Nebraska receives federal funding to use AI in the foster care system

Nebraska is getting $600,000 from the federal government to boost the use of technology in the foster care system. The three-year grant will fund artificial intelligence-powered predictive analytics to support the state’s foster care system.

Eight other states, plus one native nation and the District of Columbia, are each getting a piece of a $6 million grant from the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The money is meant to be spent on technologies that will use existing data and predictive analytic models to measure if families are low risk and can stay together or if a child should be placed in the foster care system. According to a news release, this will help lower the number of children in foster care. It will also help place children with foster families.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services will use the funds to create a new program called “TRACK,” or timely review, analytics and coordination for kids. The department said in a news release that the program will use data to identify which children or families are at a higher risk of abuse, give families resources to prevent abuse and find ways to keep children with their families. It will also give caseworkers more information on placement and reunification to give children a more stable, permanent home.

“The safety and well-being of Nebraska’s children will always be our top priority,” Gov. Jim Pillen said in the release. “This grant gives Nebraska an important opportunity to strengthen our child welfare system by using data to inform decisions, improve outcomes, and help ensure children receive support when they need it most.”

The Nebraska Foster Care Review Office estimates there are nearly 4,000 children in out-of-home care or trial home visits. The U.S. Department of Education estimates there are around 400,000 foster children nationwide.

Initiated by an executive order from President Donald Trump late last year, the grant funds are part of a larger effort to support overworked caseworkers and children both in and out of the foster care system. In the order, Trump directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to offer states technological solutions, including tools powered by artificial intelligence.

“Our Nation’s children and youth — and the families who care for them — deserve better,” Trump wrote in the order. “To that end, my Administration…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.”

In addition to expressing sympathy for foster children and the caseworkers struggling to handle large amounts of cases, Trump’s order takes issue with policies from states that limit foster child placement with families based on religion or “moral convictions.”

This pushes back on a policy under President Joe Biden’s administration that prohibited placing foster children with families that do not want to use a transgender child’s preferred name and pronouns or ones that might create hostile environments for children who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. It also required families to take training that would help them support a foster child’s identity.

Attorneys general from 19 states, including Nebraska, joined Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall in opposing that policy, calling it discriminatory and raising concerns that it would limit viable homes for foster children. Trump’s order turns foster policy on its head by encouraging states to increase their partnerships with faith-based agencies to recruit foster families.