This past Wednesday, Governor Greg Abbott announced that Texas is joining the Trump Administration’s “A Home for Every Child” initiative, reflecting ongoing efforts by the state to ensure that foster children have access to safe, stable, and loving homes.
The announcement was made by Abbott alongside the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Commissioner Audrey O’Neill and the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams.
“Texas is honored to join the Trump Administration in its mission to ensure every child in foster care has a real chance at a permanent, loving home,” Abbott said. “By eliminating unnecessary rules and regulations, we will help more children find stability and hope. Together with our federal partners, we will deliver better outcomes for children in our foster care system.”
Launched by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through ACF, the “A Home for Every Child” initiative supports Trump’s Executive Order “Fostering the Future for American Children and Families.”
The initiative’s goal is to ensure that there is a greater than 1:1 home-to-child ratio across participating states by creating a licensed foster home or kinship placement for every child who enters foster care.
National shortages of licensed foster homes have created barriers to stability and connection for children within the system. There has long been concern regarding the fact that children are often forced to move to homes far away from where they grew up, thus losing connections to families, friends, and familiar environments.
Texas wishes to reverse these trends through strategic recruitment, expansion of kinship support, and the removal of “unnecessary obstacles that discourage qualified families from becoming foster parents.”
One of the primary goals of the initiative is to remove “red-tape” barriers that prevent extended family members and trusted adults in the child’s life from being able to become licensed caregivers. The initiative also wishes to “streamline the licensing process” and strengthen family preservation services that allow families to address challenges before the child is removed from their care.
However, there is some resistance to measures that make removing children from their homes less difficult.
When state lawmakers increased the bar for removal, which authorized the state to take children from their homes only if they were in “immediate danger” as opposed to “substantial risk of harm,” it led to fewer children being removed from their homes even if they were experiencing neglect, abuse, and other traumatic experiences.
Therefore, children who finally did enter the foster care system suffered from greater mental and social problems than they would have had they been removed when a government entity was first called upon to question the state of their well-being.
There are also considerable risks in leniency when it comes to certifying foster parents. Former ACF Assistant Secretary Lynn Johnson stated: “When we place a child into a foster home that is not a good fit, we make it more likely that the child will have to be moved, that the child will be further traumatized and act out in his or her next home…” However, the significantly low number of foster homes available might be causing more damage than would be caused were certain restrictions and regulations more lax.
Ultimately, it is hoped that this initiative will benefit Texas foster children and help make the foster care system more functional, supportive, and safe.