Tribal Court Improvement Program | HHS 2023 ACF ACYF CS 0053

Opportunity Information: Apply for HHS 2023 ACF ACYF CS 0053

The Tribal Court Improvement Program is a discretionary federal grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Children’s Bureau, aimed at strengthening how tribal courts and legal representatives handle child welfare-related cases. The program is designed for tribes and tribal consortia that want to improve the effectiveness, consistency, and overall quality of tribal court proceedings and legal advocacy in matters involving child welfare, family preservation, family reunification, guardianship, and adoption. At its core, the opportunity supports tribal court-led projects that assess current court practices, identify gaps or barriers, and then put practical improvements in place so children and families experience faster, fairer, and more informed outcomes.

A central requirement of this grant is that tribal courts must engage in “meaningful, ongoing collaboration” with tribal social service agencies throughout the work. That collaboration is not framed as optional or occasional coordination; it is presented as a continuous partnership where courts and social services work together to align case practices, share information appropriately, improve decision-making, and reduce delays that can undermine child safety and permanency. The emphasis on collaboration reflects how child welfare cases depend on both the legal process and the service system, and the grant is clearly intended to encourage joint problem-solving rather than isolated court reforms.

The funded work is organized around four broad goals. First, grantees are expected to conduct assessments of how their tribal courts currently handle child welfare proceedings. This can include reviewing court processes, timelines, hearing quality, court orders, case tracking, and the experiences of children, parents, caregivers, and professionals involved in the cases. Second, the program supports implementing changes based on the assessment findings, meaning the assessment is intended to lead directly to concrete reforms rather than ending as a report. Third, the grant seeks to help courts ensure that children’s safety, permanency, and well-being needs are addressed in a timely and complete way, which typically involves reducing unnecessary delays, improving oversight of case plans and service delivery, and strengthening how the court monitors progress toward reunification, guardianship, or adoption when appropriate. Fourth, the program places strong attention on continuous quality improvement in both court hearings and legal representation, including better engagement of all parties; this points to improving how hearings are conducted, how prepared participants are, how clearly expectations are set, and how effectively attorneys or advocates represent the interests of children and families.

In practical terms, this opportunity can support tribal courts in building or refining court improvement strategies such as updating procedures, strengthening caseflow management, improving data collection and use, enhancing training for judges and court staff, improving access to qualified legal representation, and creating structures that help parties participate meaningfully in proceedings. The focus on “legal representation” indicates the funding can be used not only for court operations but also for improvements tied to counsel performance, availability, coordination, and quality in child welfare cases, as long as the work aligns with the program’s child welfare outcomes and improvement goals.

The opportunity is listed under Funding Opportunity Number HHS-2023-ACF-ACYF-CS-0053 and is associated with CFDA (now often referred to as Assistance Listing) 93.586, within the broad activity area of Income Security and Social Services. Eligible applicants include federally recognized Native American tribal governments as well as Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments), which allows participation by certain tribal entities and consortia structures depending on how they are organized and authorized. The award ceiling is $150,000 per award, with an anticipated total of 7 awards, indicating a competitive funding environment with relatively modest per-award funding intended to catalyze targeted improvements, pilots, or structured capacity-building efforts rather than large-scale system overhauls.

Key administrative details include the original closing date of June 15, 2023, with electronic submissions required by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date. Overall, the program is best understood as a focused investment in strengthening tribal child welfare justice outcomes by helping tribal courts examine their current practices, partner closely with tribal social service agencies, make informed changes, and continuously improve how decisions are made and how children and families are represented and engaged throughout the court process.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families - ACYF/CB in the income security and social services sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Tribal Court Improvement Program" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.586.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 17, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 15, 2023 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 pm Eastern Standard Time on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $150,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 7 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments).

Apply for HHS 2023 ACF ACYF CS 0053

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