Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant

The Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant provides core funding to California to improve the health and well-being of mothers, infants, children and youth, including children with special health care needs and their families. The Title V Block Grant is federally administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau (HRSA) . Authorized under the Title V of the 1935 Federal Social Security Act, Title V was converted to a Block Grant Program in 1981.

About Title V in California

California by the numbers. As of February 2025, California is the most diverse population. Out of 39.2 million people, 64.5% are people of color or Hispanic ethnicity and 27.3% are foreign-born. 16.7% of children and youth ages 0-17 have special health care needs. California had 400,129 annual births with 230 birthing facilities. 40.7% are Medi-Cal paid deliveries and 9.2% preterm births. 61 local health jurisdictions.

The California Title V Program is administered by the Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health (MCAH) Division of the California Department of Public Health. MCAH provides Title V funding to 61 Local Health Jurisdictions, which play a critical role in the collaborative development of priorities and strategies that drive the MCAH mission. In addition to Local MCAH, Title V supports a variety of other programs such as the Black Infant Health Program (BIH), the Cal-InSPIRE and the Adolescent Family Life Program (AFLP). MCAH collaborates with partners to support additional programmatic efforts in areas including oral health, trauma and violence prevention, communicable diseases, genetic diseases, nutrition support, health care delivery, adolescent sexual health, maternal and perinatal quality of care, developmental screening and others.

The conceptual framework for the services of the Title V MCAH Block Grant is envisioned as a pyramid with three tiers of services and levels of funding that provide comprehensive services for mothers, adolescents and children. The California Title V Program is also grounded on several evidence based guiding frameworks including but not limited to Social Determinants of Health , Health Equity , and Ten Essential Services of Public Health .

Needs Assessment

Every five years California is required to complete a comprehensive needs assessment on the health and well-being of the populations we serve. To support this effort, each local health jurisdiction (LHJ) completes a local needs assessment and uses the results to plan local programs. CDPH/MCAH then integrates the findings into California’s needs assessment process which in total is a two-year process.

This year marks the submission of a new California Five-Year Action Plan. CDPH/MCAH conducted its Title V statewide needs assessment from August 2023 through March 2025. The state needs assessment consisted of the following phases:

Local Needs Assessment conducted by all 61 LHJs (August 2023 – July 2024)
Local Needs Assessment Analysis (July – August 2024)
Statewide Population Data Scan (August – October 2024)
State-Level Partner Engagement (December 2024 – March 2025)

CDPH/MCAH acknowledges and thanks the LHJs for their extensive work to assess the needs of the MCAH populations at the local level, and the input received from all partners at the local and state level during this process. The new action plan is outlined in the 2025-26 Application Narratives.

Last Application and Annual Report

Each year, the MCAH Division of the California Department of Public Health reports on the State’s Title V Block Grant program plans, management, measurement of progress and accounting for the costs of the State efforts. The reports are submitted annually. California’s most recent submission can be found at the following links from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau: