WHEREAS, every child in [State] deserves a safe, stable, and permanent home—a goal requiring operational infrastructure that strengthens placement pipelines, workforce capacity, and prevention systems in tandem. With only 57 licensed foster homes available nationwide for every 100 children in care, this work directly advances the federal A Home for Every Child goal of homes waiting for kids, not kids waiting for homes; and  

WHEREAS, foster care licensing, family finding, and service referral management (SRM) each directly advance the goals of A Home for Every Child, yet function as stand-alone, outcome-driven modules that are not typically supported within a state’s existing Comprehensive Child Welfare Information System (CCWIS)—underscoring the need for dedicated, purpose-built infrastructure to deliver measurable results; and  

WHEREAS, child welfare workforce research shows that documentation requirements and system navigation consume 40–60% of a caseworker’s time, contributing to extended foster family approval timelines, slower kinship engagement, placement instability, and caseworker burnout (Putnam-Hornstein & Needell, 2011); and  

WHEREAS, modernizing foster care licensing through structured digital workflows has demonstrated results including approximately 30% increases in families approved annually, 18% reductions in time-to-approval, and 20–40% reductions in administrative workload; and AI-assisted documentation tools have demonstrated reductions of 1–2 hours per home study, expanding workforce capacity without adding staff; and  

WHEREAS, children placed with relatives experience greater placement stability and improved behavioral outcomes—research shows 32% of children in kinship care exhibited behavioral problems at 36 months post-placement, compared to 46% in non-relative foster care (Rubin et al., 2008)—yet if kin are not identified early, children enter non-relative care by default; and  

WHEREAS, technology-assisted, rapid family finding programs have demonstrated the ability to identify an average of 26 or more family connections per child, increase kinship placements by 33% statewide, free up community foster homes for children without kin options, and reduce pressure on emergency placements system-wide; and  

WHEREAS, Chapin Hall’s evaluation of intensive in-home prevention services found that children receiving such services had 53% lower odds of placement compared to matched peers; yet Title IV-E prevention services accounted for less than 2% of overall Title IV-E reimbursement claims in FY 2023, reflecting a significant gap between policy authorization and on-the-ground execution (HHS ASPE); and  

WHEREAS, in February 2026 the Administration for Children and Families designated FDA-approved Medications for Opioid Use Disorder as “well-supported” Title IV-E prevention interventions, enabling a 50% federal match when provided to parents at imminent risk of foster care entry—creating new fiscal opportunity that states must be operationally ready to capture; now, therefore,  

BE IT RESOLVED by the [Legislature] of the State of [State] that:  

Section 1. Legislative Intent  

The [Legislature] declares that every child in [State] is entitled to a safe, stable, and permanent home, and directs the [State] Department of [Child Welfare] to build the technological  infrastructure necessary to deliver on this commitment through modernized licensing, technology-assisted kinship-first placement, reduced administrative burden, and evidence-based prevention.  

Section 2. Foster Care Licensing Modernization and Workforce Support  

The [State] Department of [Child Welfare] is directed to:  

• (a) Implement structured digital licensing workflows that reduce time-to-approval for prospective foster and adoptive families and eliminate fragmented, paper-heavy processes;  
• (b)Establish measurable throughput goals and provide real-time pipeline visibility so that bottlenecks are identified and resolved promptly;  
• (c) Evaluate and adopt AI-assisted documentation tools to reduce time spent on home studies, case notes, and required reports—redirecting reclaimed worker time toward direct family engagement, kinship outreach, and prevention services; and  
• (d) Report annually to the Legislature on time-to-approval, family approval rates, and pipeline dropout rates.  

Section 3. Kinship Identification and Placement  

The [State] Department of [Child Welfare] is directed to establish a technology-assisted, statewide rapid kinship identification and engagement program that:  

• (a) Initiates family finding at or before the time of a child’s removal, identifying extended family members and fictive kin as placement resources, safety planning participants, and reunification supports;  
• (b) Establishes kinship placement as the preferred option when safe and in the child’s best interest, consistent with state and federal law; and  
• (c) Tracks and reports kinship placement rates and the average number of family connections identified per child annually to the Legislature.  

Section 4. Prevention Infrastructure  

The [State] Department of [Child Welfare] is directed to build digital, closed-loop prevention infrastructure by:  

• (a) Establishing referral pathways that connect at-risk families to evidence-based prevention services without delay, with end-to-end tracking from referral through service completion;  
• (b) Maximizing Title IV-E prevention funding reimbursement under FFPSA—including for FDA-approved Medications for Opioid Use Disorder—and building provider networks capable of delivering and claiming evidence-based services as new interventions are added to the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse; and  
• (c) Evaluating prevention investments against foster care entry and re-entry trends through continuous quality improvement measurement, adjusting implementation strategies on an ongoing basis.  

Section 5. Annual Reporting   

The [State] Department of [Child Welfare] shall report annually to the [Legislature] on:  

• (a) licensing throughput, approval rates, and dropout rates;  
• (b) kinship placement rates and connections identified per child;  
• (c) prevention referral completion rates; and  
• (d) foster care entry and re-entry trends compared to prior years.  

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the [Legislature] calls upon the Governor and all relevant state agencies to align budget priorities, administrative rulemaking, and federal funding strategies in pursuit of “A Home for Every Child”—recognizing that lasting progress requires technological infrastructure that links placement capacity, prevention systems, and workforce stability into a unified, measurable strategy for every child in [State].