Federal Government Spent $32,686 Per Child Welfare Check While Losing Contact With 85,000 Kids

Investigation by Project Milk Carton

Federal Government Spent $32,686 Per Child Welfare Check While Losing Contact With 85,000 Kids

Investigation reveals cost overruns up to 13 times industry standard as HHS failed to track whereabouts of children in its care

By Project Milk Carton | January 24, 2026

The federal government's program to verify safe homes for unaccompanied migrant children spent over $1.1 billion between 2020 and 2024—enough to conduct 455,000 home studies at industry rates. Instead, officials completed just 34,812 checks, while losing contact with more than 85,000 children.

A Project Milk Carton investigation into the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) Home Study and Post-Release Services program reveals an implied cost of $32,686 per home study conducted—between 6.5 and 13 times higher than the $2,500 to $5,000 industry standard for comparable child welfare assessments.

Why This Matters

The Department of Health and Human Services awarded $1.138 billion in Home Study and Post-Release Services contracts during a five-year period when the agency admitted it could not locate tens of thousands of migrant children released to sponsors. Congressional testimony in April 2023 documented that HHS lost contact with 85,000-plus children during 30-day follow-up calls between fiscal years 2021 and 2023.

The math raises urgent questions: If home studies cost $2,500 to $5,000 in the private adoption and foster care sectors, why did the federal program's funding imply costs six to thirteen times higher? And what services did children receive for this money when HHS couldn't even confirm their whereabouts?

The Money Trail

Total UAC program funding ballooned from $999 million in fiscal year 2020 to $2.87 billion in fiscal year 2024—a 187% increase. Within that larger budget, Home Study and Post-Release Services funding grew even faster:

• FY2020: $29.7 million

• FY2021: $60.1 million (102% increase)

• FY2022: $172.3 million (187% increase)

• FY2023: $251.9 million (46% increase)

• FY2024: $624.1 million (148% increase)

Ten contractors received the bulk of this funding. The top recipient, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, collected $150.3 million across eight awards. BCFS Health and Human Services received $118.1 million through 28 awards. Southwest Key Programs, which has collected roughly $6 billion in federal UAC funds since 2007 according to the New York Times, received $46.8 million for home study and post-release services.

What Children Actually Received

Official HHS statistics show the agency conducted 34,812 home studies between fiscal years 2020 and 2024. Post-release services referrals totaled 229,915 children during fiscal years 2021 through 2024.

If the $1.138 billion went solely toward home studies, the implied cost per study is $32,686—more than the annual cost of in-state tuition at many public universities. If the funding covered both home studies and post-release services combined, the per-case cost drops to $4,298, which falls at the high end of industry norms but remains defensible.

HHS does not publicly report cost-per-case data, making it impossible to determine which scenario reflects reality.

Meanwhile, the agency's own Inspector General documented systemic failures in February 2024:

• 16% of case files lacked documentation of required safety checks

• 19% of children were released while FBI fingerprint and background checks remained pending

• 22% of cases did not receive timely Safety and Well-Being Follow-Up Calls

• 18% of follow-up calls were never documented

When questioned by the House Oversight Committee in April 2023, ORR Director Robin Dunn Marcos could not answer questions about the 85,000-plus children HHS lost contact with and did not dispute the figure when pressed by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ).

Follow The Contracts

The top contractors experienced explosive revenue growth during the border surge years:

Investigation data visualization

BCFS Health and Human Services(EIN: 74-1260710) saw revenue spike from $537 million in fiscal year 2019 to $4.4 billion in fiscal year 2021—a 408% increase in a single year. Revenue then collapsed 91%, dropping to $246 million by fiscal year 2023.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service(EIN: 13-2574854) grew from $52 million in revenue in 2017 to $233 million in 2023—a 347% increase. The organization's CEO salary more than doubled during the same period, rising from $286,956 to $602,375.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants(EIN: 13-1878704) increased revenue 316% between 2019 and 2023, from $70 million to $292 million.

These nonprofits function as government contractors, with 95-99% of revenue coming from federal grants rather than private donations. The largest also serve as pass-through organizations, distributing hundreds of millions to subcontractors. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service alone passed through $248 million across 197 subawards.

The Accountability Gap

A Government Accountability Office report from November 2024 found that the Office of Refugee Resettlement failed to meet its own monitoring goals, with 24 facilities in Texas and Florida overdue for quarterly monitoring visits. Of nine prior GAO recommendations, only five had been fully addressed.

The agency does not publicly track:

• Actual cost per home study performed

• Cost per post-release services case by service level

• Outcomes for children who received services versus those who did not

• Reconciliation between funding awarded and services delivered

HHS has reportedly stonewalled Freedom of Information Act requests for data on the "lost" children.

What Happens Next

The investigation identifies three immediate actions:

Congress should request a GAO audit specifically examining cost-per-case data and contractor billing practices. The HHS Inspector General should review whether contractors billed for services to children the agency lost contact with. The IRS should examine executive compensation patterns at organizations reporting nine-figure revenues almost entirely from government grants.

At industry-standard rates of $2,500 per home study, the $1.138 billion in funding could have paid for 455,215 comprehensive safety checks. At $5,000 per study, the funding should have covered 227,608 cases.

The government reported completing 34,812 home studies. The math demands an explanation for where the difference went—and why 85,000 children disappeared from HHS tracking while contractors' revenues and executive salaries soared.

SOURCES

This investigation analyzed USASpending.gov prime award and subaward data for CFDA program 93.676 (Unaccompanied Alien Children), fiscal years 2020-2025; IRS Form 990 filings from ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer; official statistics from ACF.gov/ORR; HHS Office of Inspector General report "Gaps in Sponsor Screening and Followup Raise Safety Concerns for Unaccompanied Children" (February 2024); Government Accountability Office report GAO-25-107840 (November 2024); and House Oversight Committee hearing transcripts from April 2023. Industry cost comparisons drawn from AdoptUSKids.org, Bethany.org, and AmericanAdoptions.com. Full source documentation available in the original investigation report.

Project Milk Carton
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