Collaborative Approaches to Adoption for Children with Complex Needs
This grant funds projects to test and evaluate collaborative strategies for recruiting, training, and supporting adoptive families for children with complex behavioral, medical, or emotional needs.
Funder: Administration for Children and Families - ACYF/CB
Due Dates: August 26, 2026: Full application submission deadline (electronic submissions due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time)
Funding Amounts: $1,500,000–$2,150,000 per award for a three-year project period; estimated total program funding $6,450,000; ~3 awards expected.
Summary: Supports rigorous research to evaluate collaborative, system-level approaches to achieving adoption permanency for children and youth with complex or high-acuity needs.
Key Information: Projects must be led by or partnered with public child welfare agencies; no cost sharing required.
Description
This funding opportunity supports the implementation and evaluation of innovative, collaborative approaches designed to help children and youth with complex or high-acuity needs achieve permanency through adoption. The program emphasizes rigorous research to build the evidence base for system-level efforts—such as recruiting, training, supporting, and retaining families able to meet these children's needs. Projects must be led by researchers working within or in close partnership with public child welfare agencies, and collaborations that include Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration projects, private adoption agencies, or community/faith-based organizations are of particular interest. Funded projects are expected to conduct both implementation and effectiveness studies, using the most rigorous research methods feasible, and to actively disseminate findings to national, state, and local audiences.
