The Promoting Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) Program is a federal program aimed at preventing child maltreatment, enabling children to remain safely with their families, and ensuring permanency for children in foster care. The program supports state child welfare agencies and eligible Tribes in establishing and operating integrated, community-based services for families. Administered by the Children’s Bureau, the program includes both mandatory and discretionary funding components.
PSSF Program Purpose and Objectives
As outlined in Title IV-B, subpart 2 of the Social Security Act,11 42 U.S.C. § 629 (see Compilation of Titles IV-B, IV-E, and Related Sections of the Social Security Act), the purpose of PSSF is to enable states and Tribes to operate a coordinated program of community-based services for the following objectives:
- To ensure children’s safety within the home and preserve intact families in which children have been maltreated when the family’s problems can be addressed effectively (family preservation services)
- To prevent child maltreatment among families at risk through the provision of supportive family services (family support services)
- To address the problems of families whose children have been placed in foster care so that reunification may occur in a safe and stable manner (family reunification services)
- To support adoptive families by providing support services as necessary so that they can make a lifetime commitment to their children (adoption promotion and support services)
Legislative History
PSSF’s history began in 1993, when the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act created subpart 2 of Title IV-B of the Social Security Act and established the Family Preservation and Support Services Program. Responding to concerns over the number of children in foster care, Congress created this capped entitlement program to provide states with funding for prevention services that support families before children entered out-of-home care. In addition to funding Family Preservation and Support Services Grants, the program established the Court Improvement Program.
In 1998, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) reauthorized and renamed the program to the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program. In line with ASFA’s emphasis on promoting permanency for children and youth in foster care, the PSSF Program was expanded to also include time-limited family reunification services for families with children in foster care and adoption promotion and support services.
The PSSF Program was reauthorized by the PSSF amendments of 2001, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, and the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006. During that time, discretionary funding streams were added to the initial mandatory funding. Changes included increased PSSF funding for Tribes; set-aside funding for monthly caseworker visits to children in foster care; and competitive Regional Partnership Grants to improve outcomes for children with parents with substance use disorders.