child welfare nationally in FY22.
• In FY23, CAPTA State Grant Program funding translated into supporting a median of $34.68 per investigation across states (range of about $14 to $110 per investigation) - a fraction of the actual cost per child maltreatment investigation.
• States face ongoing administrative and compliance requirements tied to CAPTA State Grant Program funding, including reporting and system coordination, and may be required to take corrective action or risk losing funding eligibility if requirements are not met. ACF is working to reduce the administrative burden states face related to these reporting requirements.

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