On this Headlines edition of The Imprint Weekly Podcast, we start with a discussion of three medication-assisted treatments for substance use that the Trump administration has cleared for federal child welfare funding.

Also discussed on this episode: new national data on abuse and neglect investigations, Georgia’s budget woes, and two alarming indicators of the workforce crisis in youth justice. 

Reading Room

Top Trump Health Officials Announce New Funding for Opioid Addiction Treatment To Prevent Foster Care Removals 

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/top-trump-health-officials-announce-new-funding-for-opioid-addiction-treatment-to-prevent-foster-care-removals/270780

Rolling Out the Welcome Mat for Prevention

https://imprintnews.org/uncategorized/rolling-out-the-welcome-mat-for-prevention/270728

Maltreatment Reports, Victims and Fatalities All Down in 2024

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/maltreatment-reports-victims-and-fatalities-all-down-in-2024/270409

Child Maltreatment 2024

https://acf.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cb/cm2024.pdf

Georgia Child Welfare Cuts Called ‘Unacceptable,’ House Proposes Budget to Relieve Foster Care Deficit 

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/georgia-child-welfare-cuts-called-unacceptable-house-proposes-budget-to-relieve-foster-care-deficit/270856

‘Where I Felt Loved:’ Renovated Housing Complex Supports Georgia Foster Youth Transitioning to Independence

https://imprintnews.org/foster-care/where-i-felt-loved-renovated-housing-complex-supports-georgia-foster-youth-transitioning-to-independence/270632

Beshear Wants More Juvenile Detention Centers. KY Can’t Staff Existing Ones

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article314389699.html

‘Worse Than Rikers’: Lawsuit Claims Abusive Use of Solitary Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Lockups

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/ny-official-responds-to-reports-of-abusive-conditions-in-youth-detention-facilities/270814

On this week’s episode we talk to Don Wells, the Chief Empowerment Officer at Just In Time, which is a San Diego based organization working to support and mentor older foster youth on their path to adulthood. 

President Trump signed an executive order on foster care at the end of 2025 which instructed his Department of Health and Human Services on some priorities for federal policy around improved data and evaluation, more support for older foster youth, and more efforts to include faith-based persons and organizations in child welfare services.

The Imprint recently published an op-ed from Wells, who felt that the president’s order misses the mark on what is needed from the federal government to better support foster youth. He joined the podcast to speak further about his views on the Trump order, about what Just in Time does on the community level to help foster youth, and more. 

Don Wells is the Chief Empowerment Officer at Just In Time. He is a recent recipient of the Casey Excellence for Children Leadership Award

Reading Room

Don Wells of Just in Time for Foster Youth Honored with Casey Excellence for Children Leadership Award
https://www.thevistapress.com/don-wells-of-just-in-time-for-foster-youth-honored-with-casey-excellence-for-children-leadership-award/

Just in Time for Foster Youth

https://jitfosteryouth.org/

With New Executive Order, Trump Thrusts Foster Care Into National Spotlight

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/with-new-executive-order-trump-thrusts-foster-care-into-national-spotlight/268739

Fostering the Future for American Children and Families

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/11/fostering-the-future-for-american-children-and-families/

In this restorative Season 3 premiere of InnerViews, host Ivory Bennett reunites with Dr. Alison Davis for a soulful conversation on renewal, emotional safety, and intentional becoming. Together, they reflect on the lessons of the past season, explore what no longer serves them, and name what deserves to be carried forward. This episode invites listeners to pause, breathe, and consider how healing, boundaries, and self-compassion can shape the life they’re building next.

Last week, the Baltimore Sun’s Jean Marbella reported on a lawsuit filed on behalf of youth in the state’s foster care system who had been left in hospital wards with no plan for a return to the community. 

While the lawsuit focuses on events in the past two years, this has been a problem for far longer than that in Maryland. In 2022, we were joined by Erin Dorrien and Carrie Etheridge to discuss this exact issue of kids getting stuck in the hospital well after anyone thinks they need to be there.

Dorrien and Etheridge explained exactly how and why this had become such a challenge in Maryland’s child welfare system, and what they were hoping the legislature could do to improve the situation. Today we are re-releasing that interview. 

Erin Dorrien is an associate principal at Health Management Associates. At the time this interview was recorded, she was vice president of policy for the Maryland Hospital Association. Carrie Etheridge is the director of social work at Sheppard Pratt.

Original release date: May 2, 2022

Reading Room

144 Maryland Foster Children Were Stuck in Hospitals, Sometimes for Months, after Doctors Cleared Them

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2026/01/15/foster-care-hospitals-children/

Maryland H.B. 406: Children in Out-Of-Home Placements
https://bit.ly/3P1Xp6y

Stranded in the ER: Can California Change its Treatment of Kids in Crisis?
https://bit.ly/3B41pMu

In our first podcast of 2026, we discuss new data on the administration’s goal of A Home for Every Child, a new leader for the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Trump’s freezing of safety net funds in five states, and more. 

Reading Room

Why We Are Putting the PIP on a PIP 

https://imprintnews.org/opinion/why-we-are-putting-the-pip-on-a-pip/269784

How States Stack Up on Trump’s “A Home for Every Child” Agenda

https://bit.ly/4qmHcLo

Trump Administration Issues Deadline Demands Before Releasing Children’s Aid 

https://bit.ly/4sDYV2u

Alex Adams Seeks Names in Hasty Push For Personal Data of Minnesota Social Service and Foster Care Recipients

https://bit.ly/4jIUgbC

Trump Administration Cancels Several DEI-Related Child Welfare Grants

https://bit.ly/3Nt2SH3

Feds Asks 39 States To Stop Taking Foster Kids’ Benefits

https://bit.ly/4qjraC5

President Trump Has Made His Pick for the Federal Children’s Bureau

https://bit.ly/4sDYFjO

Foster Care and Child Maltreatment Mortality Rates in the US

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2843235

SOHO Forum: Should CPS intervene more?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0462gYjkbc

The Other Trump Child Welfare Doctrine Issued This Month

https://imprintnews.org/subscriber-content/the-other-trump-child-welfare-doctrine-issued-this-month/268999

Candice Broce Faces Lawmakers About Georgia’s Child Welfare Budget Crisis

https://bit.ly/4jIs7kW

New York Governor Signs Law to End Anonymous Reporting of Child Maltreatment

https://imprintnews.org/child-welfare-2/new-york-governor-signs-law-to-end-anonymous-reporting-of-child-maltreatment/269804

The Number of Children in Los Angeles County Foster Care Has Plunged. The Imprint Set Out To Discover Why

https://bit.ly/456MbqZ

How An Indigenous Mom’s Adoption Journey Inspired Her Nonprofit

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/three-precious-miracles-arizona-nonprofit/269711

Crisis Confidential: Things We Learned So You Don’t Have To

https://imprintnews.org/opinion/crisis-confidentialthings-learned/269818

As always, we were fortunate to have some amazing guests join us this year on The Imprint Weekly Podcast. In this episode we feature clips of 12 great interviews from 2025. 

If you enjoy this podcast, or the great work our reporters do at The Imprint and
Fostering Families Today, and the work that our Youth Voices Rising team does,
please consider making a donation. And if you do so this month, during
Newsmatch, your donation will get doubled!

Fostering Media Connections is very lucky to have some terrific philanthropic supporters, advertisers and sponsors, and subscribers to our business and policy section that help make this organization go. But we really cannot do it without donors like you who read our stuff, listen to our podcasts and attend our online
events. 

There are tons of really great nonprofit, independent news outlets to support out there, and we hope you consider us one of them. To give today it’s easy! Visit www.imprintnews.org/donate.

Liz Ryan, former administrator, U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Linda Spears, CEO, Child Welfare League of America

Kelley Fong, assistant professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine

Amy Harfeld, national policy director and senior staff attorney, Children's
Advocacy Institute

Sacha Klein, associate professor, Michigan State University School of Social Work

Alex Briscoe, co-founder, Public Works Alliance

Brandon Nichols, director, Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services

Barissa Ford, director of community outreach and engagement, Youth In Need

Claudia Rowe, editorial writer, Seattle Times, author of Wards of the State

Gretchen Sisson, qualitative sociologist, University of California, San Francisco,
author of Relinquished

Vinny Schiraldi, visiting fellow, Pinkerton Foundation

Alex Adams, assistant secretary for family support, Administration for Children and Families

We will post our annual “Best of The Imprint Weekly Podcast” show next, but this is the last new episode of 2025. Frequent guest Marina Nitze, a child welfare and tech expert, joined to discuss the flurry of federal activity on child welfare since the end of the federal shutdown. 

Marina Nitze is a crisis engineer helping organizations solve mission-critical challenges, with a particular focus on improving America’s child welfare system. She’s co-author of Crisis Engineering and Hack Your Bureaucracy, and helps organize the Child Welfare Playbook.

Reading Room

White House Watch

https://imprintnews.org/special-series/white-house-watch

Kinship Licensing, with Marina Nitze

https://imprintnews.org/podcast/headlines-kinship-licensing-marina-nitze

The Child Welfare Playbook, with Marina Nitze

https://imprintnews.org/podcast/child-welfare-playbook-marina-nitze

On this week's episode, Imprint reporter Michael Fitzgerald was in Washington last week to interview Alex Adams, who was confirmed in October to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Family Support at the Administration for Children and Families.

Fitzgerald asked Adams about a wide range of subjects. They discussed the administration’s goal of “A Home for Every Child” and how Adams plans to achieve that; how and why he plans to "barbecue" much of the regulatory language for states when it comes to federal funding and practice; why the administration has made demands that states roll back policies that are meant to protect LGBTQ+ youth; the role of kinship caregivers; and much more. 

Thanks to iFoster and Binti for sponsoring this episode of The Imprint Weekly Podcast.

Reading Room

It’s Newsmatch season! Please consider donating to support this podcast and the
incredible work that our Imprint reporters do every day. If you donate this
month, your contribution will be DOUBLED!

www.Imprintnews.org/donate

White House Watch: Our Ongoing Coverage

https://imprintnews.org/special-series/white-house-watch

Alex Adams Nominated to Lead Administration for Children and Families

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/alex-adams-nominated-to-lead-administration-for-children-and-families/259907

Trump’s Child Welfare Leader Vows to Protect Benefits Paid to Foster Youth

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/adams-vows-curb-abusive-practice-foster-youth-benefits/268451

Trump Appointee Demands States Roll Back Foster Parenting Rules That Aim to Protect LGBTQ+ Youth 

https://bit.ly/453vaxF

Trump’s Child Welfare Leader Vows to Protect Benefits Paid to Foster Youth

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/adams-vows-curb-abusive-practice-foster-youth-benefits/268451

Idaho Child Welfare Leader Pushed Rapid Reforms in Brief Tenure Before Trump Appointment To Federal Office

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/idaho-child-welfare-leader-pushed-rapid-reforms-in-brief-tenure-before-trump-nomination-to-federal-office/267413

Oregon Senator Presses Trump Admin for Action on Foster Care, Head Start and Migrant Youth

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/oregon-senator-presses-trump-admin-for-action-on-foster-care-head-start-and-migrant-youth/268868

Acronyms and initials used in this interview:

TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

CFSR: Child and Family Services Reviews

PIP: Program Improvement Plan

APSR: Annual Progress and Services Report

SSBG: Social Services Block Grant

CSBG: Community Services Block Grant

RGA Republic Governors Association

FYI: Foster Youth to Independence

ETV: Chafee Education and Training Voucher

On this week’s podcast Maddy Day of Maddy Day and Associates joins to talk about what it takes to provide stability on college campuses for youth who have experienced aging out of foster care, homelessness or both. She is helping to coordinate a Congressional briefing planned for 2026 on the subject. 

It’s Newsmatch season! Please consider donating to support this podcast and the incredible work that our Imprint reporters do every day. If you donate this month, your contribution will be DOUBLED!

www.Imprintnews.org/donate

Maddy Day is the founder of Maddy Day and Associates. She co-founded the University of Washington Champions Program, in 2010, and directed the Fostering Success Michigan statewide initiative at Western Michigan University until 2018.

Reading Room

Why Isn’t Community College Working for So Many Foster Youth?https://imprintnews.org/podcast/why-community-college-not-working-so-many-foster-youth

Making my Dream of Attending College Possible

https://imprintnews.org/youth-voice/making-my-dream-of-attending-college-possible/64932

Grieving the Loss of Housing and My Mother While Navigating College as a Foster Youth

https://imprintnews.org/youth-voice/grieving-the-loss-of-housing-and-my-mother-while-navigating-college-as-a-foster-youth/65080

The Imprint’s Archive of Education

https://imprintnews.org/topic/education

President Trump’s White House event announcing an executive order on foster care got a lot of attention. But it is not the only indicator of what the administration might have in mind for policy making in child welfare during his second term. We dive into the specifics of the executive order and several other interesting announcements from Trump’s team, then step back and try to describe the big picture. 

It’s Newsmatch season! Please consider donating to support this podcast and the incredible work that our Imprint reporters do every day. If you donate this month, your contribution will be DOUBLED!

www.Imprintnews.org/donate

Reading Room

2025 Imprint Reporting Highlights Discussion, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 10am PST/1pm EST

https://imprintnews.org/event/2025-imprint-reporting-highlights

With New Executive Order, Trump Thrusts Foster Care Into National Spotlight

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/with-new-executive-order-trump-thrusts-foster-care-into-national-spotlight/268739

The Other Trump Child Welfare Doctrine Issued This Month

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/the-other-trump-child-welfare-doctrine-issued-this-month/268999

Trump Administration Says It’s Aiming to Significantly Increase Foster Home Capacity

https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/trump-administration-to-increase-foster-home-capacity/268969

Trump’s Child Welfare Leader Vows to Protect Benefits Paid to Foster Youth

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/adams-vows-curb-abusive-practice-foster-youth-benefits/268451

Trump Administration Grants Waiver Permitting Discrimination by Child Welfare Providers

https://imprintnews.org/featured/trump-grants-waiver-permitting-discrimination-by-child-welfare-providers/33541

Designated Placements In, Conversion Therapy Out: Biden’s Rule for LGBTQ+ Foster Youth

https://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/new-biden-rule-lgbtq-placements-in-conversion-therapy-out/249274

Tech Alphabet Soup and Child Welfare, with Carole Hussey

https://imprintnews.org/podcast/tech-alphabet-soup-child-welfare