The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announces the A Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge, a prize competition to incentivize jurisdictions to achieve the highest rate of improvement in their foster home-to-child ratios within a single year. This challenge supports ACF's "A Home for Every Child" initiative, which aims to right-size the ratio of available foster homes to the number of children in the foster care system nationwide. The objective is to recognize and reward states that demonstrate exceptional progress in increasing available foster homes relative to children in care, thereby advancing the goal of having homes waiting for children rather than children waiting for homes. The intended effect is to accelerate state innovation in foster home recruitment, retention, and system improvements that directly impact child welfare outcomes and permanency.
DESCRIPTION
Subject of the challenge:
Child welfare agencies will compete to demonstrate the most significant positive change in the availability of foster homes relative to the number of children in their foster care systems, consistent with ACF's "A Home for Every Child" initiative. Currently, for every 100 children entering foster care, only 57 licensed foster homes are available nationwide. This critical shortage means children spending nights in office buildings and shelters, teenagers shuttled between hotels, and siblings separated not for safety, but for lack of space. A Home for Every Child sets an ambitious goal of achieving a foster home-to-child ratio greater than 1:1 in every state. The initiative will focus on both sides of the equation — increasing the availability of safe homes through diligent recruitment, prioritizing kin, and improving retention of existing caregivers while reducing entries into foster care through effective prevention and faster pathways to permanency. The initiative builds on successful state models and will include monthly reporting under the Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) pilot announced in CFSR Technical Bulletin #14 .
The Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge aims to incentivize bold new approaches to advancing this important goal. This challenge invites Title IV-E agencies to compete to demonstrate the most significant progress between October 1, 2026 and September 30, 2027.
Dates:
Registration Deadline: June 30, 2026
Challenge Period: October 1, 2026 — September 30, 2027
Winner Announced (Estimated): November 2027
PRIZES
Amount of the prize:
ACF will award up to $7,000,000, distributed as follows to four winners:
- First Prize: $3,000,000 (highest home-to-child ratio)
- Second Prize: $2,000,000 (second highest home-to-child ratio)
- Third Prize: $2,000,000 (two states with the most improved home-to-child ratios from the beginning to end of the challenge period; if the states are the same as the first and second prize winners, ACF will award to the next state on the list of most improvement)
Award approving officials:
Alex J. Adams, Assistant Secretary for Children and Families and Cody Inman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
Payment of the prize:
Prizes will be paid directly from ACF to the winning Title IV-E agency via electronic funds transfer.
ACF reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to (a) cancel, suspend, or modify the Challenge, or any part of it, for any reason, and/or (b) not award any prizes if no submissions are deemed worthy.
RULES
Eligibility rules:
To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge, an entity
- Shall be a public entity that administers a Title IV-E Foster Care program;
- Shall have opted into the Child and Family Service Review (CFSR) pilot announced under CFSR Technical Bulletin #14 (TB 14) as of June 30, 2026;
- Shall have established reporting measures under TB 14 that were negotiated with and approved by the Children’s Bureau before the beginning of the challenge period;
- Shall fully comply with negotiated and approved reporting measures under TB 14 during the entire challenge period;
- Shall have registered to participate in the challenge under the rules promulgated by ACF as published in this announcement; and
- Shall have complied with all the requirements set forth in this announcement.
Participation rules:
- By participating in this challenge, each Participant (whether an individual, group of individuals, or entity) agrees to assume any and all risks and waive claims against the federal government and its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from participation in this challenge, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or otherwise.
- Each Participant (whether an individual, group of individuals, or entity) participating in this challenge must comply with all terms and conditions of these rules, and participation in this challenge constitutes each such Participant’s full and unconditional agreement to abide by these rules. Winning is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements herein.
JUDGING CRITERIA
Basis upon which a winner will be selected:
Winners will be selected based on the data submitted to ACF consistent with pilot participation under CFSR Technical Bulletin #14. First and second prize will be awarded to the challenge participants with the highest and second highest ratio of licensed foster homes to children in foster care among entities participating in the challenge. Third prize will be awarded to the two entities with the highest rate of improvement in their ratio of licensed foster homes to children in foster care between the beginning and end of the challenge period.
The Assistant Secretary for Children and Families will make the final determination of winners based on verified data and compliance with all challenge requirements. In the event of a tie, prizes will be awarded to the agency that does not divert Social Security survivor benefits away from foster youth as of the date of the end of the challenge. In the case that both states meet this secondary criterion, award amounts may be split.
HOW TO ENTER
Registration and submission process:
To participate, IV-E agencies should notify ACF of their interest before the registration deadline via email to prize@acf.hhs.gov.
Submission requirements:
ACF will use data submitted consistent with CFSR Technical Bulletin #14 for final award determinations.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Supplemental information:
ACF reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the contest, or any part of it, for any reason, at ACF’s sole discretion.
The statutory authority for this challenge competition is Section 105 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (COMPETES Act, Pub. L. 111-358 ) as amended by section 401(b) of the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, Public Law 114-329 (15 U.S.C. § 3719).
ACF waives the requirement to obtain liability insurance pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 3719(i)(3)(A).
For further information, contact:
For further information, contact ACF at prize@acf.hhs.gov.