Policy Strategies to Address Child Maltreatment and Foster Care (2025-2026)

Children who experience maltreatment face immediate physical, emotional and psychological harm, as well as long-term health risks, including higher rates of common, costly pediatric conditions. Those in foster or kinship care experience additional trauma from family separation and uncertainty, increasing the need for specialized, multidisciplinary care.

In North Carolina, children entering foster care must receive a health screening within 72 hours, a comprehensive evaluation within 30 days, and a follow-up within 60-90 days. Many foster families struggle to meet these timelines due to limited appointment availability, work constraints and difficulty accessing medical records. Kinship caregivers often receive less support and may lack resources for medical care. Families caring for children with complex needs face added challenges. 

Building on the work of the 2024-2025 project team, this team focused on supporting Rutherford County, North Carolina’s goal of improving foster parent retention. Team members helped develop a systems mapping approach, visual process of creating a diagram to illustrate the moving parts of a complex problem, to identify and collect relevant data. This data informed interviews and discussions with social workers and foster parents about factors influencing retention. The team also compiled an extensive list of organizations and programs focused on foster parent support and retention, analyzing program models and recruiting and interviewing leaders from selected initiatives. The team’s research informed a report on findings related to foster parent retention that was shared with the North Carolina Collaborative to support The Division of Social Services agencies and resource parents across the state.

Timing

Summer 2025 – Summer 2026 

Team Outputs

Systems mapping framework to collect data on foster parent retention strategies

Compilation and analysis of resource parent support and retention programs

Interviews with program leaders

Report shared with the North Carolina Collaborative and DSS agencies across the state

Literature review on foster parent support and retention (In progress)

Strategies for Improving Foster Parent Retention and Support (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 15, 2026)

See earlier related team, Policy Strategies to Address Child Maltreatment (2024-2025).