Idaho licensed more new foster families in the month of July than it has in any other month in the last three years, following a targeted push from the health agency’s new director.
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Alex Adams updated the Board of Health and Welfare on Thursday about the progress made on some of his goals since he took the reins in early June. Adams immediately set his sights on improving the ratio of foster children to foster families in the state and he now plans to ask the Legislature for budget increases to help attain these goals.
“You can do things to increase the number of properly trained foster homes, or you can do things to safely prevent kids coming into the foster system, and it’s the combination of those two that will get your ratio up,” Adams said.
Adams said when he took his position, the ratio was about 74 foster homes for every 100 children. It’s now about 81 homes for every 100 kids, he said.
He also announced that he’s hired the rest of his new leadership team, including new division administrators Laura Denner for Family and Community Partnerships, Jean Fisher for Youth Safety and Permanency, and Alison Tate for Early Learning and Development. He also hired Jared Larsen as a chief of legislative and regulatory affairs.
As of Aug. 12, there were 1,132 licensed foster homes and 1,393 foster children. The number of youth entering the foster system is declining slowly in Idaho, as well as nationwide, Adams said, driven by a move to focus federal resources on prevention.
“The feds are recognizing that services are more effective for kids in the community, versus the systems approach, which might be more traditional in the ‘70s, or ‘80s or even ‘90s,” said Monty Prow, deputy director of child, youth and family services.
Adams said the agency’s upcoming budget proposal is going to include a request to grow the department’s prevention team and services to help keep kids in their homes in situations when it’s safe. He said he’ll also be asking for more caseworkers to decrease caseloads to get closer to national averages.
Another goal is to achieve “permanency” faster, in which children are either reunited with their parents, placed permanently with other family members, or adopted.
There’s also been progress toward moving away from using short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs, for difficult-to-place foster youth. In November 2023, department leaders told the Idaho Press that nearly 180 foster youth had stayed in short-term rentals in the previous year, with between 15 and 28 in rentals at any given time. On Thursday, staff said there were two young people in one short-term rental home as the agency is striving to move away from that practice.
The department in May opened a 16-bed facility in Payette as a temporary place to house foster children who don’t have somewhere else to go.
The department will turn in its proposed budget request to the Division of Financial Management, along with all other state agencies, on Sept. 1.
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