How states can make the most of a new federal foster care initiative

A Home for Every Child, the nationwide initiative launched in late 2025 by the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, has an ambitious goal: It calls on every state to build its foster home capacity so that it exceeds the number of children in care. For most states, attaining that threshold will require significantly expanding the pool of safe homes through stronger kinship placement efforts, better caregiver retention, and, most critically, intentional recruitment. 

But foster care recruitment doesn’t end when a family raises its hand. That moment only marks the beginning of what can become a frustrating journey from inquiry to orientation, application, training, home study, background checks, approval, and first placement. Families may wait weeks or even months for a response, or repeatedly submit the same information across multiple forms, or sit in long queues with no progress in sight. At the same time, agency staff members often have to process applications without enough trained colleagues to handle the requests. And they may face inefficient or insufficient scheduling practices, home study capacity, background check support, supervisory review, or data visibility.

Increased recruitment activity in the form of more marketing, inquiries, or applications won’t matter if eligible families get stuck mid-process, or if overburdened caseworkers approve families who are ultimately unqualified. Meeting the goal set by A Home for Every Child will require states to close the gap between recruitment and capacity. Only then will they be able to move the right families forward quickly while preserving the safeguards that protect children.

A five-step framework for change

To build real placement capacity, many states will have to fundamentally retool their recruitment-to-licensure operating model so that families stay informed, engaged, and supported and can move through the process safely and efficiently. This redesign consists of five key steps.

1. Map the recruitment-to-licensure journey and assign ownership.

State agencies should document the full path from initial inquiry through orientation, application, training, home study, background checks, approval, first placement, and retention. This documentation should plainly identify who owns each step, what systems are involved, and what information is needed to proceed from one step to the next.

2. Track every transition to identify friction points.

Having mapped the overall journey toward licensure, agencies should now track each individual phase of that journey, from inquiry to placement, more closely. A practical approach is to start by zeroing in on one region, measuring cycle times and early exits, and speaking directly with families who recently completed or exited the process. That focused review can quickly reveal the highest-impact barriers delaying or discouraging qualified caregivers and can enable teams to test process changes and adjust practices before bottlenecks become embedded. Ultimately, this enhanced visibility will help agencies determine whether improvement efforts are actually boosting capacity over time.

3. Distinguish process-created barriers from federal compliance and safety obligations.

States should ground licensing-process redesign in a clear understanding of federal foster care requirements so that leaders can distinguish necessary child safety and compliance safeguards from fixable issues arising from duplicative paperwork, unclear local interpretation, unnecessary handoffs, outdated forms, and technology limitations. The goal of the redesign isn’t to lower standards but to simplify the path for qualified families while ensuring that the process remains safe and federally aligned.

4. Build transparency into every step of the user journey.

Once engaged in the licensure process, families shouldn’t have to guess what comes next. From the first contact, they should understand the full path ahead, what each step is intended to accomplish, what information they’ll need to provide, how long each stage should take, and where to go when they have questions. States should set response-time expectations, improve orientation and application supports, clarify escalation points, and give families a clear roadmap so that they feel welcomed, informed, respected, and confident enough to stay engaged through licensure.

5. Align capacity with actual need and readiness.

States must build capacity where it’s needed most and tie that capacity to operational readiness. This means setting recruitment goals that are based on staff’s ability to meet verified levels of need in specific areas, not on arbitrary targets. For example, teams should have a clear picture of special and priority placement needs in their state, including kinship caregivers, sibling homes, homes for teenagers, medically complex placements, youth with behavioral health needs, and youth requiring placement in a specific community. That clarity will help teams build the right capacity in the right places.

Targeted actions to enable scaling

Following this five-step framework can empower state child-welfare teams to make targeted moves like redesigning high-friction stages, testing clearer communication routines, clarifying decision authority, creating simple pipeline dashboards, or strengthening recruitment-to-licensing handoffs. That helps leaders learn quickly, demonstrate progress, and build a repeatable improvement model that can be scaled statewide.

The opportunity before states is significant. While A Home for Every Child should push the field to recruit more families, recruitment alone won’t close the gap. To meet the goal set by this landmark federal initiative, states must build an operating model that seamlessly connects recruitment, licensing, family preparation, matching, and retention. That model must be able to handle greater volume, preserve safety, improve families’ experience, and ensure that licensed homes become active, supported, and placement-ready resources for the children and youth that foster care programs are meant to serve.