Governor Greg Gianforte on Monday announced that Montana has joined a federal initiative aimed at ensuring every child entering foster care is placed in a licensed foster home or with a family member, as state data shows the number of Montana children in the foster system has dropped by nearly half since he took office.
The Initiative
The program, built around a collaborative framework between participating states and the federal Administration for Children and Families, sets a target of maintaining more available foster homes than children needing placement — a ratio exceeding 1:1. States that sign on agree to work with federal partners to recruit and retain licensed foster families, expand placement with relatives, cut bureaucratic barriers, and update how child welfare systems track accountability.
The announcement took place in Helena on June 1, 2026, and included Alex Adams, the assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families. Gianforte and Adams signed a joint proclamation affirming shared goals around child safety and permanency in the foster care system.
The initiative is connected to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump and associated with priorities championed by First Lady Melania Trump directed at strengthening child welfare outcomes nationally.
Montana’s Numbers
State figures released alongside the announcement show 1,749 Montana children are currently in foster care. That compares to more than 3,300 children in the system in early 2021, representing a 47 percent decline over roughly five years. State officials attributed the reduction to a combination of family preservation efforts and policy changes implemented under the Gianforte administration.
“Every child deserves the opportunity to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving home,” Gianforte said during the announcement.
The governor’s office framed the initiative as a continuation of that progress, with the goal of further reducing the number of children requiring out-of-home placement while ensuring adequate family-based options are available for those who do enter care.
State Priorities Under the Program
Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Director Charlie Brereton outlined the state’s specific focus areas under the initiative, including expanding efforts to recruit and retain licensed foster families, increasing the share of children placed with relatives or other kin rather than non-family foster homes, and reinforcing services aimed at keeping families intact when it is safe to do so.
“We know children thrive best when they can remain safely at home with their families,” Brereton said.
Kinship placements — arrangements in which a child is placed with a grandparent, aunt or uncle, or other relative — have been a growing priority in state child welfare policy nationally. Research generally supports that children placed with family members experience better long-term outcomes than those placed with non-relative foster families, a finding that has driven bipartisan interest in expanding kinship care infrastructure.
Timing and Political Context
The announcement came shortly after National Foster Care Month, an annual designation used by federal and state governments to draw attention to the foster care system and the need for licensed families. The joint proclamation signed by Gianforte and Adams formalized Montana’s commitment to the initiative’s goals at both the state and federal levels.
For Gianforte, the announcement offers a tangible data point ahead of Montana’s November 2026 general election — the near-halving of foster care caseloads since 2021 represents one of the more concrete outcomes his administration has highlighted from its work on social services. The governor has not faced a reelection campaign this cycle, but the policy record feeds into the broader Republican narrative about state-level governance heading into the fall ballot.
Montana’s participation adds the state to a growing list of those working directly with the Trump administration’s federal child welfare apparatus on foster home capacity and accountability modernization, signaling continued alignment between the Gianforte administration and current federal health and human services priorities.
