Foster Parents Network Analytics Hub (HUB) - The Foster Parent Network Analytics Hub will strengthen the nation’s capacity to understand and sustain foster parent networks by developing the first standardized, longitudinal analytic infrastructure centered on foster homes and linked to foster children. Working alongside the Children’s Bureau, the Center for State Child Welfare Data at Chapin Hall, APHSA, and the National Adoption Association will help agencies generate evidence from administrative data and use it in policy, management, and practice decisions. The project addresses a fundamental gap in child welfare management. Although foster parents are essential to stable and timely family-based placements, most agencies lack longitudinal information about foster home recruitment, licensing, availability, utilization, retention, capacity, and performance. Federal reporting focuses primarily on children and lacks home-level records needed to follow foster homes, link them to children served, anticipate capacity strain, or assess management strategies. The Hub will work with state, territorial, and Tribal agencies to construct standardized foster home records from licensing, provider-management, placement, and child-level data. Each jurisdiction will implement seven Common Data Model base files, an Integrated Longitudinal Analysis File, data-quality and linkage standards, and a Foster Home Network Profile. Reusable modules will produce comparable measures of recruitment, utilization, capacity, retention, attrition, and placement dynamics, supporting longitudinal analysis, forecasting, dashboards, and cross-jurisdictional comparison. The Hub will pair evidence generation with agencies’ capability to interpret, apply, and learn from evidence. Through the Evidence-Driven Growth & Excellence framework, executive education, technical assistance, coaching, peer learning, and Baseline-Target-Actual review cycles, leaders and staff will connect findings to theories of change and decisions about recruitment, foster parent support, retention, placement matching, capacity, budgeting, and strategy. The Center will lead oversight, analytics, quality assurance, and evidence-use content; APHSA will lead governmental readiness, governance, and cross-jurisdictional learning; and NAA will engage practitioners, caregivers, young adults, and community partners. The National Observatory will maintain common definitions, benchmarks, analytic specifications, reusable code, guidance, and learning resources. A National Learning Network will connect practitioner, caregiver, community, and agency audiences so implementation experience improves Hub methods, tools, and technical assistance. Three cohorts of four jurisdictions will be established in Years 1–3, followed by a self-build quality-assurance pathway designed to reach 24 jurisdictions by Year 5. Expected results include capability to produce and maintain rigorous foster home evidence; adoption of standardized methods; recurring evidence use in agency decisions; broader access to validated national resources; and stronger stewardship of foster parent networks. Participating jurisdictions are expected to improve from their baselines in recruitment and licensing, utilization, retention, capacity alignment, placement matching, disruption, and stability. By combining better evidence with stronger evidence use, the Hub will establish an enduring national capability that advances A Home for Every Child and improves outcomes for children and families.
