Michigan has joined all 49 other states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico in a new federal initiative designed to improve the lives of children in foster care by increasing the number of licensed foster homes and strengthening support for families before crises lead to foster care placement.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced nationwide participation in A Home for Every Child, an initiative led by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The program seeks to increase the ratio of licensed foster homes to children in foster care while encouraging states to focus on measurable outcomes rather than lengthy federal reporting requirements.
Nationwide, there are only 57 licensed foster homes for every 100 children in foster care, according to HHS. Federal officials hope the initiative will encourage states to recruit and retain more foster families while also strengthening services that help families remain safely together whenever possible.
For child welfare leaders in Washtenaw County, however, the conversation extends well beyond simply finding more foster parents.
Prevention must be part of the conversation
Katie Page Sander, executive director of Hands Across The Water, an Ann Arbor nonprofit that recruits, trains, and supports foster, adoptive, and kinship families throughout Southeast Michigan, said one of the initiative’s most important goals has received far less public attention than its foster home recruitment efforts.
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“One of the core aims of the A Home for Every Child initiative that is not emphasized enough is the goal to reduce the need for foster homes by reducing the number of youth in foster care nationwide,” Page Sander said. “The best way to do this is to invest on a federal and state level in services that prevent child abuse and neglect, intervening and supporting families earlier to prevent the trauma of child maltreatment and the further trauma of separation in foster care. While we likely will always need some level of out-of-home care for youth to ensure safety, we should be looking at foster care as the ‘last resort.'”
She said increasing the number of licensed foster homes is only one piece of a much larger child welfare strategy.
“It’s about doing absolutely everything we can to avoid separation, then supporting the families who step forward for children and parents in their time of crisis if separation needs to happen,” she said.
That philosophy aligns with the initiative’s stated goal of not only recruiting foster families but also strengthening biological families through prevention services designed to reduce unnecessary entries into foster care.
A new federal approach
The federal initiative represents a significant change in how states will be evaluated.
Rather than requiring states to complete lengthy Program Improvement Plans following federal Child and Family Services Reviews, ACF will instead measure progress using a single benchmark: each state’s ratio of licensed foster homes to children in care.
“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 announcing the initiative. He said the department is focused on “cutting red tape, strengthening families, and helping states recruit more foster families so children spend less time waiting for a home.”
Beginning this fall, the federal government will publish a monthly public scorecard tracking each participating state’s progress. States will also compete for $7 million in Innovation Challenge awards based on having the highest ratios of foster homes to children in care or demonstrating the greatest improvement over the coming year.
Understanding the local need
Although foster care often receives attention during high-profile cases, Sander said many people simply do not understand how the system works or where help is needed.
“The biggest obstacles I see in recruiting and retaining foster homes is awareness,” she said. “Many people are not aware of the need in their community for temporary and longer-term care for youth of all ages. Many people assume that becoming licensed requires a very long-term commitment. They do not know there is a need for homes willing to provide emergency care over a weekend to prevent a youth from having to stay at a shelter while they wait for a relative to be approved, or to give another foster parent a break.”
She said there are opportunities for families with a wide variety of interests and availability.
“People don’t know that there is a need for homes for teens, sibling groups, school-aged children and infants alike,” Page Sander said. “They are not aware that in the absence of safe and willing homes, children often cycle from temporary placements, shelters and hospitals, often across county lines, creating more trauma and instability for youth.”
Those moves can separate children from their schools, friends, teachers and support networks, adding to the emotional challenges they already face.
The challenges foster families face
Recruiting new foster parents is only half the challenge, Sander said. Keeping experienced foster families engaged may be even more important.
“The system demands that foster families open themselves up to a lot of scrutiny and some level of a loss of privacy with requirements in place to ensure that children are safe and have all of their needs met, along with an opportunity to continue relationships with their biological families,” she said. “We ask a lot of families to care for children as their own while recognizing that the goal of foster care is to reunify the children with their families. That requires a very high level of emotional and family supports.”
The experience, she said, can be both deeply rewarding and emotionally difficult.
“The result is that fostering can be punctuated by profound loss, alongside profound joy, for the families involved,” Sander said.
Because of those realities, she believes supporting current foster families should be a top priority.
Why retention matters
As Michigan participates in the federal initiative, Sander hopes policymakers will invest as much in retaining experienced foster parents as they do in recruiting new ones.
“Continued emphasis on retaining families,” she said. “Providing excellent support and services to the families we currently have—or ones that may have closed due to frustration and who may be willing to reopen—is the best recruitment. Our experienced parents have so much to give and share, and they talk.”
She said word-of-mouth remains one of the strongest recruitment tools available.
“The bulk of our inquiries come from people who have a personal connection to someone who is involved in the foster care system—a friend, a neighbor, a teacher—and they find out about the need and the rewards through word of mouth,” she said.
Sander summarized her philosophy in a simple phrase.
“Retention is recruitment,” she said. “Unhappy foster parents tell other people about their bad experiences, and satisfied and supported foster parents tell people about their good experiences.”
Keeping children close to home
Sander said Michigan already tracks many of the measurements the federal government plans to make public.
“The state already tracks this very thing,” she said. “It is used as a guide for agencies to target recruitment efforts based on the types of children in care per county so that each county, in a perfect world, would be able to have multiple options for any child in need, and that child could remain in their neighborhood, school district, close to supports and familiar people.”
Making those numbers public, she added, could increase community awareness.
“Having the scorecard be public may help to build awareness about the need and hopefully drive increases of interested families to inquire,” she said.
A vision for Washtenaw County
Looking ahead, Sander hopes the initiative ultimately changes what happens to children experiencing family crises in communities such as Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County.
“Especially in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County, a community so rich in resources and supportive services and people who care about their community, we should never, ever, have to place a child in shelter even for one night,” she said. “In my 30 years working in child welfare, I have never witnessed a time when the families available either equal or outnumber the children we have who need a home. If in five years we are able to achieve that, that would be revolutionary.”
