On December 17th, 2025, the National Governors Association (NGA) hosted a conversation with the Human Services Policy Advisors network to connect on child welfare policy issues and spotlighted the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Assistant Secretary Dr. Alex Adams to interface with states and territories on the new administration’s priorities.
A recording is available here. Please contact the NGA Children & Families team for the password.
Themes from State/Territory Small Group Discussions:
- Pain Point – High Acuity Youth with Complex Behavioral Health Needs: Best practices for improving permanency continue to be a noted need among Network members. Challenges persist due to lack of foster homes and specialized placements, and continued workforce turnover dampens coordination efforts across the disparate agencies that have touch points with these youth.
- Foster Parent Recruitment Challenges: Advisors noted efforts including raising reimbursement rates to incentivize both recruitment of new, and retention of existing, foster parents.
- Declines in Caseworker Turnover: More consistent staffing is leading to better outcomes for children and families and reduces churn, which diverts resources from direct services. Addressing burnout and promoting worker well-being were noted priorities within child welfare agency leadership to reduce turnover.
- Prioritizing Kinship Care: Adoption of kin-specific licensing requirements and investments in kinship care is trending, given the strong permanency outcomes associated with placements with kin.
A Home for Every Child Spotlight – Assistant Secretary Alex Adams
In his first meeting with the Human Services Advisors Network, Assistant Secretary Adams highlighted his work at the Director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to work on both sides of the equation – increasing prevention efforts and bolstering permanency initiative along with prioritizing foster parent recruitment and expanding the definition and kin and reforming the licensing process.
Giving context to the ACF’s latest activities and priorities, Asst. Sec. Adams covered info regarding ACF recently launched an initiative called “A Home for Every Child” which is aimed at both decreasing the number of children entering the foster care system and increase the number of available foster homes, and follows the President’s Executive Order “Fostering the Future for American Children and Families. The “A Home for Every Child” initiative aims to bolster these efforts across States and Territories and promote best practices working across the country to help states make “good, reasoned decisions” that are in the best interests of children.
The Assistant Secretary’s remarks also touched on his intent to help right-size and optimize oversight procedures, highlighting the ineffectiveness of the current process to enact improvements wherein to date, zero states have passed the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) Process. The busy work required to adhere and report on for Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) resulting from CFSR reviews divert attention and resources away from efforts towards meaningful improvements to child welfare systems. Looking forward, ACF notes it is looking to reimagine and improve this process to better promote reforms that work across States and Territories.
