A New National Push for Innovation — and Objectivity — for Children in Foster Care  

It’s rare to hear a hopeful sense of urgency from a government official about foster care. And yet that’s what seems to be bursting out of my phone as I talk with Alex Adams, the head of the Administration for Children and Families under the Department of Health and Human Services.  

He’s talking with me exclusively about ACF’s new “A Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge” being announced today. The competition is incentive to get states to improve their ratios of foster homes to children in foster care now.   

The new “performance-based bonuses reflect ACF’s commitment to achieving the goal of a 1:1 ratio of foster homes-to-children in foster care across the country.” ACF “will reward child welfare agencies with the best ratio and the most improved ratio within one year, starting October 2026. 

I caught Adams on his way to an Indianapolis announcement — Indiana becoming the 20th state to join the “A Home for Every Child” initiative the administration announced around Thanksgiving last year.  

A Home for Every Child aims to be a win for kids by decreasing paperwork and increasing timely reporting from states about what’s working and what’s not “in real time” Adams explains. “We’re setting up a state scorecard of more timely data that we think will lead to better outcomes for kids.”  

He hopes to have the scorecard up online by August — but by the beginning of the competition calendar in early October at the latest.  

Adams has a healthy restlessness about him when it comes to A Home for Every Child, making him the perfect spokesman for this new Innovation Challenge aspect of it.  

By making $7 million already budgeted available for states demonstrating the best results, he also nudges states to commit to the broader project to obliterate the status quo in foster care in the states.  

When A Home for Every Child was first announced in late November, there wasn’t a sense of how quickly it might catch on. From a realistic hope of ten states, 30 are currently in reach, Adams says, considering an active 15 states already talking to ACF about the possibility of signing on.  

The new Innovation Challenge sets an “anchor” date of June 30 for registration; bonus or no bonus, more states will be bringing fresh thinking — and live reporting — to the way they handle children in foster care. Kids will no longer be afterthoughts in government offices or hotels.  

“I think we’re going to find out really quickly what’s working and what’s not working,” Adams tells me. “Best practices, our issue briefs, [and] our technical assistance around that” will all follow from live reporting numbers from the states, rather than the two-year-old-at-best numbers children in foster care are typically stuck in.

Adams saw it work when he ran an HHS agency in Idaho. When he began his tenure, the ratio of foster families to children in foster care was “74 homes for every 100 kids. When I left we had 104 homes for every 100 kids,” he recalls. “And it wasn’t just numbers,” he emphasizes, “it impacted real lives.”  

In addition to “that growth,” under his watch, they “got every single kid out of a short-term rental and hotel” and “reduced . . . congregate care usage by 30 percent.” He tells me this to make clear he has no interest in box checking for broader, vague foster care priorities but forcing “real results” for children who need exactly that yesterday.  

Today’s bonus announcement “ups the ante” for the A Home for Every Child initiative that has already “unleashed competition.” And it’s not only the prospect of money, but the reality of seeing how your state is doing compared to others as reprioritization is happening.  

It’s all about looking “under the hood,” Adams explains. “Let’s figure out why they’re doing well and then let’s hold those out as best practices. Right now, too much of child welfare is just subjective. Things sound like good ideas, so people hold them out as best practices, but there’s . . . often not cross state comparisons to see what they look like at the population level,” he says. 

“This is a chance to do so with a large body of data from a large number of participating states.” He’s hoping the Innovation Challenge announcement pushes the state participation roster over “the tipping point” — beyond the current 20. “Our goal by unveiling the competition,” Adams tells me, “is to get more states to join in rapid succession.” Already, he is happy about the “diversity”: “We have red states. We have blue states. We have urban states. We have rural states. We have states that border Canada [and] states that border the Gulf of America.” As the enrollment grows, “We’ll be able to demonstrate what’s working more objectively than we do today and that will then help us structure our best practices, technical assistance, and competitive grants. . . .” 

Ultimately, he wants “every child to have the opportunities that my daughter is blessed to have even if she doesn’t always recognize those blessings,” Adams tells me. Like for “many” couples, having a biological child was not a given for Adams and his wife. They struggled, and then decided to look into foster care. It really isn’t just about numbers, he says, but “is personal” — and for every child behind every new step toward health in child welfare in America.  

From today’s press release:  

ACF Launches $7 Million Innovation Challenge to Help Achieve A Home for Every Child DATE — The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today announced a nationwide $7 million prize competition aimed at incentivizing states to improve their ratios of foster homes-to-children in foster care. The “A Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge” will reward child welfare agencies with the best ratio and the most improved ratio within one year, starting October 2026. These state performance-based bonuses reflect ACF’s commitment to achieving the goal of a 1:1 ratio of foster homes-to-children in foster care across the country.  

“In my conversations with the 20 participating states, I have been struck by a shared sense of determination. Each one wants their state to lead — to do better for children and families than ever before. That spirit of health competition is powerful,” said Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams. “The introduction of performance-based bonus awards raises the stakes in the right way, aligning incentives with what we know works. I have seen first-hand how our A Home for Every Child initiative is helping states expand the number of safe, supportive homes, responsibly reduce entries into foster care, and most importantly, deliver real, lasting results for children. May the best state win, and most importantly, let’s work together so that all children win nationwide.”  

The first-place state with the highest ratio of foster homes-to-children in foster care will be awarded $3 million. The second-place state will be awarded $2 million. Finally, two states with the most improved ratios will be awarded $1 million. 

Additionally:  

To be eligible to participate in the Innovation Challenge, a child welfare jurisdiction must be participating in ACF’s “A Home for Every Child” initiative. This means the jurisdiction has formally opted into the new Program Improvement Plan (PIP) pilot announced under Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) Technical Bulletin #14.  

The child welfare jurisdiction must also be authorized to receive federal funding under Title IVE.  

Winner Selection  

Winners of the Innovation Challenge will be selected based on data submitted to ACF under the new PIP pilot. The Assistant Secretary for Children and Families will make the final determination of winners based on verified data and compliance with all challenge requirements. Prizes will be paid directly to the winners via electronic funds transfer.