ExecutiveOrdersEO
EO 13930Executive OrderTrump 45 · R Quiet signal

Executive Order 13930

Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America's Children

This executive order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to strengthen the child welfare system by improving data collection on foster care and adoption, expanding partnerships with faith-based and community organizations, enhancing support for caregivers and youth, ensuring non-discriminatory placement practices, and streamlining processes to achieve faster permanency for children in foster care.

Federal Register Open PDF 85 FR 38741

Impact dates

  1. Develop data analysis methods for sibling placement experiences

  2. Collect information on siblings in foster care not placed together

  3. Develop systematic foster home data collection approach

  4. Require reviews to assess reasonable efforts and timeliness requirements

  5. Develop metrics to track state permanency outcomes

  6. Outline best practice standards for risk and safety assessments

  7. Collect state standards for risk and safety assessments

  8. Submit first annual report on foster care data

  9. Issue partnership guidance to federal, state, and local agencies

  10. Equip caregivers with expanded educational options, trauma training, guardianship info, and kinship care plan

  11. Update Multiethnic Placement Act guidance

  12. Publish guidance on rights of parents and children with disabilities

  13. Initiate study on Multiethnic Placement Act implementation

  14. Provide guidance on flexibility in federal funds for legal representation

Key directives

  • Secretary of HHS shall submit annual reports on foster care entry patterns, counts, and adoption waits with disaggregated data
  • Collect data on siblings in foster care not placed together within 2 years
  • Develop sibling placement analysis methods within 3 years
  • Develop systematic foster home data collection through Child and Family Services Review within 2 years
  • Ensure states report strategies for partnering with faith-based and community organizations
  • Issue partnership guidance to federal, state, and local agencies within 1 year
  • Promote National Training and Development Curriculum for caregivers
  • Provide free web-based trauma-informed training for child welfare and mental health practitioners
  • Inform states about title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program
  • Establish plan to address barriers to federal assistance for kinship care and youth exiting foster care
  • Initiate Multiethnic Placement Act implementation study within 6 months
  • Update Multiethnic Placement Act guidance within 1 year

Who is ordered

Timeline

Immediate

  • EO takes effect upon signing
  • faith-based organizations affirmed as eligible for equal partnership under title IV-E

Near term (90d)

  • 6-month deadline for Multiethnic Placement Act study initiation
  • 6-month deadline for guidance on legal representation funding flexibility

Long term

  • 1-year deadlines for annual data reports, partnership guidance, caregiver resources, Multiethnic Placement Act guidance, and disability rights guidance
  • 18-month deadline for collection of state risk/safety assessment standards
  • 2-year deadlines for sibling data collection, foster home data system, review process reforms, permanency metrics, and best practice standards for risk/safety assessments
  • 3-year deadline for sibling placement data analysis methods

Risks & tensions

  • Faith-based partnership emphasis may raise church-state separation concerns despite First Amendment caveat
  • Data collection mandates are extensive but depend on state cooperation and 'applicable law' limitations
  • Section 6 preserves Indian Child Welfare Act but does not specify how tribal coordination intersects with new requirements
  • Disallowance authority for states failing timelines (Sec. 5(a)(ii)) is real but rarely used; effectiveness uncertain
  • Vague 'to the extent practicable' and 'consistent with applicable law' qualifiers weaken enforceability of several directives
  • No new appropriations authorized; implementation subject to 'availability of appropriations'
Executive Order 13930: Strengthening the Child Welfare System for America's Children · Executive Orders