Nebraska Receives Third Child Welfare Federal Grant
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has been selected to receive a federal grant from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to modernize child welfare licensing infrastructure across the state.
Nebraska is one of 14 jurisdictions nationwide selected to receive the ACF grant, which will support efforts to modernize fingerprinting infrastructure and strengthen the systems used to license caregivers. The project will expand access to both mobile and office-based fingerprinting, streamline workflows that integrate fingerprinting into home visits and the licensing process, and enhance data tracking and reporting systems.
“Modernizing our licensing infrastructure is about making it easier for safe, committed caregivers to move through the licensing process while maintaining the safeguards that protect children,” said CFS Deputy Director of Protection and Safety Kathleen Stolz. “By expanding access to fingerprinting and improving how information moves through the system, we can reduce unnecessary delays and better support relatives, kin, and other caregivers who step forward when a child needs a safe home.”
The grant builds on Nebraska’s ongoing work to strengthen its child welfare system and supports the state’s broader Right Home, Right Time framework. It also complements Nebraska’s recent selection for two other ACF grants focused on strengthening prevention infrastructure and child welfare decision-making.
Nebraska was recently selected as one of 10 jurisdictions nationwide to receive an ACF Children’s Bureau Predictive Analytics in Child Welfare Demonstration Grant. The three-year grant will support DHHS in developing Right Home, Right Time on TRACK (Timely Review, Analytics, and Coordination for Kids), a statewide predictive analytics initiative designed to strengthen child welfare decision-making and improve permanency outcomes.
Nebraska was also selected for an ACF Title IV-E Prevention Accelerator Grant to strengthen its child welfare prevention infrastructure and partnerships with community-based organizations. This investment supports efforts to expand prevention services, strengthen provider capacity and referral pathways, and build the infrastructure needed to sustain effective prevention services.
“Each of these investments strengthens a different part of Nebraska’s child welfare system, but they are connected by a common goal of helping children and families get the right support at the right time,” said CFS Director Dr. Alyssa Bish. “Strengthening prevention, using data to inform our work, and modernizing licensing infrastructure will help us build a system that is more responsive to families and better equipped to connect children with safe, stable, and permanent homes.”
The new licensing infrastructure grant also creates opportunities to strengthen Nebraska’s support for kinship care. Expanding access to mobile fingerprinting can make it easier for relatives and other kin who step forward to complete required licensing steps by incorporating fingerprinting into home visits. Streamlined processes and improved data systems can help reduce administrative barriers and delays while maintaining the safety requirements necessary for caregiver approval.
Together, these investments represent continued progress under Nebraska’s Right Home, Right Time framework, which focuses on strengthening families before children enter foster care, placing children with relatives and kin whenever possible, and achieving safe and timely permanency for children who cannot remain at home.