How Title IV-E and Federal Incentives Built an Industry Around Family Separation

In communities across America, parents are losing their children not just to allegations of abuse or neglect, but to a federal funding stream few have even heard of. The mechanism is buried in bureaucratic language, but its consequences are deeply personal, especially for low-income families, Black families, and single mothers.

It’s called Title IV-E of the Social Security Act.

And behind its neutral name lies one of the most dangerous incentives in the American family regulation system.

A Law Signed with One Hand and Weaponized with the Other

Title IV-E was enacted in 1980 under President Jimmy Carter as part of the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act. On its surface, the law was intended to create stability for children removed from unsafe homes. It aimed to ensure permanency, accountability, and protection for vulnerable children.

But over time, the law morphed into a federally reimbursed removal machine.

Under Title IV-E, the federal government pays states to help cover the costs of:

• Foster care maintenance
• Caseworker administrative costs
• Training of staff and foster parents
• Adoption subsidies
• Legal expenses for removing children

Here’s the catch: states can only claim Title IV-E reimbursement once the child is removed from the home.

That means the system is financially structured in a way that makes removal more profitable than prevention.

Clinton’s Expansion: When Separation Became the Goal

In 1997, President Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) into law.

This act took Title IV-E and supercharged it.

Here’s what ASFA did:

• Introduced financial bonuses to states for each child adopted out of foster care.
• Required states to file for termination of parental rights (TPR) if a child was in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months.
• Reframed “permanency” to mean adoption, not reunification with parents.

With that one law, family preservation became optional and separation became the system’s path of least resistance.

The Dangerous Chain Reaction

When DHR or CPS investigates a family, here’s what happens:

1. An allegation is made, often with little to no physical evidence.
2. A child is removed, sometimes without a warrant.
3. The agency becomes eligible for IV-E reimbursements.
4. Parents are assigned services by state-affiliated providers.
5. If the parents “fail to comply” or take too long, the state moves to terminate rights, qualifying for adoption bonuses.

The entire process is greased by federal money that flows only when a child is taken, not when a family is preserved.

The Hidden Setup: Out-of-Home Safety Plans

Many families are coerced into signing what’s called a “safety plan” often without a lawyer, a hearing, or full understanding of what it means. On paper, it’s presented as voluntary. In reality, it’s often the first step toward long-term separation.

These plans remove the child from the home without a court order, bypass due process, and still benefit the agency financially if the child eventually enters foster care.

Families like mine were told, “Do this or we’ll take them anyway.” What they don’t tell you is once you’re in a safety plan, you can be trapped in it for months or years. And the longer your child stays out of your home, the easier it is for DHR to make that separation permanent.

It’s not protection. It’s pressure. And it keeps the Title IV-E engine running.

Children Have Become the Currency

This is not just a policy failure. It’s a funded system of family destruction.

• DHR and CPS agencies remove children to access federal funds
• Private child placement agencies (CPAs) profit from housing those children
• State contractors are rewarded for adoption volume, not family healing
• Courts and caseworkers are incentivized to close cases, not reunite families

Who Gets Targeted?

Families struggling with:

• Poverty
• Mental health or substance use recovery
• Cultural discipline differences
• Housing instability

Are treated as easy targets. Especially if they’re Black, brown, Indigenous, or undocumented.

Neglect, often a code word for poverty, is used to justify removal. Not because it’s unsafe. But because it pays.

What Can Be Done?

• Educate Yourself and Others: Learn what Title IV-E and ASFA do in your state. Follow the money. Ask what your county collects in federal reimbursements and where it goes.
• Demand Reform: Push legislators to change the funding formula so money goes to prevention, kinship care, and family reunification, not just adoption.
• Tell Your Story: If your family was harmed by this system, speak up. Share your experience. Make it harder for them to hide.
• Build Alternative Power: Support community-run resources. Offer mutual aid. Help families meet needs before the system exploits them.

Watch: Trafficked by the State

Final Word

They’re not just taking children.
They’re being paid to do it.
And until we stop the money, they won’t stop the removals.

This is not about broken families.
It’s about a broken system designed to profit from your pain.

This is what it means to be trafficked by the state.

To read the full legal foundation behind this system, visit the official government link for Title IV-E of the Social Security Act:

View Title IV-E on the Social Security Administration Website