Administrative Costs Drive Foster Care Claims & Are Increasing Per Child As Caseloads Decline

On February 10, 2026, the office of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services' (HHS') Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Office of Human Service Policy published this report that found that administrative costs drive foster care claims and are increasing per child as caseloads decline. This brief analyzes Title IV-E foster care program reported expenditures and reimbursements using the most recent years of publicly available claims data (from FY2019 to FY2023, adjusting all costs to 2023 dollars . . .