This bill, titled the STRONG Support for Children Act of 2025, seeks to amend the Public Health Service Act by establishing two distinct grant programs designed to prevent and mitigate childhood trauma resulting from adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). The first program authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to up to five eligible entities, such as State or local health departments, to develop and implement programs that utilize data analysis. These programs will identify geographic areas with a high prevalence of ACEs and significant risk factors for poor child outcomes, and then facilitate early intervention and prevention strategies.

The data analysis methods will pinpoint specific areas based on indicators like poor public health outcomes, exclusionary discipline practices, substance use disorders, poverty, housing instability, and various forms of inequity. Once identified, the grants will support the implementation of strategies to improve outcomes for children aged 0 through 17, building on existing community strengths and enhancing connections to community-based organizations. These strategies include providing reparative, gender-responsive, culturally specific, and trauma-informed prevention services, such as home visiting programs, parenting skills training, mental health supports, and economic assistance.

Special rules for these grants include prioritizing entities that use community-based system dynamic modeling for data analysis and requiring grantees to subgrant at least 25% of funds to organizations implementing identified strategies. Importantly, the bill prohibits using grant funds to inform individual case decisions, mandate participation in services, increase law enforcement involvement, or fund conversion therapy. Grants are capped at $9.5 million over seven years and require services to be provided without regard to ability to pay, health condition, immigration status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or prior criminal legal system involvement.

The second grant program focuses on establishing or expanding trauma-informed care coordination services for children aged 0 through 5 at risk of ACEs and their caregivers, including prenatal individuals. The Secretary will award between 9 and 40 grants, ranging from $250,000 to $1,000,000, to local governments or Indian Tribes. Priority will be given to communities demonstrating high need, based on indicators such as barriers to prenatal care, high rates of community violence, low-income populations, and housing instability.

Funds from these care coordination grants must be used to establish or expand gender-responsive, culturally specific, and trauma-informed services, including risk and needs assessments and staff training. Permissible uses include employing care coordinators, expanding community networks, compiling resource information, and supporting cross-system collaboration among various service providers. Services must be accessible to low-income and rural individuals, with at least 50% of care coordination occurring in convenient community settings like homes and schools.

Similar to the first program, these grants prohibit using data analysis for individual case decisions, requiring participation in services, or increasing law enforcement presence. Both grant programs mandate comprehensive evaluations by the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, including assessments of data model accuracy and overall program effectiveness, with reports submitted to Congress and made publicly available. The bill authorizes appropriations of $47.5 million for the data analysis grants and $15 million annually for five years for the care coordination grants, with a portion reserved for Indian Tribes.