Foster families deserve gratitude. But they need support too.

Across Rhode Island, children enter foster care every week because their homes are no longer safe — due to a range of complex factors, including family instability, abuse, unmet needs, or other family challenges. When that happens, we don’t just need shelter. We need people. We need families who can meet children where they are, offer compassion and consistency, and help them begin to heal.

The problem is, those families are getting harder to find.

According to the most recent data, approximately 1,272 children under the age of 21 are in the care of Rhode Island’s Department of Children Youth and Families (DCYF) and living in out-of-home placements. But the number of licensed foster homes is shrinking. Too often, children wait in hospitals, residential treatment facilities, or bounce between short-term placements simply because there’s nowhere else for them to go. In some cases, siblings are separated — not because it’s in their best interest, but because no one can take them together.

Foster parents have always been asked to do a lot. But today, they are doing more than ever: caring for children who have experienced complex trauma, navigating behavioral and medical challenges, and coordinating services across multiple systems — all while parenting.

And they are doing it with less. Fewer fellow foster parents to lean on. Less access to respite care. Fewer placements to share the load. Less certainty about the resources that will be there for them tomorrow.

Despite these challenges, foster parenting remains one of the most impactful roles a Rhode Islander can play. I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve seen teens placed in homes where they were listened to — maybe for the first time — and start to believe they matter. I’ve seen toddlers learn to sleep through the night again, and siblings reunited in a living room that’s suddenly filled with laughter.

What foster parents provide isn’t just shelter. It’s safety, consistency, and the hope of a brighter future.

And yet, we rarely talk about what these families need. We thank them in May, but gratitude isn’t enough. They need respite, mental health resources, community, and predictable support from the systems around them. They need to be treated not as temporary caregivers, but as essential partners in a child’s recovery and growth.

Policy conversations around foster care often center on recruitment — but recruitment is only part of the equation. Retention — ensuring that families stay engaged and supported over time — requires meaningful, sustained investment. That means adequate reimbursement rates, and timely, barrier-free access to the services they need, without having to navigate a maze of referrals or red tape. We need a “no wrong door” approach and a system of care that’s easy to understand and navigate.

It also means investing in a stable workforce — one where families aren’t met with long waitlists, and where workers have manageable caseloads and the capacity to provide consistent, compassionate support. And it means ensuring foster parents themselves have access to emotional support, ongoing training, and responsive systems of care.

What’s at stake isn’t just program success — it’s the well-being of children who’ve already lost too much.

If we want foster families to keep showing up, we must meet them there — with better support, stronger networks, and policies that reflect the gravity of what we ask them to do. Because every child who needs a foster home deserves one. And every person willing to open their home deserves our full support.

This Foster Care Awareness Month, let’s not only thank foster families. Let’s stand behind them — and ensure they’re not standing alone.