[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 221 (Wednesday, November 19, 2025)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 52227-52229]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-20406]
[[Page 52225]]
Vol. 90
Wednesday,
No. 221
November 19, 2025
Part III
The President
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Executive Order 14359--Fostering the Future for American Children and
Families
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 90 , No. 221 / Wednesday, November 19, 2025 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 52227]]
Executive Order 14359 of November 13, 2025
Fostering the Future for American Children and
Families
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy. My Administration is
dedicated to empowering mothers and fathers to raise
their children in safe and loving homes. When crises
prevent such an arrangement, our Nation's foster care
system must be ready to serve children in need. Today's
foster care system must be improved in a number of
important ways.
Children often stay in foster care for years, and those
who transition out due to age frequently face uncertain
futures without the support systems essential to
educational, career, and relational success. Many
caseworkers are overburdened. Information systems are
often outdated. Some jurisdictions and organizations
maintain policies that discourage or prohibit qualified
families from serving children in need as foster and
adoptive parents because of their sincerely-held
religious beliefs or adherence to basic biological
truths.
Our Nation's children and youth--and the families who
care for them--deserve better. To that end, my
Administration, with special leadership from the First
Lady, will harness Federal support, technology, and
strategic partnerships to provide young Americans in or
transitioning out of the foster care system with the
tools they need to become successful adults.
Sec. 2. Modernizing the Child Welfare System. (a) The
Secretary of Health and Human Services shall, within
180 days of the date of this order, take appropriate
action to:
(i) update applicable regulations, policies, and practices to improve the
collection, publication, utility, and transparency of State-level child-
welfare data, including by improving collection of data and information
indicative of child well-being and safety, eliminating duplicative or
unnecessary high-cost and low-value reporting requirements, and expanding
and expediting child-welfare data publication;
(ii) promote modernization of State child-welfare information systems and
use of the most effective foster care management and outcome-tracking
platforms, including by incorporating such modernization efforts as part of
information exchanged with or technical assistance provided to States;
(iii) expand States' use of technological solutions, including predictive
analytics and tools powered by artificial intelligence, to increase
caregiver recruitment and retention rates, improve caregiver and child
matching, and deploy Federal child-welfare funding to maximally effective
purposes and recipients; and
(iv) publish annually a scorecard that measures and is used to evaluate
State-level achievement of key outcomes and metrics that reduce unnecessary
entries into foster care, decrease the time between reports of child
maltreatment and investigations, reduce child injuries and fatalities
caused by caregiver neglect and abuse, increase caregiver recruitment and
retention, improve caregiver and child matching, reduce placement
disruptions, decrease the average time that children spend in foster care,
accelerate permanent placement for children, and increase partnerships and
collaboration with appropriate non-governmental entities, including faith-
based organizations.
[[Page 52228]]
Sec. 3. Fostering the Future. The Secretary of Health
and Human Services, in coordination with the Office of
the First Lady and heads of other relevant executive
departments and agencies (agencies) shall, within 180
days of the date of this order:
(a) establish a ``Fostering the Future'' initiative
to develop partnerships with agencies and leading
private sector organizations, academic institutions,
and non-profit entities to create new educational and
employment opportunities for individuals who are in or
are transitioning out of the foster care system;
(b) develop a plan to launch, in conjunction with
the National Design Studio, a ``Fostering the Future''
online platform to help individuals who have been in
foster care by assessing their current needs, providing
guidance regarding accessing Federal, State, and local
programs and services for which they are eligible,
including housing, education, employment, healthcare,
and mentoring services offering a searchable database
of those and other available resources, and generating
customized plans that support their self-sufficiency
and success;
(c) develop a strategy to reallocate funds returned
by States from Federal programs designed to assist
individuals transitioning out of foster care so that
such returned funds are used to promote educational
success, occupational advancement, and financial
literacy and self-sufficiency for individuals
transitioning out of foster care;
(d) increase flexibility in Education and Training
Vouchers to expand access for individuals transitioning
out of foster care to short-term, career-focused, and
credential-awarding programs; and
(e) facilitate, in coordination with the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Secretary of Education, State
use of educational scholarships created through tax-
credited donations to scholarship-granting
organizations for children in foster care.
Sec. 4. Maximizing Partnerships with Americans of
Faith. The Secretary of Health and Human Services, in
coordination with the Director of the White House Faith
Office and the Director of the White House Office of
Intergovernmental Affairs, shall:
(a) take appropriate action to address State and
local policies and practices that inappropriately
prohibit participation in federally-funded child-
welfare programs by qualified individuals or
organizations based upon their sincerely-held religious
beliefs or moral convictions; and
(b) take appropriate action to increase
partnerships between agencies and faith-based
organizations and houses of worship to serve families
whose children have been placed in foster care or are
at risk of being placed in foster care.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order
shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
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(d) The costs for publication of this order shall
be borne by the Department of Health and Human
Services.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
November 13, 2025.
[FR Doc. 2025-20406
Filed 11-18-25; 11:15 am]
Billing code 4150-28-P