The 2025-26 California Spending Plan

Human Services

Child Welfare

California’s child welfare services system serves to strengthen families and protect the state’s children from abuse and neglect, including by providing temporary foster care placements for children who cannot safely remain in their homes and services to safely reunify children with their families. This post describes the 2025-26 spending plan for child welfare.

Budgeted Expenditures

Budgeted Child Welfare Spending Increases by About $200 Million General Fund in 2025-26. Total child welfare local assistance spending for 2025-26 is budgeted at $1.1 billion General Fund ($10 billion total funds), including the Approved Relative Caregiver program, Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment program, Adoption Assistance Program, foster care payments, continued implementation of Continuum of Care Reform, child welfare automation projects, extended foster care programs for non-minor dependents and programs for former foster youth, and other special programs—all implemented by the Department of Social Services (DSS). This is an increase of about $200 million General Fund ($300 million total funds) relative to 2024-25 expenditures. A summary of year-over-year changes in child welfare local assistance budgeted expenditures is shown in Figure 1.

General Fund Net Increase Reflects Budget Augmentations… The 2025-26 spending plan for child welfare includes some new spending:

• Automation Funding for Initial Changes Necessary to Implement the Permanent Foster Care Rate Structure—the Tiered Rate Structure ($9 Million General Fund, $14 Million Total Funds). Statutory language establishing the Tiered Rate Structure was included as part of the 2024-25 budget (see our 2024-25 child welfare spending plan post for more detail). As part of the 2025-26 spending plan, trailer bill language (Chapter 79 of 2025 [SB 119, Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review]) making some amendments to the Tiered Rate Structure specifies that the new rates will begin implementation in 2027-28 provided the Legislature makes the necessary budget appropriation at that time

• Funding for Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Model Fidelity and Training ($2.1 Million General Fund, $2.9 Million Total Funds). This ongoing funding also is in support of future implementation of the Tiered Rate Structure. The funding is intended to facilitate the development, training, and implementation of system-level and case-level fidelity tools to improve the quality of CANS data.

• Bringing Families Home One-Time Augmentation ($81 Million General Fund). This funding will be available for three years (through June 30, 2028) for counties and tribes opting in to the program, which provides tailored housing services for child welfare system involved families. Additionally, trailer bill language (SB 119) suspends the county matching requirement that was required with some prior rounds of funding for the program.

• One-Time Funding for Foster Family Agencies ($23 Million General Fund, $31.5 Million Total Funds). The funding is intended to help prevent closures amid significantly increasing liability insurance coverage costs and other cost pressures.

• Funding for DSS’s Office of Child Abuse Prevention to Develop a Standardized Curriculum for Mandated Reporters ($0.6 Million General Fund in 2025-26, Growing to $6 Million 2027-28, and About $1 Million Ongoing). The spending plan also includes language (SB 119) specifying various elements that DSS shall include in the new training, such as best practices around defining “reasonable suspicion” and “substantial risk,” and information about the disproportionate impact that mandated reporting and child welfare system involvement has on certain populations in California.

…And Anticipated Program Growth… Additionally, the 2025-26 spending plan includes expenditure increases for certain child welfare program elements that typically increase from year to year. For example, expenditures for the home-based family care rate—namely the monthly care and supervision payments made to foster caregivers and for kinship and adoptive placements—are budgeted to increase by around $20 million General Fund ($33 million total funds) in 2025-26 (9 percent increase relative to 2024-25), due largely to the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). Additionally, the 2025-26 spending plan includes a year-over-year increase of nearly $30 million General fund ($60 million total funds) for Child Welfare Services-California Automated Response and Engagement System (CWS-CARES) ongoing development and implementation efforts.

…Partially Offset by Some Reductions. Although on net state spending for child welfare is budgeted to increase in 2025-26 relative to 2024-25, the spending plan does include some budget solutions, including:

• An Emergency Child Care Bridge program funding reduction to bring ongoing appropriation in line with recent spending trends ($30 million General Fund ongoing reduction). $57.2 million General Fund annually remains for the program.

• A Family Urgent Response System (FURS) program funding reduction to bring ongoing appropriation in line with recent spending trends ($9 million General Fund ongoing reduction). $21 million General Fund annually remains for the program.

Reappropriations. The 2025-26 spending plan also reappropriates funding provided for various child welfare program elements during past budget cycles, such as:

• $40 million General Fund for Flexible Family Supports for Home-Based Care is reappropriated for encumbrance and expenditure through June 30, 2026. Extending the funding aims to allow counties to continue drawing down the funding to support home-based family care and the provision of services and supports to children in foster care and their foster caregivers.

• $4 million General Fund for Addressing Complex Care Needs is reappropriated for encumbrance and expenditure through June 30, 2027. Extending the funding aims to provide more time for the Children’s Crisis Continuum Pilot Program to develop a final report for the Legislature by April 1, 2027.