Children & Youth
ACF Programs and Services for Children & Youth
Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention
ACF supports state, Tribal, and community efforts to promote comprehensive sex education, adulthood preparation programs, and abstinence education.
Adoption
ACF helps eliminate barriers to adoption and find permanent families for children.
Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention & Intervention
ACF funding supports programs that strengthen families and prevent and address child abuse and neglect when it occurs.
Child Care
ACF supports working families by providing access to affordable, high-quality early care and afterschool programs.
Child & Family Services Reviews
Periodic reviews of state child welfare systems help identify areas for improvement.
Child Support
ACF partners with federal, state, tribal, and local governments to promote parental responsibility so children receive support from both parents even when they live in separate households.
Child Welfare
We support state and tribal child welfare programs to promote positive outcomes for children and families.
Early Adversity
What happens to a person in early childhood can have a lifetime impact. Research on adverse childhood experiences show the importance of addressing and preventing the effect of early adversity on children and families.
Early Childhood Development
ACF works to build successful Early Learning and Development systems across Head Start, child care, and pre-K.
Foster Care
ACF provides funding to states and tribes to provide safe foster care placements for children and youth who cannot remain in their homes.
Guide to Trauma-Informed Human Services
The guide provides local, State, Tribal, and Territorial human services leaders and professionals with information and resources on recent advances in our understanding of trauma, toxic stress, and executive functioning.
Head Start
Head Start provides comprehensive education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families.
Runaway & Homeless Youth
ACF supports street outreach, emergency shelters, and longer-term transitional living and maternal group home programs to serve and protect runaways and homeless youth.
Research
ACF’s Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation studies ACF programs and the populations they serve through rigorous research and evaluation projects.
Unaccompanied Children
ACF's Unaccompanied Children Services program provides care and placement of undocumented children who entered the United States without a guardian.
