To codify certain directives in the Executive order entitled Fostering the Future for American Children and Families.
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
IntroducedMr. Nunn of Iowa (for himself, Mr. Landsman, Mr. Fong, …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Fostering the Future for American Children and Families Act codifies portions of an Executive Order aimed at improving career opportunities for young people aging out of foster care. The bill establishes a study of existing job training programs for foster youth, creates a new grant program to expand apprenticeship and technical training access, and makes education vouchers more flexible for career-focused programs.
Who Benefits and How
Current and former foster youth are the primary beneficiaries. They would gain expanded access to industry-aligned technical job training, apprenticeships, and career-focused credential programs in high-demand fields like skilled trades, manufacturing, healthcare, IT, and agriculture. The bill also allows existing education vouchers (under the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program) to be used for short-term, rapid-employment pathways like registered apprenticeships and certificate programs.
States, academic institutions, private-sector employers, and nonprofit/faith-based organizations can apply for competitive grants through the new Fostering the Future Pipeline Program, receiving federal funding to provide these training opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of Health and Human Services must conduct a comprehensive study coordinating with the Department of Labor, and then administer the new grant program. This adds administrative responsibilities and requires managing up to $50 million annually in grants.
Taxpayers fund the program, with up to $50 million authorized per fiscal year for the grant program.
Key Provisions
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Study Requirement: HHS and Labor must evaluate existing federal, state, and private programs supporting job training for foster youth, identifying gaps, barriers, and expansion opportunities, with a report due to Congress within 1 year.
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Fostering the Future Pipeline Program: Creates a competitive grant program for states, schools, employers, and nonprofits to expand technical training and apprenticeships in high-demand fields. Authorized at up to $50 million per year.
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Education Voucher Flexibility: Amends the Social Security Act to allow Chafee Program education and training vouchers to cover short-term, career-focused programs including registered apprenticeships and certificate programs.
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Effective Date: The bill takes effect 6 months after enactment, giving agencies time to prepare for implementation.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
The bill aims to codify directives from an Executive Order, fostering the future of American children and families by improving access to technical job training, on-the-job training, and apprenticeships for current and former foster youth.
Policy Domains
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → Secretary of Health and Human Services
- "the_administrator"
- → None
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
The bill's provisions will come into effect six months after the date of enactment.
A grant program to expand access to industry-aligned technical job training and apprenticeships for current and former foster youth, focusing on high-demand fields.
An evaluation of existing programs to identify gaps in services, barriers to access, and opportunities to expand career pathways for youth transitioning out of the child welfare system.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology