Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law a budget bill his office describes as a record investment in Idaho’s foster care system. 

Joined by foster families and Idaho health officials in front of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s downtown Boise office on Wednesday, Little signed Senate Bill 1208. 

The bill will add 63 new child welfare staff in Health and Welfare and grow the agency’s youth safety division budget by nearly $23.2 million, a 20.5% increase.

Much of the initiatives funded will focus on preventing kids in need of child welfare services from entering foster homes — by providing resources to help them remain in their biological families. 

“We all agree that children deserve to live carefree lives, free of abuse and neglect. We want Idaho children to grow up healthy, well-adjusted, safe. Yet Idaho has struggled to meet those needs of the most vulnerable child and those who live in their child welfare system,” Little said at the bill signing event.

Several watchdog reports by the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluations “have helped us understand the magnitude and that Idaho wasn’t doing enough,” the governor added. “That stops today.”

Officials also celebrated Idaho’s progress in improving its foster care system — pointing to the state’s reduced use of congregate care facilities, including the end of using short-term rentals like Airbnbs, to house kids in need of foster care. Officials reported they also drastically reduced the gap between the number of kids in need of foster care and the number of families willing to take them. 

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Alex Adams called the agency’s foster care outcome improvement focus a team effort that leaned on support from foster families, and nonprofit and community organizations. 

Little also nodded at President Donald Trump’s recent appointment of Adams to a federal health position. “Matter of fact, it’s such a good deal that Donald Trump’s stealing my guy away,” Little said. 

The new budget bill increases funding and allows new Idaho Department of Health and Welfare employees for the 2026 fiscal year, which starts in July. 

But the budget bill, set by the Idaho Legislature’s powerful budget committee, conditions some of the new staff and funds on the agency achieving at least an even number of foster families and foster kids by January 2026. 

If Health and Welfare doesn’t meet a 1:1 foster family to kid ratio by then, the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, or JFAC, will evaluate removing eight of the new employees and $663,000 of the funds, the bill says.

Responding to questions from reporters, Adams said JFAC set a more modest goal than the department’s 1.5:1 ratio goal. “We want to be a state where families are waiting on kids, not kids waiting on families,” he said. 

Health and Welfare is just shy of hitting JFAC’s goal already, Adams said, as it has narrowed the ratio from 74 families per 100 kids a few months ago to 94 families per 100 kids now.

“We’re confident we’re going to hit (JFAC’s goal),” he said. “… We’re confident in this investment that it’s going to make a meaningful difference.”

In prevention focus, Health and Welfare confident foster kids will stay safe

One of Health and Welfare’s goals in seeking the new foster care budget funds was to focus on boosting prevention resources. That’s in hopes of keeping more kids safely in their biological homes, rather than in foster care, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported.

Asked about concern if some kids who need care won’t get it, Little replied “there will be some kids that don’t get through there. But we’re going to pick up so many more.”

Asked if the agency will have enough resources to avoid kids getting harmed amid the prevention focus, officials referenced resources that they hope will stabilize rough home situations. 

Out of the 63 new staffers the bill provides, 36 staff will be focused on prevention — growing the agency’s prevention team to 50 staff in total, Adams said. That team will oversee homes, connecting families to services like mental health and substance abuse treatment, he said. 

The early investments in prevention are key, Little said.

“This is where we’re putting money in early, putting it in and helping to stop that flow of these kids from a somewhat troubled past to a real troubled past. And it makes them productive citizens,” he said. “It’s a win-win situation with investment. And this is a very bold investment, so I’m proud of what we’ve done.”