Policy & Practice | Spring 2026

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Invest Earlier: Prevention as Capacity-Building The most effective way to strengthen placement capacity is to reduce unnecessary entries into foster care. Prevention services such as housing support, behavioral health care, and economic stabilization can help families remain together. A growing body of research suggests that many child welfare cases stem from poverty-related hardship rather than abuse. Families experiencing housing instability, food insecurity, or unmet medical needs are more likely to come into contact with child protective services (CPS). In fact, more than 83 percent of families investigated by CPS have incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.² Researchers and advocates increasingly note that poverty is often mistaken for neglect, particularly when families lack access to basic supports. For states, this distinction matters. When economic hardship is treated as maltreatment rather than a need for support, children may enter foster care even when services could have helped them remain safely at home. Prevention intersects with another major pressure facing child welfare systems: behavioral health. Many agencies report that the real bottleneck in foster care is the availability of homes equipped to care for children with sig nificant behavioral health needs. Parental substance use and untreated mental health conditions now play a major role in foster care involvement, particularly for infants and young children. Nationally, nearly two out of five removals involve parental alcohol or drug use, and among infants the share is more than half.⁸

When states invest in these upstream services, they help families remain together while protecting overall foster care capacity. Fewer unneces sary removals mean the system can better serve children who truly cannot remain safely at home. Research also suggests that children who remain safely with their families experience stronger long-term outcomes than similarly situated children placed in foster care.³ Removal itself can introduce trauma, disrupt relationships, and weaken community ties.⁴ At the state level, data can guide prevention investments. By examining referral patterns, economic indicators, and service availability, leaders can identify where families are most at risk of separation and target supports accordingly. Aligning prevention funding with federal initiatives such as the Family First Prevention Services Act reinforces this shift toward early intervention and family well-being.¹ Ultimately, prevention is not just about caseloads. It is about ensuring that children remain safely connected to the people and communities that know them best. Capacity, Not Just Definition When children cannot safely remain with their parents, relatives are often the most stable and familiar option. Kinship care has long been a corner stone of child welfare policy, yet many systems still struggle to identify and support relatives early enough. Children placed with relatives expe rience greater stability and stronger long-term connections to family and culture, and they are more likely to reach permanency than those in non relative foster care.⁵ “We are seeing states shift from simply trying to find more beds to rethinking the front door of the system,” said Sixto Cancel, Founder and CEO of Think of Us. “When foster homes are limited, the answer is not just recruitment. It is prevention 2. Sixto Cancel Strengthen Kinship Care by Expanding

and immediate engagement of rela tives. When kin are identified and supported from day one, children experience fewer moves and shorter stays, and pressure on the foster care system decreases. Kinship cannot be a backup plan. It has to be the first conversation.” Turning kinship into a true capacity strategy requires more than identifying relatives. States must invest in the supports that allow those placements to succeed. Clear licensing pathways, navigator programs, financial assis tance, and practical resources for caregivers all play an important role. “Supporting kinship families through evidence-based kinship navi foster care, while prior itizing kin finding and licensing will increase the number of available foster homes for every child who needs one,” said Ana Beltran, Director of the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network at Generations United. Additionally, practice tools can help. Genograms, family network mapping, and modern case manage ment systems allow workers to quickly identify relatives and maintain vis ibility into family relationships. These tools expand placement options and reinforce the goal of keeping children connected to their families and communities. Kinship care also intersects with equity. Children of color remain dis proportionately represented in foster care, making family-centered solutions particularly important for addressing longstanding disparities. Use Data That Drives Decisions— Not Just Compliance Historically, child welfare data systems have focused heavily on compliance reporting. Accountability remains essential, but federal leaders are increasingly encouraging states to focus on a smaller set of meaningful indicators that reflect real outcomes for children and families.¹ 3. Ana Beltran gator programs is a key strategy in decreasing the number of children who need to enter

Amy Drapcho is the Senior Manager of External Affairs at Northwoods.

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Policy & Practice Spring 2026