The Trump administration has cancelled a recent five-year project to help states better serve LGBTQ+ youth in the child welfare system, and has halted the submission process for almost all new funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The Child Welfare Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Expression (SOGIE) Institute was set to be funded by a five-year contract through the Administration for Children and Families, the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees federal child welfare policy and funding.
Youth Services Insider heard of the cancellation from multiple parties in recent days, and sought confirmation from BLH Technologies, the lead contractor for the project. BLH did not respond, but YSI has obtained an email that verifies the center has been “completely terminated,” effective January 22.
It was funded by the Biden administration to provide assistance to states aimed at improving “the services and well-being of the LGBTQI+ foster care community,” according to the initial request for proposals, virtually the only trace of the center available online. In May, the Biden administration finalized a rule requiring state child welfare systems to guarantee what it termed “designated placements” in foster care that would be affirming and supporting of LGBTQ+ youth.
YSI has heard from people involved that while supporting youth in foster care was a priority, another goal was to help systems prevent foster care entries by working with parents whose intolerance of lifestyle choices was a key piece of a child welfare case.
The administration has also wiped four active grant notices off the website of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Two of the funding notices related to improving the legal representation of youth in court proceedings, one was for juvenile drug court programs, and the other funded efforts to support incarcerated people with minor children.
The removal of those grants tracks with a broader pattern from the first week since inauguration. The National Institute of Justice has posted the following notice on its funding page:
“At this time, NIJ has cancelled all previously posted Notices of Funding Opportunity and associated webinars. Please check back to NIJ.OJP.gov and Grants.gov to keep up to date on future notice of funding opportunity and webinar postings.”
The executive branch does not have the power to just broadly ignore the spending instructions of Congress, so in all likelihood these grants will reappear for competition. One justice observer speculated that the administration might review the fine print of these notices, and reissue them with changes to scope or new conditions around eligibility.
A directive sent earlier today by Matthew Vaeth, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, suggests that these developments are part of a much bigger freeze on executive branch actions. Vaeth’s letter told agency heads that his office would be conducting a review of federal programs in February, and that all grant award actions would be on hold until at least February 10.