Montana to join Trump’s ‘A Home for Every Child’ initiative

Micah Drew

(Daily Montanan) Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte announced on Monday the state will be the 25th participant in a national collaboration seeking to strengthen the foster care system.

According to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, there are 1,749 children in foster care around the state, down from more than 3,300 in early 2021, when Gianforte took office.

At an earlier roundtable discussion about foster care last month, Gianforte said his administration has prioritized encouraging adoption and reunifying families when possible.

“Reaching this milestone is remarkable, but there’s more work to be done in this partnership,” Gianforte said in a press conference.

In a joint press conference with Assistant Secretary Alex Adams with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, Gianforte said participation will build on the state’s success in reducing the number of kids in foster care.

The federal initiative stems from an executive order President Donald J. Trump issued last November, “Fostering the Future for American Children and Families.” The initiative seeks to increase the ratio of foster homes to children in the foster care system, to ensure that for every child who enters foster care, a licensed foster home or kinship placement is available.

Nationwide, there are only 57 homes for every 100 foster children in the system, Adams said during the press conference.

“When we don’t have enough homes, it’s not just a math problem,” Adams said. “Kids get placed in government offices, Airbnbs, hotels, and other locations that are not conducive to safe, stable, loving family that all children deserve. There’s two ways to increase the ratio of foster homes to foster kids, first is to recruit and retain more foster homes.

“Secondly, and most importantly, it’s to shrink the number of kids coming into foster care in the first place. And that can be done through effective prevention, faith-based partnerships, things that, frankly, Montana has been a national leader on, and other states would be wise to emulate.”

In Montana, the current ratio of homes per foster child is on par with national figures — .57 homes per child — which means the state needs to recruit approximately 700 foster families or providers. The governor didn’t note how the ratio has trended in the last few years but said improvement is expected with the partnership.

But Gianforte said the state was committed to efforts to:

• expand recruitment and retention of licensed foster families
• increase kinship placements by reducing barriers for extended family members and trusted adults to become licensed caregivers
• help families address challenges before entry into the foster care becomes necessary, and
• and streamline licensing processes to minimize delays in placement of children in qualified homes.

Gianforte highlights Montana efforts to improve foster system

Last week, Gianforte held a roundtable discussion in Kalispell to highlight efforts his administration has made to bolster Montana families and reduce the number of kids in the foster care system roughly by half since he took office.

The governor in 2022 established the Office of Faith and Community Based Services within DPHHS to support foster and adoptive families through faith and community organizations, to prioritize finding, training and connecting foster families with resources to successfully foster children who have suffered abuse and neglect.

In addition to the governor’s efforts, the 2023 Legislature passed a bill establishing an adoption tax credit, carried by Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, which provides a credit of $5,000 or $7,500 if a child is adopted within Montana, to encourage and support Montanans with adopted children.

At the press conference, Adams said the 25 states involved in the national program will begin monthly reporting of 10 data points through a public dashboard. The primary metric will show how each state is progressing in its foster home to kids ratio, with additional measures that outline how a state is accomplishing its goals. That, he said, will be a big departure from currently published data that is about two years out of date by the time it is publicly released.

Some of the metrics will be developed by the state to focus on specific priorities for Montana.

For example, Gianforte said that in Montana, around 40% of foster care children are Native Americans, which provides a “unique focus” for Montana as it looks to improve its program that other states might not have.

In 2023, the Montana legislature passed a bill that aims to ensure Native children stay connected to their culture child welfare cases

DPHHS Director Charlie Brereton said during the press conference that the launch of the federal partnership is “perfectly timed” to give the department an opportunity to focus on “outcome-driven improvements” in the foster care system, and that it plans to submit its improvement plan in the next few weeks.

At DPHHS, Brereton said the child welfare goals are “straightforward.”

“We want to keep children safely at home to the extent possible,” he said. “We want to minimize the time that they spend in foster care, and we also seek to prioritize swift, lasting permanency. We know children thrive best when they can remain safely at home with their families, and a big part of making that a reality is ensuring that they have immediate access to preventive, life-changing services. ‘A Home for Every Child’ focuses our improvement work on the real-time outcomes that matter most, that is, the foster home-to-child ratio, kinship placements, safety, and permanency.”

Part of the federal initiative’s goal is creating a public-facing reporting system that will clearly show which states are doing well and can be a model for others, as well as provide a bit of a competitive atmosphere, Adams said.

“Based on everything I’ve seen in this state, this is a state that is well run, and I would not be surprised if other states are looking to Montana as a model,” Adams said.

“And if we see another state turning in great results, we’re going to steal their best ideas,” Gianforte added.