15 Jurisdictions Commit to ACF Effort to Close Foster Home Gap – A Home for Every Child

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced that 14 states and the District of Columbia have joined A Home for Every Child , a bipartisan initiative to increase the number of licensed foster homes relative to children in care. The coalition formed within the program's first five months. Nationwide, there are 57 licensed foster homes for every 100 children in care, a gap the initiative aims to close.

Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia have each committed to organizing their child welfare systems around that single national metric. Oklahoma was the first state to join in February and the first to have its Program Improvement Plan (PIP) approved by ACF. Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Kentucky have also already had their new PIPs negotiated and approved.

"The ratio of homes to children functions as a north star, not a checkbox," said Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams. "We have built this metric within a broader framework so states will now meaningfully pursue improving this ratio while tracking permanency outcomes, kinship placement rates, and prevention services in tandem - because a high ratio means little if children are cycling through placements or aging out without permanent families. The Trump administration is grateful to the bipartisan group of Governors who have acted quickly and signed on to A Home for Every Child, and we are eager for the next cohort of states to join."

A Home for Every Child changes how federal oversight operates by shifting how states set and meet goals. As ACF's latest Program Improvement Plan (PIP) guidance outlines, rather than negotiating a PIP that exceeds 60 pages in many cases, each state works directly with ACF to develop metrics tailored to the state in hopes of producing real outcomes. PIPs, long criticized as punitive busywork that pulled caseworkers away from families, are now a vehicle for clear expectations, state innovation, and shared accountability.

"Delaware is excited to join A Home for Every Child," said Steven Yeatman, secretary of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families. "Our department is eager to implement reforms that will serve the needs of children and families first, like creating new ways to expand foster care, particularly through kinship, so that every child has a safe, loving home."

Launched last November, A Home for Every Child advances President Donald Trump's and First Lady Melania Trump's Executive Order, Fostering the Future for American Children and Families , which directs a whole-of-government effort to strengthen foster care systems, expand opportunity for youth transitioning to adulthood, and enhance coordination across federal, state, and community partners. In the coming months, and in compliance with that order, ACF will release a public scorecard displaying each state's metrics, including the foster home-to-child ratio, making this data available at the national level for the first time.

Together, we aim to strengthen services that help families stay safely together whenever possible, and ensure every child has a loving and safe place to call home.