A Home for Every Child

A Home for Every Child is a national initiative of the Administration for Children and Families focused on ensuring that every child has the opportunity to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving home.

The initiative is designed to address both sides of the child welfare equation by reducing entries into foster care through effective prevention and by increasing the availability of foster and kinship homes through stronger recruitment, kin-first approaches, and improved retention of caregivers.

At its core, A Home for Every Child is about right-sizing the ratio of available homes to children in need so that there are homes waiting on kids, not kids waiting on homes.

A happy multigenerational family hugging and having fun outside.

Alex J. Adams, PharmD, MPH, serves as Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families. Assistant Secretary Adams brings years of health, human services, education, and regulatory expertise to advance President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s broader vision to Make America Healthy Again. Prior to leading ACF, Dr. Adams spent more than ten years in Idaho State Government. He led the Governor’s zero-based regulation initiative, which resulted in Idaho becoming the least regulated state in the nation. Dr. Adams also made significant efforts to improve Idaho’s child welfare system, enacting kin-specific licensing standards, announcing paid family leave for foster parents, extending foster care to age 23, and overseeing record recruitment and retention of foster homes. This webpage showcases resources that support the priorities identified by Assistant Secretary Adams.

Read More on Leadership: https://acf.gov/about/bio/alex-j-adams

Read More on A Home for Every Child: https://acf.gov/a-home-for-every-child

Kinship Care: Policy and Programmatic Innovations

Webinar / Webcast

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will co-host a webinar on October 27, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. to explore policies and programs that support relatives and other kin raising children, both inside and outside the foster care system.…

Excuse Me! What Is the Orphan Tax?

Podcast

When children lose a parent, they may be eligible for Social Security survivor benefits based on their parent’s work history. However, some states have redirected these benefits to cover the costs of foster care rather than preserving the funds…

A Home for Every Child Case Studies: Briefs from Five States with Some of the Highest Home-to-Child Ratio

Profile / Case Study

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) launched A Home for Every Child to help ensure there is at least one available foster home for every child and youth in foster care. Achieving this goal involves more than recruiting foster…

A Home for Every Child Dashboard

Dataset

All 50 states have joined the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) A Home for Every Child (AH4EC) initiative, which aims to improve the availability of foster homes nationwide. ACF has now launched the A Home for Every Child…

ACF Announces Call for Recommendations on Domestic Violence Prevention and Support Programs and Services to Help Strengthen Families

Policy Announcement / Memoranda

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is accepting recommendations for domestic violence prevention and support programs to be reviewed for potential inclusion in the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. The goal is to…

ACF Announces New Best Practices to Strengthen Ombudsman Offices and Improve Child Welfare Outcomes

Policy Announcement / Memoranda

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has released six best practices to help states strengthen child welfare ombudsman offices and use feedback from children, youth, and families to improve services. The recommendations include…