The Federal Funding Streams for Children and Youth Services database contains fiscal and descriptive information about 304 federal funding sources that support programs or services for infants, toddlers, children, youth, and their families. The database includes federal fiscal year obligations for these funding streams from 2019 to 2024 and will include additional years as complete fiscal year data becomes available from the federal government. The term “obligation,” as it pertains to public spending, refers to the legal liability to disburse funds. In other words, the obligated dollar amounts shown in this database represent the money the federal government has transferred to funding recipients for the included child- and youth-serving programs. Read additional details about our fiscal data below in the section Additional Categories and Data.

The database contains the following pages:

• The national overview, which is the first page of the database, provides a summary of all 304 federal funding streams and annual funding obligations for each of these funding streams from 2019 to 2024. 
• The state page, which is the second page of the database, provides a view of the same federal funding streams broken out into the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This view allows users to see what funding landed in their states, meaning the funding that program beneficiaries and service providers in a state ultimately received.
• The last three pages in the database provide a visual guide for how to use and navigate the tool, search for funding streams, use the various buttons and filters, and download data. You can access the how-to guide from the upper right-hand corner of the tool, where it says “How to Use This Tool.”

While the national overview shows all funding reported at the federal level for each program, some of this funding does not appear on the state page. The data on the second report page (which includes the state view) does not show funding received in any of the U.S. territories nor funding retained by the federal administering agency for administrative purposes.

The state page also does not distinguish funding received by federally recognized Tribes from other funding that landed in states. Any funding received by Tribes is included in the funding for the state that corresponds to the address of the funding recipient according to the federal data.

Finally, neither page shows the proportion of total funding reserved for children and youth specifically for those funding streams with comprehensive aims, such as Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). When viewing any funding amounts in this database, users should carefully read the program description and age range eligibility details to understand whether the funding shown is for children and youth exclusively or includes other age groups as well. These funding nuances are important to understand the whole story of child and youth funding in the United States. We aim to eventually include information in our data tools about the proportion of these large funding streams that goes specifically to children and youth.

Searchable Categories

Users can filter the funding streams on the national overview page of the database (the view of all federal funding programs) within six categories. It is important to note that we grouped funding streams into these categories based on uses allowed under current laws and regulations; but, not every dollar was spent on the specific programs, services, or groups that we have tagged for a given funding stream. For example, many of these funding streams are very large and have multiple parts to which different rules and restrictions apply. It may be that only a small portion of the funding shown in the database was spent on a specific activity, or even spent on children in general. We try to capture these nuances in our program descriptions. (See the section Additional Categories and Data for additional information.)

1. Funding Stream Name

This is the federally designated name of the funding stream (also referred to as federal grant, budget line item, or special fund name). This is the official funding stream name in federal government data, but funding streams may be known by several different or more common names. For example, the Special Education Preschool Grants program is an official funding stream name, but it is commonly referred to as IDEA Part B or IDEA section 611. If you have trouble locating a specific program in the tool or are unsure about the official name for a funding source, try searching for the fund’s common name or a term specific to the program using the keyword search bar at the bottom of either report page.

2. Specific Eligible Programs and Services

This filter allows users to sort the federal funding streams by 60 specific services and programs for which funds may be used. Children’s Funding Project, along with experts across a diverse set of disciplines from our communities of practice, developed these 60 service and program categories based on our observations about (1) what the federal government funded and (2) the programs and services for which we believe potential users would search in this database. This list includes services and programs across educational, social, and community-based services like tutoring, arts and cultural programs, mental and behavioral health services, foster care, health care, prenatal health services, recreational activities, and many more.

3. Program and System Building

This category of funding supports various background operations that supply service providers with the people, training, tools, and resources they need to do their jobs effectively. This includes recruiting and training program staff, evaluating program effectiveness, and acquiring data and technology systems to support their work, among other functions. Funding for program and system building supports collaboration and coordination both within programs to maintain individual program quality, efficiency, and effectiveness, and between programs to expand and improve services for children across an entire community.

You will notice that program and system building appears as a search option within the category for specific eligible programs and services. By selecting that as your specific eligible program and service you will be able to see all funding streams that support program and system building. When you search for funding streams under the program and system building filter, you will be able to further refine your search by selecting one or more of the following six categories:

• Community development
• Data and technology systems
• Evaluation and technical assistance
• Intermediary infrastructure
• Provider recruitment and professional development
• Strategic finance planning

4. Eligible Funding Applicants

This filter allows users to sort by the entities that are eligible to apply for each federal program in the tool. Sometimes these entities are the direct beneficiaries, such as when a family receives federal nutrition benefits or a child care provider is reimbursed for participating in a public child care program. Other times this is a pass-through entity, such as a state, local, or Tribal government agency that receives federal funding and then distributes that funding to families or direct service providers, usually retaining some funds to cover the agency’s administrative costs in the process. This list of eligible applicants also includes businesses and for-profit organizations, community-based organizations and nonprofits, K-12 schools, colleges and universities, museums, medical institutions, and other program or service providers.

5. Age Range

This category filters all funding streams that serve a given age or that span multiple age groups. Users may also select “no age group target” to include funds for which all age groups qualify, including adults. The database groups funding streams into the following age ranges:

• Prenatal
• Birth – 2 years old
• 3 – 4 years old
• 5 – 12 years old
• 13 – 17 years old
• 18 – 24 years old
• No age group target

6. Grant Type

This refers to the form of assistance provided by the federal government. The federal government uses 15 different types of assistance, although only 11 appear in our tool. They are listed and defined below.

• Cooperative agreement: Funding awarded to a nongovernment agency to carry out specific services or implement a specific program. This differs from a project grant in that there is significant government involvement in the project.
• Direct loans: Financial assistance provided through the lending of federal funds for a specific period of time, with a reasonable expectation of repayment.
• Direct payment for specified use: Funding distributed to encourage or subsidize a particular activity, on the condition of the recipient meeting performance metrics and expectations.
• Direct payment with unrestricted use: Financial assistance, usually directly to individuals, with no restrictions imposed on the recipient as to how to spend the money.
• Dissemination of technical information: Funding that facilitates sharing knowledge, research findings, and best practices with those serviced by the program.
• Formula grant: Funding disbursed according to distribution formulas set forth in the authorizing law or the program regulations. This includes block grants.
• Guaranteed/insured loans: Programs in which the federal government guarantees to pay back some or all of a loan if the borrower can’t repay it.
• Project grant: Funding awarded, usually through a competitive process, to fund a specific project for a set period of time.
• Salaries and expenses: Funding to cover administrative costs and staffing expenses related to the operation of a program or service. This includes salaries for personnel, administrative support, and other overhead costs.
• Sale, exchange, or donation of property and goods: Funding provided to deliver highly specialized or targeted services to a particular group or population. These services often address specific needs within a community, such as food distribution, health care, or educational support, where the federal government directly funds the provision of these services.
• Training: Funding for programs that provide instructional activities for individuals not employed by the federal government.

On the second page of the database, which features the state-by-state view, users can filter the funding streams within the six categories mentioned above as well as in an additional category: state.

7. State

This filter allows users to view funding that landed in individual states and the District of Columbia, in conjunction with other filters.

Additional Categories and Data

By scrolling to the right in the table on both report pages, users can see columns for the several additional characteristics used to categorize and organize the funding data. Some of the information in the columns comes directly from federal government sources, indicated by dark gray column headers. Other columns highlight categories based on our own interpretations of federal data and informed by our expertise in child and youth policy. These columns have blue headers.

Program Description

This is the official program description for each funding stream. This information comes primarily from SAM.gov, although we have supplemented the content with additional information from federal agency websites and/or policy researchers when necessary. The descriptions range in level of detail, but they typically describe the program’s purpose, goals, and allowable uses. For some funding streams we have provided additional detail to explain anomalous funding patterns, provide important legal or historical background, or explain funding structure nuances.

FY 19 – FY 24 Federal Funding (Obligations)

These columns show how much funding was obligated for a given program in a given fiscal year; in other words, how much money the federal government transferred to funding recipients. The amounts in these columns represent the total sum of the transactions recorded in each program’s account with the Department of the Treasury. Each federal fiscal year begins on October 1 of the preceding year and ends on September 30 of the indicated year. For example, federal fiscal year 2024 began on October 1, 2023, and ended on September 30, 2024. Annual obligations have not been adjusted for inflation.

Obligations are not the same as congressionally appropriated funding, and there are a number of reasons that obligation patterns or trends can differ from amounts appropriated in a congressional spending bill. While Congress will release funding to federal agencies, many agencies do not release funding until recipients complete program applications or submit plans. Natural disasters (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) also can affect the demand for funds or the ability of providers to deliver services. Finally, an agency may disburse program funding over multiple years, or all in one year and grantees will have a number of years to spend it. These reasons explain some of the fluctuations in funding amounts over time that you will see in the database as well as any discrepancies that appear between what appears in a congressional appropriations bill and the funding data contained in this database.

Obligations included in our database also account for any funding taken back by the federal government, also known as deobligations. These deobligations appear only on the state page of our database, which includes the state-by-state view.  If the obligated total in a given fiscal year is negative (meaning the federal government took back more funding than it originally obligated), the funding amount will appear in parentheses in the column for that fiscal year. The federal government may deobligate funding for many reasons, including administrative errors, instances when the administering federal agency reduces the total amount of funding awarded, misuse of funds on the part of the recipient, efficient use of funds by the recipient, or failure of the recipient to use all of the funding within the grant cycle. Deobligation is not always bad. Every story behind deobligated funding is unique, so it is important not to make assumptions about negative total obligation amounts.

Additionally, there are $0 values (also represented by “-”) in the database. A $0 value does not necessarily mean that no funds were available to eligible recipients. For example, a $0 value in a given year may mean that a program is active, but all funds were awarded in previous years and the recipients still are spending the funds. You can find more information about the length of time recipients have to expend their funds under the funding cycle column. Federal agencies also will use a $0 value award to indicate a nonfinancial change to an award, such as a recipient change of address, a spending deadline extension, or the close out of an award. If a state does not appear in the list of states that received funding from a given program, that indicates that no entities in that state participated in that program between fiscal year 2019 and fiscal year 2024.

This data was collected from USA Spending, a U.S. Department of Treasury website, which you can read more about under What Is the Primary Data Source for the Database and What Is Our Methodology for Collecting It? The numbers in our database may not directly reflect obligation amounts found using USA Spending’s advanced search function. The values shown in this database reflect the most recent data available as of February 14, 2025. Award amounts change over time as agencies make corrections, reconciliations, or adjustments to previously reported data. For the most up-to-date information on any specific award, please refer directly to USASpending.gov.

Outcome Category

This refers to the general child and youth outcome the funding broadly supports. This is Children’s Funding Project’s interpretation of the funding’s intended outcome, and does not necessarily reflect any federal agency’s interpretation of its own funding. We have organized federal funding streams into the following outcome categories:

• Educated: Funding to support the education of children and youth, both in and out of school.
• Employable: Funding directed at workforce development and career readiness activities.
• Healthy: Funding to support the physical and emotional health and well-being of children and families.
• Safe: Funding directed at supporting the safety and well-being of children and families.
• Supported and connected: Funding directed at providing financial, emotional, and social support to children and families and funds that help children and youth connect to their communities.

Original Granting Agency

This refers to the federal agency that administers the funding and usually sets the program rules. This data comes from SAM.gov.

Designated COVID Relief Funding

This column indicates whether the program received funding from one of the three major congressional COVID-19 pandemic relief bills passed between 2020 and 2021. We collected this data from SAM.gov and verified it  through a review of federal resources on pandemic aid.

Funding Cycle 

This refers to the length of time that funding recipients have to spend the full amount of program funding, and usually indicates how long they must wait until they can reapply for additional funding. This data comes from SAM.gov.

Beneficiary Eligibility Criteria

This refers to the criteria that identifies the group or groups for which the funding is intended to primarily or exclusively benefit, such as income status, juvenile justice involvement, American Indian/Alaska Native, youth involved in foster and kinship care, disability status, and more. We collected this data from SAM.gov, although we have adjusted the federal government’s language to categorize beneficiaries with more person-first language and to capture greater nuance in the beneficiary populations targeted by these funding streams.

Level of Intervention

This describes the intended impact and approach to supporting children and youth. This is Children’s Funding Project’s interpretation of the funding’s intended level of intervention, and does not necessarily reflect any federal agency’s interpretation of their own funding.

• Basic services: Funds that help meet the basic needs of a healthy life.
• Intervention: Funds directed to correct or mitigate an existing disparity and/or address population-specific needs to help children and youth thrive and succeed.
• Positive development: Funds focused on supporting the developmental needs of children and youth from cradle to career to ensure they thrive throughout all stages of life.
• Prevention: Funds directed to methods or activities that seek to reduce or deter specific or predictable problems, protect the current state of well-being, or promote desired outcomes or behaviors.

Service Setting

This describes the general environment or location where beneficiaries receive services. By viewing the service setting in conjunction with the eligible funding applicants filter, users can view the relationship between who can apply for the funding and the spaces or places where children and youth will receive benefits. Children’s Funding Project staff interpreted this data for each funding stream since this information is not always explicit in the program description.

Federal Budget Item Number

This number, also known as a program’s Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) number, is a unique identifier that recipients or potential recipients can use to search for more information about a funding stream on USASpending.gov, SAM.gov, grants.gov, and a number of other federal websites. 

Funding Website Link

This column links to the SAM.gov page for the funding stream, where more information can be found on the funding stream’s background, including applicable laws, regulations, and information on applying to the program.

Depending on a community’s needs, this database can provide a starting point for documenting the federal resources a community currently leverages; help communities identify additional funding streams for which their states, Native nations, localities, or organizations might be eligible (with details that help leaders decide whether to pursue those other opportunities); or aid leaders in starting their own localized or tribally focused fiscal maps. This database also acts as a historical record of federal funding for children and youth that can help advocates track changes to federal funding over time.

For more information about how to use the search features of the database and how to download a customized spreadsheet based on your search, view the how-to guide on the last three pages of the tool. You can access the how-to guide from the upper right-hand corner of the tool, where it says “How to Use This Tool.” For information about other funding-related terms you may find, check out our glossary of terms.

Primary Data Source

Categorical and programmatic information in the database comes from SAM.gov, a website maintained by the federal General Services Administration. It is a public website and provides detailed descriptions of federally funded programs. 

Fiscal information in the database comes from USAspending.gov, a website maintained by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service in the U.S. Department of Treasury that serves as the official source for spending data for the U.S. government. More specifically, the fiscal data in the database comes specifically from USAspending’s award transactions, which represent individual obligations or deobligations. USAspending receives award-level data from multiple source systems. Below are the source systems for the award data that underpins the bulk of our analysis.

• SAM.gov (File E) or the System for Award Management: This is where potential grant recipients register to receive federal prime funding awards. USASpending uses SAM.gov as its source for information on recipient names and codes, which we use to populate our Funding Stream Names and Funding Stream Descriptions columns.  
• File C (Account Breakdown by Award): This dataset tracks how much money federal agencies have obligated to specific funding awards over the lifetime of a given award. Monthly, each federal agency submits obligation and outlay data for all awards to USASpending as required by the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act. File C contains the financial information for award obligation.
• Federal Procurement Data System (File D1): This system provides transaction-level data, which includes initial contracts; grant, loans, or insurance awards; and any amendment or modification to an award about federal contracts amounts. The Federal Procurement Data System includes the following data:
  
  • transaction-level data 
  • data for contracts
  • contract indefinite delivery vehicles  
  • award transaction obligation 
  • award transaction description
  • action date 
  • awarding agency
  • recipient code 
  • recipient location 
  • place of performance
  • industry/sector
  • product or service
  • set aside type
• Financial Assistance Broker Submission (File D2): This data captures all noncontract federal assistance including grants, direct payments, loans, and insurance programs. Most assistance program agencies are mandated to report their transactions within two weeks of issuing a financial award. File D2 data includes the following information:  
• • assistance listing (CFDA numbers) 
  • award amounts
  • award transaction description
  • action date
  • awarding agencies
  • recipient code
  • recipient location
  • place of performance (state)
  • agencies providing assistance 
  • recipient information 

Our Methodology

1. Extract award data from USASpending.gov for the assistance listings we’ve designated as funding dedicated to children and youth.
2. Analyze funding obligations by aggregating federal action obligations by assistance listing, fiscal year, and place of performance.
3. Classify programs according to their purpose and target population. 

Data Limitations

While comprehensive, this federal funding data has important limitations: 

1. Reporting delays: Time lags can exist between when funds are obligated and when they appear in USASpending data based on varying statutory reporting requirements. Annual obligation totals can change even several years after the fact.
2. Varying detail: Our most recent update for fiscal year 2024 represents a static snapshot of federal funding as of February 14, 2025, and may not include additional award data at the transaction level that could subsequently amend or modify award amounts.
3. Discrepancies across government platforms: The information listed on a federal government website and the information we have in our database may not reflect everyone’s experience with federal funding and programs. For example, substantial inconsistencies exist across federal grant information platforms about what entities are eligible to apply for or receive funding. We use eligible applicant and beneficiary information from SAM.gov, but that information may not reflect what appears on other platforms like grants.gov. If you see information in any of our data tools that does not reflect your own experiences with federal funding, please let us know!