Retention

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About this topic

Most child welfare systems are struggling to retain experienced foster parents who are increasingly exiting due to burnout or frustration.

Why this matters

Retaining quality foster homes reduces the need to recruit new homes, and over time, creates experienced homes that can support youth with higher levels of need.

What we can do

  • Proactively prevent burnout. This is hard to do in practice, but if a family did really well with a child with complex needs, the last thing you should do is call them the next morning to take another complicated case. Check in with families to provide a break, an ear, or even grief counseling — whatever they need to fully prepare to take a future placement.
  • Show appreciation for current families. It can be easy to take foster families for granted. Even small showings of appreciation can help them
  • Build community When a foster family is part of a community of families, they are more likely to remain engaged.
  • Carefully define retention goals. If a family doesn't renew their license because they just adopted a sibling group of three from foster care, or because it's clear to everyone early on that fostering isn't right for them, that's not a failure — that's a success. Similarly, a family not renewing because they moved or are going through unrelated personal circumstances (like a divorce or illness) don't indicate a system failure. You want to focus your retention efforts on the families that are well-suited to supporting your children.
  • Talk to your existing families Getting their feedback early and often can help address smaller issues early on, before they blow up into big issues that make them want to quit. Real relationships are far superior to mailing out surveys.

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