Children's Bureau

The Children's Bureau (CB) partners with federal, state, tribal, and local agencies to improve the overall health and well-being of our Nation's children and families. With an annual budget of approximately $12 billion, CB provides support and guidance to programs that focus on the following:

• Strengthening families and preventing child abuse and neglect
• Protecting children when abuse or neglect has occurred
• Ensuring every child has a safe and permanent family or family connection

Improving Outcomes
CB seeks to improve outcomes in the following key areas:

• Prevention: Preventing child abuse and neglect and entry into foster care
• Safety: Preventing and responding to the maltreatment of children
• Permanency: Stabilizing children’s living situations and preserving family relationships and connections
• Well-being: Enhancing families' capacity to meet their children's physical health, mental health, and educational needs and to help them address any existing trauma

What We Provide
To accomplish our mission, we provide the following:

• Guidance on federal laws, policies, and program regulations
• Funding for essential services and assistance to states and tribes in operating every aspect of their child welfare systems
• Support for innovation through competitive, peer-reviewed grants for research and program development
• Training and technical assistance to improve child welfare service delivery
• Monitoring for child welfare services to help states and tribes achieve positive outcomes for children and families
• Research to help child welfare professionals improve their services