The Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP): Use of Guardianship is Growing, but Lags Adoption Assistance and is Unevenly Used Across States

The Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP): Use of Guardianship is Growing, but Lags Adoption Assistance and is Unevenly Used Across States
 

May 2026 Administration for Children and Families & Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation 

KEY POINTS: 

• The geographic reach of the Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP), first authorized in 2008, continues to expand. As of March 2026, 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and 12 Indian tribes had approved GAP plans, accounting for about 87 percent of jurisdictions.
• Guardianship caseloads have steadily increased, but lag far behind adoption assistance. By Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23), jurisdictions supported a combined average monthly caseload of 45,153 children in Title IV-E subsidized guardianships, up from 24,689 in FY16 (an 83 percent increase). In comparison, in FY23 the Title IV-E adoption assistance program reported a caseload more than 12 times as high.
• Another 35,883 children received state-funded guardianships outside the Title IV-E program, likely because the children did not meet Title IV-E eligibility requirements.
• Nearly half of the GAP caseloads were in just three states — California, Missouri, and Texas — in FY23, though those states contained just 24 percent of the U.S. population of children under age 18. Nearly three-quarters of GAP placements nationally were in 10 states.
• The size of states' GAP caseloads in relation to their Title IV-E foster care caseloads varies widely. While some states do not participate in GAP or use the program infrequently, in 14 states, there were at least half as many children in Title IV-E guardianships as in Title IV-E foster care. In three states (Missouri, Hawaii, and Connecticut), the number of children receiving federal guardianship assistance in FY23 exceeded the number of children in Title IV-E supported foster care.
• By FY23, exits from foster care to guardianship had nearly doubled from FY10, when the Title IV-E GAP rolled out.
• The Title IV-E GAP has one of the lowest monthly costs per child, compared to other Title IV-E programs. In FY23, GAP and Adoption Assistance cost on average about half as much as Foster Homes and one-fourth as much as Child Care Institutions.
  Eligibility rules, including income requirements, challenge GAP implementation. Supports, such as innovative state resources (e.g., in Texas), can assist kin caregivers.

This is a summary of the full report. Download the full report for more details on the data, methods, and findings.

BACKGROUND 
The federal Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP), authorized in Title IV-E of the Social Security Act by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, provides federal matching funds to states and Tribes that choose to operate kin guardianship assistance programs alongside their Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance programs. Under Title IV-E guardianships, relatives or others with close personal relationships with a child in foster care may assume long-term custody of the child without the court oversight involved with foster care, while receiving ongoing financial assistance toward the child's care.
This brief summarizes facts about the program's implementation as of March 2026, using the most recent publicly available caseload data through FY23. It updates a similar brief published in 2017.
 

Table 1. Guardianships and Adoption Assistance Both Offer Permanency for Children but Differ in Terms of Legal Relationship, Eligibility, and Program Status

THE GEOGRAPHIC REACH OF THE GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAM CONTINUES TO EXPAND 
As of FY23, 54 jurisdictions — 42 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and nine Indian tribes — had approved Title IV-E GAP plans, accounting for 80 percent of jurisdictions. As of March 2026, one additional state (Kentucky) and three Indian tribes had approved plans, bringing coverage to about 87 percent of jurisdictions.
 

GUARDIANSHIP CASELOADS HAVE STEADILY INCREASED
The number of children in the Title IV-E GAP has grown slowly but steadily since the program began in FY10. By FY23 — the program's 14th year — jurisdictions supported an average of 45,153 children each month through Title IV-E guardianships, up from 24,689 in FY16 (an 83 percent increase). Jurisdictions also reported another 35,883 children in non-IV-E guardianships, for a combined average of 81,036 children per month.
The Title IV-E guardianship program is much smaller than the Title IV-E adoption assistance program. In FY23, the Title IV-E adoption assistance program reported a caseload of 560,210 children — over 12 times more than the Title IV-E guardianship caseload. From FY16 to FY23, the Title IV-E guardianship program saw an 83 percent increase in caseload, compared to a 23 percent increase for adoption assistance over the same period.
Children entering adoption assistance were generally younger, with one- to five-year-olds representing more than half (54 percent). Conversely, GAP entry was relatively even across age groups, with 11- to 16-year-olds making up 36 percent, one- to five-year-olds 30 percent, and six- to 10-year-olds 26 percent.
 
 

NEARLY THREE-QUARTERS OF TITLE IV-E GAP CASES IN FY23 WERE IN JUST 10 STATES
From FY16 to FY23, California, Missouri, and Texas remained the states with the highest Title IV-E GAP caseloads, making up around 50 percent of the national total. In comparison, those three states contain approximately 24 percent of the U.S. population of children under 18. The remaining states and the District of Columbia with approved Title IV-E GAP plans in FY23 each served less than three percent of the national Title IV-E guardianship caseload.
 

STATES VARY IN THE PROPORTION OF TITLE IV-E ELIGIBLE CHILDREN IN GUARDIANSHIP
Jurisdictions differ widely in how often they use guardianship as a permanency option. In Missouri, Hawaii, and Connecticut, the FY23 Title IV-E guardianship caseload was actually larger than the foster care caseload. In 11 other states, Title IV-E guardianship caseloads were at least half the size of Title IV-E foster care caseloads. However, in many jurisdictions, the Title IV-E guardianship caseload was much smaller — or nearly zero.
 

MOST STATES OPERATING TITLE IV-E GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAMS ALSO HAVE A NON-TITLE-IV-E GUARDIANSHIP PROGRAM
Nearly all jurisdictions (38 of 42) that reported Title IV-E GAP caseloads in FY23 also fund guardianships using non-Title IV-E funds. Nationally, 56 percent of subsidized guardianships included federal funding under GAP, compared to 87 percent of children in adoption assistance who are Title IV-E eligible.
 

FOURTEEN YEARS INTO THE GAP PROGRAM, TITLE IV-E GUARDIANSHIPS MADE UP 11 PERCENT OF FOSTER CARE EXITS
In FY23, 11 percent of children leaving foster care exited to guardianships with relatives or other close adults. Since FY10, the share of children exiting to guardianship nearly doubled, rising from six to 11 percent, while exits to relatives without guardianship declined slightly from eight to seven percent. Over the same period, reunification and non-permanency exits decreased and adoption exits increased.
 

GAP COSTS REMAIN LOW AND STABLE, AVERAGING ABOUT HALF THE COST OF FOSTER CARE PER CHILD PER MONTH
Among Title IV-E programs, GAP and Adoption Assistance have the lowest average monthly costs per child — each a little over $500 per child per month across all fiscal years analyzed. GAP and Adoption Assistance cost on average about half as much as Foster Homes and one-fourth as much as Child Care Institutions. From FY20 to FY23, average monthly per child costs for GAP decreased slightly from $515 to $509 (after adjusting for inflation), and Adoption Assistance declined from $527 to $498, even as inflation increased by approximately 18 percent over the same period.
 

GAP IMPLEMENTATION IS CHALLENGED BY RESTRICTIVE ELIGIBILITY RULES
The federal guardianship program's restrictive eligibility rules likely limit its use. Key challenges include: (1) the requirement that children have been eligible for Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments while placed with the guardian for at least six consecutive months; (2) income eligibility requirements tied to AFDC standards that have not been updated for inflation since 1996 — in seven states, families' income cannot exceed $5,000 per year to be eligible for Title IV-E; and (3) challenges for older youth, who may lose access to Chafee program services and other foster care-linked benefits if they exit to guardianship before age 18. In contrast, the AFDC eligibility criteria have been phased out for the Title IV-E Adoption Assistance Program.
 

SUPPORTS EXIST TO FACILITATE IMPLEMENTATION
Recent changes to foster care licensure requirements (2023) may make it easier for families to meet GAP eligibility requirements, including allowing separate licensing or approval standards for relative kinship foster family homes. As of February 2026, 19 states and five tribes have adopted these separate standards. As of January 2026, 11 states and one territory have been approved to operate evidence-based kinship navigator programs. States such as Texas have developed best practices guides for caseworker staff to support kin caregivers.
 

CONCLUSION
Fourteen years into the implementation of Title IV-E GAP, its caseload continues to increase (though is still a fraction of the adoption assistance caseload), and guardianship has become a more frequently used arrangement in the permanency continuum for children in foster care. Jurisdictions still vary in how frequently GAP is used to support exits from foster care. GAP costs remain low and stable over time. More work is needed to understand whether eligibility restrictions serve their intended purposes, and additional research is needed to explore how long guardianship arrangements endure, as well as the long-term well-being of children and families.
 

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