U.S. administration launches ‘A Home for Every Child’ initiative

From the Imprint–Within days of the White House announcing its intent to make foster care a major focus, on Monday, President Donald Trump’s top child welfare appointee announced his plan to help realize the administration’s goals: An initiative titled A Home for Every Child.

The federal Administration for Children and Families, led by Alex Adams, made the announcement in a one-page press release that sets a goal of “achieving a foster home-to-child ratio greater than 1:1 in every state.” That would amount to nearly doubling the nation’s current foster home capacity, which the press release — linking to state-by-state data collected by The Imprint — places at 57 licensed foster homes for every 100 children and youth in foster care.

The statement clarifies that this goal will not be achieved though foster parent recruitment and retention alone. Rather, it will “focus on both sides of the equation,” by simultaneously aiming to reduce the number of children removed from their families. That means “reducing entries into foster care” through prevention programs and prioritizing recruitment of kinship caregivers. It also means finding “faster pathways” for children to leave foster care and move into permanent homes.

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