Fostering the Future: Inside President Trump’s New Executive Order on Child Welfare
An EO aiming to modernize child welfare systems, framed in language that risks complicating engagement, partnerships and the pursuit of shared goals.
On November 13th, President Donald Trump signed the Fostering the Future for American Children and Families Executive Order (EO).
The EO extends the role and reach of First Lady Melania Trump and her Fostering the Future, Be Best Initiative, framed as securing “educational opportunities and scholarships for children in the foster care community.” The First Lady emphasized that the prepared EO is “empathetic and strategic”, assuring it will be “impactful”. She noted that “too many” youth who exit foster care “end up homeless, in danger on America’s streets.”
At the end of Trump’s first term as President, approximately 400,000 children were in foster care; by 2024 the number was just over 328,000. The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that more than 15,000 youth exit the foster care system each year. The National Foster Youth Initiative tracks statistics that are sobering: “An estimated 20 percent of young adults who are in care become homeless the moment they’re emancipated at the age of 18 and nationwide, 50 percent of the homeless population spent time in foster care.”
Calling for urgency, the First Lady urged government leaders and the private sector to “rise above the ease of inaction”.
President Trump praised the First Lady “as caring and magnificent” for her commitment to make America’s foster care system “better, fairer and more effective.”
He also acknowledged the “countless” leaders in the child welfare advocacy field and spotlighted young people “who have used their voices to champion needed reforms.”
Specifically, The President recognized Erick Alvarez, Foster Youth Advocate from Nebraska who had been placed, along with his siblings in foster care when he was 9 years old. He then entered the foster care system again at age 15. Alvarez benefited from a mentoring and work experience program dedicated to foster youth that allowed him complete high school, attend college, and serve as a cadet in the Air Force ROTC. Trump underscored, that these programs helped ensure Alvarez was better able “to start life on the right foot.”
The EO states that the Trump Administration is “dedicated to empowering mothers and father to raise their children in safe and loving homes.” When “crises prevent such an arrangement” then the foster care system “must be ready to serve children in need.” The EO identifies existing challenges:
Children staying in foster care for years.
Youth who transition out of foster care “face uncertain futures without support systems essential to educational, career, and relational success”.
“Overburdened” caseworkers and “outdated” information systems utilized by child welfare agencies; and
Policies that “discourage or prohibit qualified families” from being a resource for children due to the adults “sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.”
To address the interconnected challenges facing young people, the Trump Administration - under the “special leadership” of First Lady - intends to “harness Federal support, technology, and strategic partnerships to provide young Americans in or transitioning out of the foster care system with the tools they need to become successful adults.”
Executive Order: Modernize the Child Welfare System
Over the next six months, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) is directed to take “appropriate action” with states and Tribes to:
Enhance the quality, utilization, and transparency of child welfare data. HHS is to review current data collected and determine how it does or does not inform on child wellbeing and safety. HHS is also to identify any “duplicative or unnecessary” reporting requirements that are described as “high-cost and low-value”. Earlier this year, the Trump Administration unveiled The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) dash board.
Modernize state child welfare information systems to ensure that they are utilizing the “most effective foster care management and outcome-tracking platforms.” In September of this year, Pennsylvania was advised by HHS to “halt” work on its long-developing and high-cost Child Welfare Case Management (CWCM) system.
Enlist “technological solutions, including predictive analytics and tools powered by artificial intelligence” to increase caregiver recruitment and retention and to improve the overall “matching” of children to families.
Create scorecards measuring state-level “key outcomes and metrics” specific to:
Unnecessary entries into foster care.
Time between reports of child maltreatment and investigations.
Child injuries and fatalities caused by caregiver neglect and abuse.
Caregiver recruitment and retention.
Improved caregiver and child matching.
Placement disruptions.
Time children spend in foster care and the degree to which “permanent placement” is accelerated.
“Partnerships and collaboration with appropriate non-governmental entities, including faith-based organizations.”
The White House has been coordinating with members of Congress. Next week the U.S. House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare will convene a hearing “to discuss innovations and the use of technology in the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood.”
Executive Order: Recruit Partners for Fostering the Future
Within six months, HHS – coordinating directly with the First Lady and other “relevant executive departments and agencies” - will engage partners notably from the private sector and academic institutions “to create new educational and employment opportunities for individuals who are transitioning out of the foster care system.”
A plan is expected to be developed with the National Design Studio to create an “online platform” to help foster youth assess their needs, to access guidance about federal, state, and local programs related to education, housing, employment, health care and mentoring . The goal is a “customized plan” for every youth to “support their self-sufficiency and success.”
There will be an effort to identify how to “reallocate” funds that states return to the federal government so they can be directed to “promote educational success, occupational advance, and financial literacy and self-sufficiency.”
The Departments of Education and Treasury will coordinate “educational scholarships” generated by “tax-credited donations to scholarship-granting organizations.” President Trump used the EO signing to tout the One Big Beautiful Bill provision that creates a federally funded tax credit scholarship program for elementary and secondary education (effective in 2027). Trump said this tax credit will be leveraged “to expand occupational training, education and financial literacy programs for foster youth and make it possible for more of them to attend the school of their choice.”
President Trump called this a “major new initiative” and said private businesses and institutions will be invited to sign a pledge “to invest in teaching, training and mentoring America’s youth who are transitioning out of the foster care system.” First Lady Melania announced that Vanderbilt University, University of Miami and Villanova University have already joined her “mission”.
Executive Order: Maximize “Partnerships with Americans of Faith”
The President stated, “Faith based nonprofits are the nations most trusted institutions interacting with the foster care system.” He went on to decry the “radical left policies” that are “making it much harder” for families of faith to foster children.
He said the EO would help eliminate the “woke policies that discriminate against Christians and families of faith,” adding that the Bible teaches that a society should be measured by “how it cares for vulnerable children and orphans.”
HHS, working with the White House Faith Office and the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs is to explore how state and local policies or practices “inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
The Administration expects all these actions to increase partnerships between child welfare agencies and faith-based organizations and houses of worship to serve “families whose children have been placed in foster care or are at risk of being placed in foster care.”
In Support of and Beyond the Executive Order
The Trump Administration also announced:
A pilot program distributing decommissioned federal laptops to youth in foster care “to help bridge the digital divide and increase access to online resources” critical to a successful transition from foster care.
Roundtables hosted by the U.S. Department of Treasury and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to hear directly hear from youth transitioning from foster care. The goal being increased understanding of the “unique obstacles to financial literacy and opportunities” they encounter and an action plan to build “a strong financial literacy foundation”. Recommendations developed based on the roundtables are expected in Spring 2026.
A new Office of Personnel Management (OPM) initiative to help young adults who have been in foster “identify internships and early-career employment that provide hands-on experience in government.”
Federal Law and Funding Insufficient Tools
A federal law enacted in 1999 (Foster Care Independence Act, P.L. 106-169) established expectations and funding resources available to states known as the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program. In enacting the federal law Congress acknowledged its receipt of “extensive information” indicating that youth “leaving foster care have significant difficulty making a successful transition to adulthood; this information shows that children aging out of foster care show high rates of homelessness, non-marital childbearing, poverty, and delinquent or criminal behavior.” Congress also addressed the frequency by which these youth are the “target of crime and physical assaults.” Among the purposes of the Chafee Program:
Identification of youth likely to remain in foster care until their 18th birthday and to work to intentionally assist them to make the “transition to self-sufficiency” through the provision of a variety of services and supports that improve the likelihood they obtain a high school diploma and are connected to a fuller array of education and training opportunities and supports, including those that will facilitate the youth’s connection to and success in postsecondary education.
Connection to “mentors” who can provide ongoing support to the youth.
Providing youth with “financial, housing, counseling, employment, education, and other appropriate support and services” to youth to help them “achieve self-sufficiency.”
The Chafee Program was improved by Congress through the 2018 enactment of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). FFPSA was woven into a broader bipartisan budget act signed by President Trump in 2018. Among the improvements was providing states with the ability to extend (until age 23) Chafee services and to provide for Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) through age 26.
Approximately $186 million is annually available to states for Chafee related services and supports with an added $400 million allocated in response to COVID.
In 2025, the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report identifying the “barriers” states encounter as they strive to help young people transition from foster care to adulthood. GAO was asked to explore how states are utilizing Chafee program funds.
GAO looked at expenditure data for fiscal years 2018 through 2022 as well as Chafee allocations (to states) for fiscal year 2023. GAO highlighted how “states did not always spend all available federal funding, despite having unmet needs in serving youth.” GAO went on to document that in fiscal year 2022, a dozen states returned Chafee independent living funds and 28 states returned Chafee education voucher funds. The federal government (through the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) can redistribute Chafee funds states do not spend and is returned to the federal government remaining available for up to 2 years so that other states can seek to claim them.
GAO directly engaged with child welfare leaders in 6 states, including Pennsylvania. GAO then reported that states identified a “variety of challenges” in trying to spend their full Chafee allotment including issues related to coordination between various partners, procuring and then receiving invoices from contractors, not realizing there was a balance to be spent before it was too late, and “inadequate staffing and lengthy unfilled vacancies for staff serving older youth.”
Staying Focused on Broadly Shared Goals, Amid Harsh Rhetoric
The November 13th EO sets out a far-reaching statement of priorities that extend well beyond this Administration—centering youth with lived experience, pushing for modernized data systems, strengthening state accountability through clearer metrics, expanding the role of technology and public-private partnerships to educate and mentor youth, and deepening collaboration with community and faith-based organizations. It also gestures, albeit lightly, toward a widely shared goal across the field: supporting families earlier and more effectively so fewer children face crisis or removal.
At the same time, some of the EO’s accompanying rhetoric—particularly language targeting “woke” policies and an outsized emphasis on foster families and Christian partners—may alienate some stakeholders and risk overshadowing areas of genuine consensus.
As HHS begins its six-month sprint to deliver on the EO’s directives, the central question is can America come together to meaningfully support families at the earliest signal of need and improve outcomes for young people exiting foster care who continue to face some of the steepest odds of any Americans?
It is far too early to know whether the EO will mark a genuine turning point—strengthening families upstream and improving youth outcomes downstream—or whether it will become another ambitious framework weighed down by unrealistic expectations, divisive rhetoric, and political pitfalls.