Technology Enhanced Adoptive Family Recruiting and Matching

This program will fund four regional centers to develop and implement technology-enabled strategies aimed at improving the matching, placement, and permanency outcomes for children in foster care who are legally free for adoption. The initiative, administered by the Administration for Children and Families under the Department of Health and Human Services, seeks to create secure, interoperable tools that integrate with existing child welfare systems such as SACWIS/CCWIS, leveraging data-informed recruitment, AI-assisted matching, and predictive analytics to accelerate adoption timelines and enhance placement stability. Each center will be assigned to one of four national service regions to ensure comprehensive U.S. coverage and will partner with state, territorial, tribal, and local agencies and courts to design, pilot, and scale solutions that are evidence-based, culturally responsive, and accessible in compliance with Section 508 and FedRAMP standards. Applicants must demonstrate robust organizational capacity, strong partnerships, and a clear implementation strategy with emphasis on scalability and sustainability, and they are required to submit detailed evaluations tied to measurable outcomes including reduced time to permanency, increased match success rates, and improved data quality. The funding opportunity, identified as HHS-2026-ACF-ACYF-CO-0040, is structured as a cooperative agreement with a five-year performance period beginning September 30, 2026, and ending September 29, 2031, with annual funding ceilings of up to $4 million per year for a total potential award value of $19.3 million. Proposals must be submitted via Grants.gov by August 21, 2026, and are subject to a competitive evaluation process weighing approach, organizational capacity, evaluation methodology, budget realism, and alignment with ACF priorities on a 110-point scale. Applicants must have an active UEI, submit required certifications including proof of nonprofit or small business status, protection of human subjects, and maintenance of effort, and include letters of commitment from partner agencies. The project emphasizes continuous quality improvement, national dissemination of best practices, and the development of open-source tools and implementation resources that can be replicated across jurisdictions. While no formal contract clauses from the FAR apply due to its nature as a grant-funded cooperative agreement, compliance with 2 CFR Part 200 and other federal financial management rules is required, and performance will be closely monitored through semiannual reports and risk assessments for awards exceeding $250,000.