1935 Title V, Part 3 of the original Social Security Act (P.L. 74-271) authorized grants to states for Child Welfare Services (CWS); Title IV authorized Aid to Dependent Children (ADC).
1960 The Social Security Act Amendments of 1960 (P.L. 86-778) established grants for Child Welfare Research, Demonstration, or Training (CWDRT) in Title V.
1961-1962 P.L. 87-31 temporarily allowed states to use ADC to pay for a part of the cost of providing foster care to children who were ADC-eligible in the home from which they were removed. The Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 (P.L. 87-543) made this foster care support ongoing and renamed ADC as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).
1968 The Social Security Act Amendments of 1967 (P.L. 90-248, enacted in 1968) required each state's AFDC program to include foster care support, and moved CWS and CWDRT to a newly created Title IV-B.
1974 The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247) authorized funds for research, as well as for grants to states to improve their child protective services systems.
1978 Title II of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment and Adoption Reform Act (P.L. 95-266) authorized funding for research and demonstration grants to reduce barriers to adoption of children with "special needs" (understood as children in need of a new permanent family who, due to age, disability, or other factors, were considered harder to place for adoption).
1980 The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (P.L. 96-272) replaced AFDC foster care with an independent foster care program in a new Title IV-E, added ongoing adoption assistance for "special needs" children, and retained AFDC-related eligibility criteria for Title IV-E assistance. It included certain protections for children in foster care embodied in a "case review system." States providing these protections to all children in foster care (not just IV-E eligible children) had access to more CWS funds.
1984 The Continuing Appropriations Act for FY1985 (P.L. 98-473) established Prevention Challenge Grants.
1985 The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-272) established the Independent Living Program (ILP) in a new section of Title IV-E.
1986 The Children's Justice and Assistance Act of 1986 (P.L. 99-401) added new grants to CAPTA (funded via the Crime Victims Fund).
1989 The Child Abuse Prevention Challenge Grants Reauthorization Act (P.L. 101-126) moved these grants to CAPTA (Title II).
1993 The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 authorized funding for "Family Support and Family Preservation" in a new Title IV-B, subpart 2. As of FY1995, it required funds to be reserved for the Court Improvement Program (CIP).
1994 The Social Security Act Amendments of 1994 (P.L. 103-432) amended the CWS to make case review system protections mandatory for all children in foster care. It also authorized HHS to approve Child Welfare Demonstration Projects (also known as "IV-E waivers"). (See also 2011.)
1996 The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA, P.L. 104-193) repealed AFDC and replaced it with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The law maintained a link between IV-E and the prior-law AFDC program. It requires a state, when determining a child's eligibility for Title IV-E foster care and adoption assistance, to look back to the eligibility rules it used to determine need for cash aid under the AFDC program (before it was replaced by TANF). PRWORA authorized the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (SSA, §429). NSCAW last received its own funding for FY2011; as of FY2015, it has been continued with CWDRT funds (as directed via appropriations report language).
1997 The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA, P.L. 105-89) established Adoption Incentive Payments (AIP) to encourage states to find permanent adoptive families for children in foster care unable to return to their parents.
1999 The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (P.L. 106-169) replaced the ILP with the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program.
2002 The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Reauthorization Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-133, enacted 2002) authorized Chafee Educational and Training Vouchers (ETVs), moved the CIP program law to Title IV-B (SSA, §438), and authorized funds for Mentoring Children of Prisoners (SSA, §439); MCP was funded FY2003-FY2011.
2006 The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-171, enacted 2006) increased mandatory funding for the PSSF program. It also boosted CIP funding, adding training and data-related purposes. The Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-288) directed the increased mandatory PSSF funding toward (1) grants to improve monthly caseworker visits with children in care, and (2) Regional Partnership Grants (RPGs) to improve outcomes for children affected by parental substance abuse. It also time-limited the previously permanent CWS program authorization.
2008 The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (P.L. 110-351) gave states the option to offer ongoing IV-E guardianship assistance to eligible children leaving foster care for legal guardianship, began the phase out of the lookback for purposes of IV-E adoption assistance eligibility, and permitted states (as of FY2011) to extend IV-E assistance to youth up to age 21. The act also created Family Connection grants (SSA, §427) and funded them for five years (FY2009-FY2013).
2011 The Child and Family Services Improvement and Innovation Act (P.L. 112-34) permitted HHS to approve a new set of IV-E waiver projects, but stipulated that all new or existing waiver projects must end by September 30, 2019.
2014 The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) added legal guardianship incentives to the AIP and renamed it as Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments. It provided Family Connection grant funding for FY2014.
2018 The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) (P.L. 115-123, Title VII, Division E) gave states the option to use Title IV-E funds for certain evidence-based kinship navigator programs (as of FY2019), and prevention services (as of FY2020). It revised and renamed the Chafee Program.
2019 The Family First Transition Act (FFTA; P.L. 116-94, Division N, §604) renamed PSSF as the MaryLee Allen PSSF.
Note: Timeline includes programs administered by the Children's Bureau (CB) of HHS's Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The list of laws focuses primarily on those that created, fundamentally revised, or renamed these programs. These laws typically made other program changes not discussed here. Other laws not listed have amended CAPTA, and Title IV-B and Title IV-E of the SSA. For CB programs that remain in law but are no longer funded (or are not independently funded), see entries on this page for 1994, 1996, 2002, 2008, 2011, and 2014.