Trump’s recent Presidential Order appears in its entirety below in the Read More section of this post. It is a powerful broad promise that will have a tremendous impact on the quality of life for millions of America’s abused and neglected children, families, and the communities they live in. The fact that this order is deep and far reaching into the complex issues of child abuse and child protection is in itself, a big step in the right direction for Federal Public Policy making.
If these policies take hold, there will be a modernizing of the Child Welfare System (short social worker podcast), more qualified foster and adoptive families, more dollars to heal and support America’s most vulnerable children, more transparency in Child Protective Services, and better practices and technical assistance to States. If half of these policies are implemented children, families, and communities will benefit tremendously.
For the purpose of supporting the policies articulated by this Presidential Order, let’s prepare ourselves for pushback that’s likely to come from Trump’s core supporters. The information that follows will help us as advocates convince our legislators the importance and practicality of these policies.
From the Order: “Some jurisdictions and organizations maintain policies that discourage or prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.” When this contentious issue begins to destabilize the heart of this order, let’s all share the following information along with the fact that today, when same-sex couples approach Catholic agencies, they are usually referred to other nearby agencies that do not have such restrictions. This is a real improvement from past policies of abandoning all services in communities that allow the gay community to participate in the Child Protection System.
This approach ensures that these families can still access adoption or fostering services, just not through Catholic organizations. With the reality that every state in the U.S. is currently struggling with a shortage of foster families, and that more than 343,000 children remaining in care as of the most recent federal data (AFCARS/Adoption Council). The number of licensed foster homes has dropped in many regions, leaving overworked caseworkers unable to find placements for children and youth in crisis (CAFO).
When a foster home cannot be found, children are increasingly forced to spend days or weeks in hospital emergency rooms, juvenile detention centers, or even sleep in Department of Human Services offices. National advocacy and research sources report persistent instances across dozens of states where children as young as 4 sleep on office floors or wait in ERs due to lack of foster beds (KVC), FosterLove).
Recent estimates indicate that, nationwide, at least 1,400 to 1,800 children per month are stuck in temporary spaces like offices, hotels, or hospitals simply because there is nowhere else to put them (FosterLove). States like Texas, California, Minnesota, Georgia, and Washington each report dozens to hundreds of such cases every month (Imprint News – MN).
Children subjected to these temporary placements miss out on school, lose access to regular mental health services, and endure severe instability and trauma from living in non-home environments — sometimes for weeks or longer — due to the placement crisis (Georgetown CCF). Sibling separation and repeated placement moves are common, compounding emotional harm (Adoption Council).
The system’s inability to provide enough foster homes has led to over 20,000 youth aging out of foster care each year without permanency — a pathway strongly associated with homelessness, unemployment, and adverse life outcomes (FosterLove), USAFacts).
These trends make it urgent to recruit and retain more foster families, support relatives willing to care for children, and ensure that no child spends nights in unsuitable, unsafe, or institution-like settings for lack of a family (CAFO).
KARA reports on child abuse and child protection around the nation counting on readers sharing it with friends and policy makers in your community. This post highlights what could be the biggest change in child protection, foster care, and support services for America’s at-risk children and families in 100 years.
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By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. My Administration is dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise their children in safe and loving homes. When crises prevent such an arrangement, our Nation’s foster care system must be ready to serve children in need. Today’s foster care system must be improved in a number of important ways.
Children often stay in foster care for years, and those who transition out due to age frequently face uncertain futures without the support systems essential to educational, career, and relational success. Many caseworkers are overburdened. Information systems are often outdated. Some jurisdictions and organizations maintain policies that discourage or prohibit qualified families from serving children in need as foster and adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological truths.
Our Nation’s children and youth — and the families who care for them — deserve better. To that end, my Administration, with special leadership from the First Lady, will 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.
Sec. 2. Modernizing the Child Welfare System. (a) The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, within 180 days of the date of this order, take appropriate action to:
(i) update applicable regulations, policies, and practices to improve the collection, publication, utility, and transparency of State-level child-welfare data, including by improving collection of data and information indicative of child well-being and safety, eliminating duplicative or unnecessary high-cost and low-value reporting requirements, and expanding and expediting child-welfare data publication;
(ii) promote modernization of State child-welfare information systems and use of the most effective foster care management and outcome-tracking platforms, including by incorporating such modernization efforts as part of information exchanged with or technical assistance provided to States;
(iii) expand States’ use of technological solutions, including predictive analytics and tools powered by artificial intelligence, to increase caregiver recruitment and retention rates, improve caregiver and child matching, and deploy Federal child-welfare funding to maximally effective purposes and recipients; and
(iv) publish annually a scorecard that measures and is used to evaluate State-level achievement of key outcomes and metrics that reduce unnecessary entries into foster care, decrease the time between reports of child maltreatment and investigations, reduce child injuries and fatalities caused by caregiver neglect and abuse, increase caregiver recruitment and retention, improve caregiver and child matching, reduce placement disruptions, decrease the average time that children spend in foster care, accelerate permanent placement for children, and increase partnerships and collaboration with appropriate non-governmental entities, including faith-based organizations.
Sec. 3. Fostering the Future. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Office of the First Lady and heads of other relevant executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall, within 180 days of the date of this order:
(a) establish a “Fostering the Future” initiative to develop partnerships with agencies and leading private sector organizations, academic institutions, and non-profit entities to create new educational and employment opportunities for individuals who are in or are transitioning out of the foster care system;
(b) develop a plan to launch, in conjunction with the National Design Studio, a “Fostering the Future” online platform to help individuals who have been in foster care by assessing their current needs, providing guidance regarding accessing Federal, State, and local programs and services for which they are eligible, including housing, education, employment, healthcare, and mentoring services offering a searchable database of those and other available resources, and generating customized plans that support their self-sufficiency and success;
(c) develop a strategy to reallocate funds returned by States from Federal programs designed to assist individuals transitioning out of foster care so that such returned funds are used to promote educational success, occupational advancement, and financial literacy and self-sufficiency for individuals transitioning out of foster care
(d) increase flexibility in Education and Training Vouchers to expand access for individuals transitioning out of foster care to short-term, career-focused, and credential-awarding programs; and
(e) facilitate, in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of Education, State use of educational scholarships created through tax-credited donations to scholarship-granting organizations for children in foster care.
Sec. 4. Maximizing Partnerships with Americans of Faith. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the Director of the White House Faith Office and the Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, shall:
(a) take appropriate action to address State and local policies and practices that inappropriately prohibit participation in federally-funded child-welfare programs by qualified individuals or organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious beliefs or moral convictions; and
(b) take appropriate action to increase partnerships between 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.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Health and Human Services.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 13, 2025.
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This article submitted by former CASA volunteer Mike Tikkanen
