What the gap costs

Federal enforcement

1. $100,000 a day, vacatedTexas, M.D. v. Abbott: the district court found the state in contempt over its long-term foster-care system and imposed $100,000 a day in April 2024. The Fifth Circuit vacated the order, held that the state had substantially complied with the two remedial orders at issue, and removed the judge from the case. The exposure is real and recurring even when a particular sanction does not stick.
2. $3,815,286 withheldIllinois: ACF withheld federal funds for October 2008 to March 2013 after the state failed to meet its CFSR Program Improvement Plan (HHS Departmental Appeals Board Decision No. 2734). A completed federal action, not a threatened one.
3. No state in full conformityNo state was found in substantial conformity with all outcomes in the first round of Child and Family Services Reviews.

Litigation and administration

1. $5.23 million in a yearTexas foster-care litigation-defense payments, October 2023 to October 2024, with lead counsel at $1,313 an hour, under an outside-counsel contract capped at $7 million for April 2023 through August 2025 (as reported by Bloomberg Law and the Dallas Morning News).
2. $2,576 per child per monthaverage in-placement administration spend, FY2023, with a range of $263 to $10,041: a nearly fortyfold spread across states and territories.
3. Up 40% in four yearsgrowth in average monthly administrative cost per child, FY2019 to FY2023, while the number of children served declined. In-placement administration was the largest category of Title IV-E foster-care administrative spending from FY2019 to FY2023, over $1 billion larger than any other.

HHS/ASPE, Administrative Costs Drive Foster Care Claims, FY2019–FY2023 (Feb. 2026): a productivity finding from HHS’s own analysis.