ACF Marks 180 Days of Action on First Lady Melania Trump’s Executive Order on Fostering the Future for American Children and Families

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today marked 180 days of successful implementation of President Donald J. Trump's and First Lady Melania Trump's Executive Order (EO) Fostering the Future for American Children and Families .

Over the last six months, ACF, in partnership with the Office of the First Lady and guided by youth voices, modernized child welfare systems, developed a prototype platform for foster youth aging out of care, and maximized partnerships with faith-based communities ready to care for America's foster children.

"First Lady Melania Trump has catalyzed more action in child welfare over the last six months than we have seen in decades," said ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams. "Bipartisan momentum is growing to end the orphan tax, red and blue states are joining A Home for Every Child, and Congress is advancing landmark legislation to support foster youth. ACF is grateful for the First Lady's leadership, and with this momentum, I am confident child welfare outcomes will be meaningfully improved for generations to come."

As the nation recognizes National Foster Care Awareness Month this May, ACF highlights key achievements in EO implementation over the last 180 days:

Modernizing Child Welfare Systems for Better Outcomes

Launching A Home for Every Child : Following the Nov. 13, 2025, Executive Order on Fostering the Future for American Children and Families, ACF launched A Home for Every Child to reduce unnecessary reporting requirements, restore decision-making authority to states, and incentivize better data sharing-with the goal of increasing the ratio of foster homes to children in foster care. Nearly 20 states have joined, including Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Protecting Social Security Survivor Benefits for Foster Youth: On Dec. 11, 2025, the Trump administration sent letters urging states to take immediate action to prevent the diversion of Social Security survivor benefits intended for foster youth after the loss of a parent. Nine states have since answered the Trump administration's call: Alabama, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, Utah, and Washington. These states joined the 12 jurisdictions that had already ended the practice, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Increasing Transparency Through Data with New Dashboard: On Jan. 26, 2026, ACF unveiled a first-of-its kind public dashboard to show state-by-state performance data on critical child safety and permanency outcomes, creating new levels of accountability and transparency. The dashboard provides cross-state comparison data that will help child welfare jurisdictions scale best practices.

Advancing Technology and Innovation through ACF's Child Welfare Technology Incubator: On Feb. 23, 2026, ACF, announced the Child Welfare Technology Incubator to help states' overcome persistent challenges in the development and implementation of Comprehensive Child Welfare Information Systems (CCWIS). The Technology Incubator supports CCWIS modernization efforts and moves ACF away from traditional federal oversight to a more active, federal-state collaboration that unlocks innovation and improves outcomes for children and families.

Expanding the Use of Predictive Analytics: ACF convened stakeholders from 20 states to discuss the use of predictive risk modeling to decrease the number of children entering foster care and subsequently published an issue brief (PDF) on the topic.

Cutting Unnecessary Red Tape: To streamline the work of child welfare agencies, ACF rescinded 8,923 pages of unnecessary sub-regulatory guidance pertaining to the Children's Bureau, representing a 63 percent reduction in documents. ACF also streamlined the Annual Progress & Service Report from requiring more than 250 pages to five pages, a 98 percent reduction.

Fostering the Future Programs and Opportunities

Creating a New Fostering the Future Digital Platform: Guided by direct input from youth with lived experience and state child welfare directors, ACF has begun launching a new Fostering the Future online platform that leverages artificial intelligence to connect youth transitioning out of foster care with critical resources for education, housing, and career development. The new digital platform, FosteringTheFuture.gov , has been shaped at every stage of development by youth with foster care experiences through a series of roundtables and design sessions. It is expected to fully launch in fall 2026.

Interagency Collaboration to Develop Youth-Informed Housing Solutions: In collaboration with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, ACF participated in roundtable events in in San Antonio, Texas ; Denver, Colorado ; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to discuss practical solutions to housing-related barriers encountered by foster youth and families.

Interagency Collaboration to Increase Paid Parental Leave for Foster Families: In collaboration with the Office of Personnel Management, the Trump administration published a paid family leave memo providing additional support and guidance on how federal employees can access paid parental leave when fostering or adopting.

Maximizing Partnerships with Americans of Faith

Encouraging Foster Family Licensing Reform: ACF sent letters to 13 states that had policies and procedures that deny qualified foster and adoptive parents the opportunity to become licensed because they cannot affirm a hypothetical child's self-proclaimed gender-identity. Correspondence urged revision of these policies to ensure that no qualified family is excluded from fostering solely on the basis of their sincerely held religious beliefs. Both Massachusetts and Vermont changed policies, and in collaboration with the Office for Civil Rights, ACF is pursuing next steps for the other 11 states.

Defending Biological Reality and Parental Rights in Child Welfare: On March 3, ACF sent letters to all 50 states reminding them that children should not be removed from their homes solely because parents decline to support a child's self-identification as the opposite sex. The letter reinforced that state child welfare agencies must base child removal decisions on objective evidence of abuse or imminent risk of harm under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA). It also warned states not to interpret federal definitions too broadly in ways that infringe on parental rights or lead to unnecessary foster placements by removing children for reasons that do not constitute abuse and neglect.

Information Memorandum on Foster Family Licensing Standards: ACF published new model licensing standards to recognize kin-specific licensure and remove red tape that was deterring foster families from stepping forward, while maintaining strong standards to ensure quality.