Trump signs order championed by first lady to boost foster care

Skylar Woodhouse and Catherine Lucey, Bloomberg News on Nov 13, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand foster care services to children moving out of the system into adulthood, bolstering one of first lady Melania Trump’s initiatives.

“We are going to protect American children in foster care, and we’re going to ensure that they will never, ever be forgotten,” Trump said at a White House event on Thursday, where he was joined by the first lady and foster families.

Trump said the initiative would help those leaving the foster-care system to grow into “wealthy, productive citizens.”

The order establishes a “Fostering the Future” program to secure support from the government, private sector, nonprofits and academia to offer “new educational and employment pathways for youth transitioning out of foster care,” according to the White House.

It also authorizes the creation of an online platform to help current and former foster children find resources and increases access to education and training vouchers as well as federal grants to support more “programs that promote educational success, workforce advancement, and financial literacy for young people transitioning out of care.”

And it aims to expand the use by states of scholarship programs funded by tax-credited donations to groups that provide scholarships to foster care children.

The first lady said the effort would “provide individuals from the foster care community the ability to secure an entry-level job position and, in turn, financial independence.”

“Fostering the Future sets these individuals on their career paths, but more significantly, it equips each scholarship recipient with the fundamental foundation of knowledge that will endure throughout their lifetimes, permanency for those who embody the fleeting,” she said.

Melania Trump in September announced Fostering the Future Together, a coalition of nations “committed to enhancing the well-being of children through the promotion of education, innovation, and technology.” Her office secured a $25 million investment to provide housing and support for youth transitioning out of foster care.

There are nearly 400,000 children in the foster care system and each year nearly 20,000 young people age out of the system, according to the National Foster Youth Institute.

In October, the first lady also announced that she had secured a line of communication with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which resulted in eight children separated by Russia’s war on Ukraine being reunited with their families.

Russia has faced accusations that it forcibly abducted children — numbering nearly 20,000 — from Ukraine, starting in 2014 and intensifying after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. The first lady wrote a letter to Putin in August, calling for peace on behalf of children being affected by the war.