New Transparency Act Forces States to Report Child Removals Happening Without a Judge's Order

The aptly named Hidden Foster Care Transparency Act aims to shine a spotlight on one of the murkiest areas of child welfare: when children are removed from their homes by state agencies but without any formal court involvement. This bill mandates that states, in order to keep receiving federal foster care funding (Title IV-E money), must start tracking and reporting detailed data on what it calls “hidden foster care arrangements.” This includes situations often labeled as “kinship diversion,” “safety planning,” or “informal family planning,” where a child is separated from a parent due to abuse or neglect allegations, but a judge never signs off on the custody change (SEC. 2).

The Unofficial Custody Arrangement

Think of this bill as forcing states to account for the kids who fall through the cracks of the formal system. Currently, if a CPS worker suggests a parent place their child with a relative under a “safety plan” to avoid an official foster care case, that arrangement is largely invisible to federal oversight. This Act defines a hidden arrangement as any separation from a parent due to welfare concerns that occurs without the state taking official custody or a court order (SEC. 2). The core idea is that if a state agency is involved in moving a child, that move needs to be tracked, regardless of whether a judge was present. This is a big deal for accountability, especially for parents who feel pressured into these arrangements without legal counsel.

What States Must Now Track

If states want their federal dollars, they must start sending the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) an annual report detailing several key metrics (SEC. 3). They have to report the total number of children placed in hidden arrangements and, critically, how many of those kids stayed in that arrangement for over 90 days without any court review. This is the bill’s way of flagging long-term, unofficial placements. States must also track the services provided to the parents, the children, and the kinship caregivers—like referrals to kinship navigator programs or prevention services. They even have to report how many parents were given legal counsel within 72 hours of the arrangement starting, which is a significant step toward ensuring due process in these informal settings.

The Data Dump and Public Eye

The Secretary of HHS is required to compile all this state data into an annual public report for Congress (SEC. 4). This report will detail the types of allegations that lead to hidden care and how these arrangements ultimately end—whether the child returns home, moves to a relative under formal guardianship, or eventually enters the official foster care system. The goal here isn't just to collect numbers; it’s to create a national picture of state practices that currently operate in the dark. For policy wonks and advocates, this data will be invaluable for understanding how widely states use these diversion tactics and whether families are getting the support they need when they bypass the courts. For state CPS agencies, however, this means a significant new administrative burden, requiring them to standardize tracking for services that were previously informal or ad hoc.