The federal government doesn’t have enough homes for kids in the foster care system. Not even close. For every 100 children in foster care across the United States, there are only 57 licensed foster homes available. The rest get placed in hotels, Airbnbs, and group settings that child welfare experts describe as known locations of vulnerability.
The Trump administration has recruited 14 states and the District of Columbia to join “A Home for Every Child,” a new initiative run through HHS’s Administration for Children and Families. The program’s goal: get that ratio to one-to-one.
“When we don’t have enough homes for those children, they get placed in non-traditional settings that are not conducive to long-term growth and development of the child,” said Assistant Secretary Alex Adams in an interview with The Daily Wire. “So we need to increase nationally the ratio of homes to kids.”
States enrolled so far include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Iowa, and Washington D.C. Oklahoma joined first, back in February, and became the first to have its Program Improvement Plan approved by the Administration for Children and Families. Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kentucky quickly followed.
The program builds on an executive order First Lady Melania Trump backed in November, the Fostering the Future Executive Order, which directed agencies to improve foster care outcomes. This new HHS initiative is the operational arm of that order.
States participating will submit data to HHS far more frequently than required under the old system, giving federal officials a real-time look at which states are closing the gap. Public scorecards showing each state’s foster home-to-child ratio will be released in the coming months.
One notable dimension of the initiative is how it addresses the role of religious families in foster care. Under the Biden administration, foster parent applicants in some states were screened out for holding traditional Christian views on gender ideology. Vermont blocked families with orthodox religious beliefs from fostering even as the state faced a desperate shortage of homes.
The Administration for Children and Families said it expects additional states to join the initiative in the coming months.
