Collaborative approach helps stabilize Oklahoma foster care

The Oklahoman: Guest Columnist, Katherine Craig

As the Executive Director of a private foster care agency serving children and families across the central part Oklahoma, I have the privilege of seeing both the strength of our child welfare system and the very real challenges it continues to face. It is an incredible privilege witnessing families step forward in extraordinary ways balanced with the heartbreak of seeing traumatized children waiting, sometimes far longer than they should, for a safe home after entering foster care.

In early 2025, national child welfare leaders formally elevated a clear and urgent goal known as A Home for Every Child.This focus has been reinforced through federal action that made foster home availability a central measure of how well systems are serving children. The idea is straightforward. When a child must enter foster care, there should already be a safe nurturing home waiting for them. This renewed national emphasis reflects what many of us in Oklahoma have long known. Children do best when they are cared for in families, not offices or other temporary spaces.

Here in Oklahoma, we know what happens when there are not enough foster homes to meet the need. Over the past five years our state has experienced a net loss of nearly six hundred fifty foster homes, causing the need for placement options to become critical. The impact of that loss is not theoretical. Children are waiting for a safe and appropriate placement, siblings are separated because no single home can take them together, and children are being placed in homes already caring for the maximum number of children allowed. These realities are not the result of a lack of commitment or effort. They are the result of a widening gap between the number of children who need care and the number of families stepping up to provide it. 

What makes this moment especially important is that Oklahoma has already demonstrated what is possible when a community comes together around child welfare. For more than a decade the state worked under the Pinnacle Plan, a comprehensive improvement effort developed to strengthen Oklahoma foster care. That work required partnership, persistence, and shared responsibility across state government, private agencies, courts, advocates, and community members. In 2025, federal oversight under the Pinnacle Plan formally concluded, marking a significant milestone in Oklahoma child welfare reform and reflecting years of progress.

Those improvements did not happen by accident. Oklahoma intentionally leaned into community-based providers, faith partners, and private agencies to help support families and children. That collaborative approach helped stabilize the system, reduce the number of children in state custody, and move the state forward. It is proof that when Oklahoma invests in partnership, children benefit.

But progress does not mean the work is finished. As someone who works daily with foster families and children, I can tell you that the need for foster homes remains urgent. Children entering care today still need safe homes while their families are given the time and support to address the challenges that brought them into care. The focus of child welfare has rightly remained on the well-being of children, but meeting that goal requires the support of the broader community. Foster families cannot do this alone and neither can agencies or the state.

Community support matters. We need employers who support foster parents, churches who surround families with encouragement, neighbors who offer practical help, but mostly we individuals who are willing to consider fostering so children are not left waiting.