A New Era in Child Welfare is Emerging. Every State Has Signed On.

For 25 years, the federal government has measured state child welfare systems against a set of standards that not a single state has managed to meet in full, noted federal child welfare official Cody Inman during his keynote address at Restore Hope's annual conference.

But that's changing. Every state has now signed on to a new approach that could transform how children and families are served.

Inman, a senior official with the U.S. Administration for Children and Families, described the shift as a new level of cooperation between federal officials, states, and community organizations. He said it's creating an unusual sense of optimism in child welfare.

"The excitement that we are feeling from state child welfare is like I have never felt before," said Inman, who spent a decade working in Oklahoma's child welfare system before joining the federal government.

At the center of that optimism is A Home for Every Child, a voluntary federal initiative that has secured participation from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

The initiative seeks to ensure that enough appropriate family homes are available for children who need foster care. But Inman emphasized that reaching that goal requires more than recruiting foster parents. It also means reconsidering how the federal government measures success, distributes resources, and works with states. And increasingly, it means helping families before children enter foster care in the first place.

The Old Way of Doing Things

For decades, the federal Child and Family Services review process has evaluated state child welfare systems on safety, permanency, and well-being. But Inman said the process had become so burdensome that it can distract states from addressing their most pressing needs.

According to Inman, federal officials reviewed 25 years of data and discovered that no state had ever achieved full conformity with the federal review requirements.

"Some states had gotten close, but no one had met conformity," he said.

States that failed to meet federal requirements needed to develop improvement plans and could face financial penalties if they did not meet the terms of those plans.

But the issue at hand, Inman argued, is not necessarily that states are failing to make progress. It is that federal requirements may not reflect the challenges individual states are trying to solve. For example, a state might identify placing more children with relatives as its highest priority. But if that goal does not align with federally required measures, state officials may find themselves devoting time and resources to two different sets of priorities.

"It creates dueling metrics and dual reporting," Inman said.

Under the new approach, participating states work toward a common national goal while having greater flexibility to select strategies and additional performance measures that reflect their own needs.

All states report a common ratio comparing available family homes with the number of children in foster care, along with four measures addressing family connections, congregate care, safety, and placement disruption.

Beyond those shared measures, states can focus on priorities like increasing kinship placements, reducing the time required to license foster parents, or helping children achieve permanency more quickly.

Inman said this new approach recognizes that state leaders are often better positioned than federal officials to identify where improvements are most urgently needed.

Less Paperwork, More Focus

The shift is already changing how states approach federally required improvement plans. Previous plans averaged nearly 59 pages. The new plans average just six.

The number of strategies included in those plans also dropped by more than half, allowing states to concentrate on fewer priorities rather than trying to address nearly every aspect of child welfare at once.

Inman explained that the shorter plans do not mean states are abandoning accountability. The difference is in how states organize their efforts and determine which strategies deserve sustained attention. The hope is that requiring states to narrow their focus could help direct resources toward changes most likely to make a difference.

Preventing The Need For Foster Care

One of the most significant findings from the plans being submitted is where states are choosing to concentrate their efforts. According to Inman, the vast majority of the plans include strategies designed to prevent children from entering foster care unnecessarily.

Those strategies include expanding home visiting services and connecting families with behavioral health supports that can help children remain safely at home. Nearly every plan is addressing kinship care and foster family recruitment or retention, he said.

The findings suggest that states are looking beyond simply increasing the number of available foster homes. They are also examining what happens before a child enters foster care, how quickly relatives can be identified when a child must be removed, and what support caregivers need to provide stable homes.

That approach recognizes a reality familiar to organizations working with families in crisis: problems rarely occur in isolation.

A family facing housing instability may also be dealing with unemployment, transportation barriers, substance use, or other challenges. Addressing only one need may not be enough to prevent a crisis from escalating.

More Relevant Data: Monthly Updates, Not Two-Year-Old Numbers

Inman said giving states greater flexibility is only part of the change. To participate in A Home for Every Child, states must submit updated performance data every 30 days.

Inman contrasted that schedule with the previous process, which he said left federal officials relying on information that could be two years old.

"You can't make decisions on 2-year-old data," he said.

The new reporting schedule is intended to give federal officials a clearer picture of emerging challenges and opportunities, allowing them to respond more quickly with resources, technical assistance, and funding decisions.

The Administration for Children and Families will be launching a public national scoreboard, displaying common performance measures alongside measures selected by individual states. The scoreboard will include the ratio of available family homes to children in foster care, a central measure of the initiative's goal.

Inman said the information should help states ask better questions and learn from one another. Why is one state identifying relatives more quickly? How did another improve foster family retention? What strategies helped a state safely reduce the number of children entering foster care?

Inman told Restore Hope conference attendees that he hopes the new data will encourage states to share successful approaches rather than work in isolation.

"I think that you are going to see the reality of where improvement can happen but also bright spots in child welfare," he said.

The initiative also includes an Innovation Challenge that began October 1, offering participating jurisdictions opportunities for recognition and financial awards based on performance and improvement.

Cutting Red Tape So States Can Act Faster

Beyond changing how states are evaluated, ACF is also reconsidering the rules and administrative processes that govern their work.

Inman told conference attendees that the agency had eliminated 38,000 pages of subregulatory guidance over the preceding eight months. The effort is intended to remove outdated federal instructions that may prevent states from adopting new approaches.

He described an environment in which a state could propose an innovative solution, only to encounter federal guidance written decades earlier that limited what was possible. Under the new approach, Inman said, federal officials are being asked to regularly justify the policies and guidance they expect states to follow.

The changes are also intended to speed up approvals for services supported by federal funding. As an example, Inman pointed to a recent state amendment involving peer support services that ACF approved in just 48 hours. Previously, he said, similar approvals could require months of exchanges between state and federal officials. Faster approvals can allow states to begin putting new services in place without lengthy administrative delays.

Inman's message was that the federal government should function as a partner, helping states solve problems rather than an obstacle they must navigate. He said the federal government's responsibility is to create conditions that allow states and their community partners to do that work more effectively.

"We are a federal oversight body that is trying to empower states to work better with their community partners," he said.

He also emphasized that preventing foster care entries must be done responsibly, with children's safety remaining a priority.

"If you can prevent entries to foster care responsibly and you can help kids go home more quickly when they need true intervention with foster care, you are helping American families stay together," he said.

That work, he noted, ultimately happens in communities rather than federal offices.

"The federal government cannot do that," Inman said. "States can do that with the help of community partners."

Restoring Trust

Inman told conference attendees that the changes are about more than reducing paperwork or introducing new performance measures. They are also about rebuilding trust between federal and state government and creating more opportunities for community organizations to contribute. "It's also about keeping our word and resetting the federal and state partnership," he said.

Inman encouraged attendees to bring forward ideas for improving child welfare, promising that ACF will consider opportunities to remove barriers or support new approaches.

He also stressed the urgency of the moment. "This is about using the opportunity and time wisely to create energy and excitement around child welfare where we can to change the direction of child welfare," he said.

Watch The Keynote Address: