Fostering the Future for American Children and Families

Key Points

• Trump directs Health and Human Services to improve foster care data, speed up reporting, and publish a yearly state “scorecard” so results are easier to compare.
• States are encouraged to update old computer systems and use tools like artificial intelligence to recruit foster parents and better match kids with caregivers.
• A new “Fostering the Future” effort aims to line up private partners to offer foster youth more education and job opportunities, plus an online site to point them to help like housing and mentoring.
• The order pushes to use leftover federal transition funds for schooling, job skills, and money management, and to make education vouchers work for short, career-focused programs too.
• It also tells the government to push back on state and local rules that block faith-based groups or religious families from foster care programs because of their beliefs.