Why Fiscal Leadership Matters Now Across the country, promising efforts—including supportive housing, flexible (drop cash) economic assistance, and early family support—are demonstrating the potential to help families remain safely together. Yet underfunding can keep these efforts episodic and small in scale. States are also moving in a tighter fiscal climate as federal priorities change, pandemic relief dollars fade, and budgets become more constrained. Risk aversion, fear of disallowance, siloed systems, and mistrust can also slow investment in prevention. While places across the nation are increasingly interested in investments that support family safety and well-being without the use of investigation and foster care, the majority of funding still flows to these ‘downstream’ interventions, with only 15% of U.S. child welfare spending supporting preventive services . 1 Family First Prevention Services Act implementation has been slower than anticipated. Constraints such as strict definitions, evidence-based program requirements, eligibility restrictions, and complex administrative and infrastructure demands maintain a child welfare orientation toward placement.
1 Kristina Rosinsky, Megan Fischer, Maggie Haas, and Alyssa Ibarra, Child Welfare Financing SFY 2022 (Child Trends, July 2025), 49. The analysis found that 15% of child welfare agency expenditures were used for preventive services, based on 43 states with sufficient data. Child Trends, Child Welfare Financing SFY 2022
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