The CHAMPS campaign offers federal policymakers the following recommendations to drive better outcomes for children and youth. See here for a PDF of the campaign’s federal policy recommendations.
These recommendations align with the six policy goals featured in the CHAMPS playbook. They also draw on what’s known from:
- lessons and insights from state and national partners
- child development research
- examples of promising approaches in the field
- thorough review of state foster parent recruitment and retention policies,
- analysis of disparate outcomes for children in foster care based on race and ethnicity, and
- insights and experience of foster families, young people with lived experience in foster care and issue experts.
Recommendation #1
Increase the stability and quality of family-based care for all children in foster care and create a new norm of support for kin and non-kin foster families by requiring child welfare agencies to make a core set of supportive services available to all families caring for children in foster care.
Recommendation #2
Accelerate the goal of eliminating the inappropriate use of congregate care for children and youth through a targeted grant program to spur innovation in (1) preventing congregate care placements and (2) shifting youth from congregate care placements to well-supported family-based care.
Recommendation #3
Spur lasting improvements to foster parent recruitment, support and retention by revamping outdated federal policy on “Diligent Recruitment Plans.” Doing so will mobilize agencies to create and implement effective, data-driven approaches to engaging and partnering with kin and non-kin foster families and result in better outcomes for children and youth.
Recommendation #4
Have the Department of Health and Human Services produce an annual, national census to highlight data and trends on family-based care and congregate care to keep policymakers and the public informed about the capacity of the nation’s foster care safety net.