States must use data to find and keep foster families.
S. 162 — Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025 · Filed by Chuck Grassley (R-IA) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 21, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
States must make plans to find and keep foster and adoptive families. States must use data to find relatives who could care for kids. States must find other people who could care for kids. States must ask youth in foster care what they think. States must report each year to Congress about foster families. They must report how many families they have and how many they need. States must report what foster and adoptive families say. States must report on efforts to match kids with families of the same race and ethnicity.
Who it affects
Kids in foster care and their families get better placement chances. States must collect and share data about foster families. Congress will get detailed reports starting in 2028.
One thing to notice
States must report on foster families they are not using and why. States must report on gaps in finding families that match kids' race and ethnicity.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jan 21, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 21, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
- Jun 11, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Senate Committee on Finance discharged by Unanimous Consent”
- Jun 11, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (text: CR S2770-2771)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- adoptive families — Families that take in a child to raise as their own through legal adoption.
- race and ethnicity — A person's background based on where their family comes from.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,589 characters) on Jul 11, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,358 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-19.
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