Unanimous state participation in national foster care improvement program

All 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico have pledged to increase the number of licensed foster homes in a unified effort under the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to an announcement Thursday.

“All 50 states joining this initiative sends a powerful message: America is ready to rally around children in foster care and the families who step forward for them,” ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams said in a statement.

The agency launched A Home for Every Child in November to “strengthen families, prioritize prevention and recruit and retain qualified foster families,” following President Donald Trump’s Fostering the Future executive order, according to an ACF news release.

“Every state has now joined the Trump administration’s A Home for Every Child initiative to move more children from foster care into safe, permanent homes,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “HHS is cutting red tape, strengthening families and helping states recruit more foster families so children spend less time waiting for a home.”

For every 100 children in foster care, only 57 licensed homes are available, according to the release. A Home for Every Child offers an alternative to the Program Improvement Plan (PIP) under the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs). Many foster care employees have complained that PIPs require tedious annual paperwork and pull essential caseworkers away from families.

“‘A Home for Every Child’ is not a federal mandate. It is a federal-state partnership,” Adams said in a May report from The Heritage Foundation. “States differ in size, geography, workforce constraints, court cultures and provider networks. Yet every state can improve one or both sides of this ratio: increasing the number of available homes or reducing the number of children who need them.”

Under the old PIP system, states report child welfare data from the previous year, and by the time the data is published, it is two years old, Adams explained in late April.

“I don’t know any leading business in this country that makes data-driven decisions based on data that’s two years out of date,” he said. “So, the bet we are making with states is: we’ll get off your back, we’ll cut red tape, we’ll give your case workers more time. But in exchange, I want more timely data, so we can see who’s doing well and who’s not doing well.”

Under the A Home for Every Child initiative, states will report foster care data monthly to ACF to provide more timely information, Adams explained. States will use data, technology and various policies to improve foster care capacity ratios, with the focus on “safe and timely permanency” for children, Adams said in the Heritage report.

“This reform represents a meaningful shift: It offers states the possibility of real relief from the cycle of penalties, often imposed by wide-ranging or fruitless PIP requirements, and allows them to focus on locally driven solutions that increase their numerator or reduce their denominator – or both,” Adams wrote in the report. “In short, it replaces compliance-oriented busywork with a practical, outcomes-focused strategy that truly supports children and families.”

By joining the initiative, states have pledged to improve their own ratio of foster homes to children, build bipartisan momentum to strengthen families and recruit foster families, according to the release. All 52 jurisdictions will compete in a yearlong Innovation Challenge running from October 2026 to September 2027. The states with the highest ratios of foster homes to children, and those showing the greatest improvement, will receive $7 million in cash awards. 

Before the Innovation Challenge begins, ACF will publish a public scorecard reporting each state and jurisdiction’s ratio monthly.

“The introduction of performance-based bonus awards raises the stakes in the right way, aligning incentives with what we know works,” Adams said. “I have seen first-hand how our A Home for Every Child initiative is helping states expand the number of safe, supportive homes, responsibly reduce entries into foster care and, most importantly, deliver real, lasting results for children. May the best state win and, most importantly, let’s work together so that all children win nationwide.”