Departmental Transformation Helping Reduce Number of Children Entering Foster Care

Now in its third year of a planned transformation, the County's Child and Family Well-Being department has widened the range of resources available to help families thrive.

Following approval by the Board of Supervisors in 2023, the former Child Welfare Services began to integrate multiple child and family serving systems, including First 5 San Diego, Child Welfare Services and other Health and Human Services Agency programs, under the Child and Family Well-Being umbrella.

"These last few years have been a time of reflection, learning and taking action," said Alfredo Guardado, director of Child and Family Well-Being. "We're grateful to our community partners, staff and former foster youth and families who have helped us address ways in which we can support families in creating safe environments for children to thrive."

Building on last year's successes, the ongoing transformation is focused on prevention and supportive services so that families can get help early before foster care is needed.

Over the last 24 months, the number of children needing foster care decreased by 25 percent. As of July of 2025, about 1,985 children were in Child and Family Well-Being's care compared with 2,633 two years ago.

Also, by focusing on keeping families together, the number of children placed with relatives instead of foster families increased by 11 percent.

In December 2024, Child and Family Well-Being started the Family Connection Hub. The new hub is a tailored approach to guide families who are struggling to get the services they need, such as childcare referrals and eviction services. So far, more than 100 families have been connected to parenting education, behavioral health services, case management, assistance with basic needs and more.

Child and Family Well-Being has also expanded the Fostering Academic Success in Education or FASE program in partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education. FASE provides extra support to youth in foster care by placing social workers at schools to provide a full range of support services to students.

These support services include things like identifying any special needs, advocating for students, addressing concerns connected to behavior and absenteeism and check-ins with caregivers and teachers. The extra support has helped youth stay more involved, improved the stability of their home placements and increased the rate of high school graduation

Over the past two years, increased staffing efforts have significantly strengthened the department's ability to serve children and families more effectively. These efforts have allowed Child and Family Well-Being to staff critical non-case carrying positions that support foster youth in the program, bolster prevention initiatives, expand community engagement activities, prioritize placing youth with family members, enhance relational permanency efforts and resume essential coaching roles.

By investing in these key areas, Child and Family Well-Being is enhancing best practices, improving outcomes for families and providing stronger support to staff.

To better serve youth and improve the quality of care of children in foster care, Child and Family Well-Being in partnership with Behavioral Health Services has developed a plan for a first of its kind in San Diego Children's Crisis Residential Program. The Crisis Residential Program will greatly improve our ability to serve youth in our community who have complex behavioral health needs.

Transformation Built over Years

While the transformation started two years ago, it was built on significant reforms to Child and Family Well-Being that began years earlier.

In 2018, a work group that included community advocates and former foster youth was brought together to review policies, practices, procedures and organizational culture at the County's then-Child Welfare Services. At that time, the County had 3,218 youth with an open case.

The group identified three goals:

• To improve the well-being and outcomes for all children and families who enter the foster care system.
• To enhance the performance of workers.
• To build trust in the community.

The group made 88 recommendations to the Board of Supervisors. Over the course of three years, all 88 recommendations were completed. Among those was the creation of a new review body to advise and inform the department.

That Child and Family Strengthening Advisory Board includes County Supervisors as co-chairs and 25 members - such as people with lived experience in the foster care system, social workers, legal partners and service providers - to improve transparency and accountability.

Other recommendations put in place included expanded training for social workers on things like implicit bias and leadership skills and expanded mentorship opportunities for newer staff. For hiring and retention, the department increased its focus on improved diversity. Also prioritized training built around antiracism and equity to address the overrepresentation of Black and Native American families in the child welfare system.

New processes were put in place to include the voices of former foster youth and prevention work planning efforts were put in place to expand resources and programs for families that would keep them from entering the child welfare system in the first place.

The response to requests for greater transparency now include a monthly dashboard and all the department's policies posted on its website as well as annual reports so the public and advocates can continue to monitor this very important family-focused program.