Important program update
The Family Resource and Training Center wishes to extend a heartfelt thank you to every one of you who has had such a caring heart for the youth we have served through this program for the past 10 years.
Please read the information below outlining how the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare plans to continue its diligent efforts to find permanency for all children in foster care in Idaho.
Please complete inquiries for any youth you are interested in as soon as possible so that we may process your inquiry before our website closes.
July 28, 2026
To Our Community Partners,
The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare has been proud to partner with Eastern Washington University (EWU) and other community partners to recruit adoptive families for Idaho’s children in foster care. Since Idaho’s Wednesday’s Child began over 25 years ago, the landscape of adoption from foster care has changed yet there continues to be a need for child-specific recruitment for youth most in-need of a permanent home. Over the years the department has reorganized how permanency cases are managed to address this need and to achieve timely permanency for children who cannot return home. These changes include permanency workers “teaming” earlier with family services workers and the addition of a Family Find team to help identify previously unknown relatives and connections for our youth in care. Meanwhile, advances in technology and social media have resulted in increased risks related to public profiles causing Idaho and other states to consider the long-term impact to the youth featured.
The Idaho Department of Health & Welfare is in a position to innovate practices for child-specific recruitment while demonstrating fiscal responsibility. With this in mind, the contract for Wednesday’s Child, Waiting Families and intensive recruitment services is ending effective 09/30/2026. These services will be provided through Youth Safety & Permanency team members beginning October 1, 2026. During this transition, the current website for Idaho Wednesday’s Child will be unavailable while an updated website is created for both our waiting children and waiting families. Idaho will continue to use the AdoptUSKids website during the transition to ensure ongoing efforts to achieve permanency for waiting children.
Thank you for your continued support and advocacy on behalf of Idaho’s children.
Thank you,
Jean M. Fisher
Our program utilizes volunteer photographers to assist us in photographing the children we serve so that they can feel proud of the photos that accompany their online profile.
Idaho Wednesday's Child is unique because we partner with news stations across the state to provide our youth with a production day they won't forget. This special day involves our news anchors joining us for a fun activity that showcases the youth's interests and personality, all to be feautured on the evening news.
One of the ways that we make “Production Day” special for our kids is by providing them with a gift of some sort on the day of their production. The program is always in need of folks who wish to help out by donating toys, books, art supplies, gift cards, snacks, and other fun items in order for us to make gift bags for the children we serve.
Wednesday’s Child news production days could not occur without the generous partnering of local businesses in our communities who donate their time and allow our children to come to their venue and participate in fun activities while their news segment is being filmed.
Introducing our viewers to these amazing kids is, by far, the most rewarding thing I've done in my career. Trying to connect them with forever families is a mission I am passionate about! Children in foster care have been on my heart since I was a child, myself. I grew up next to neighbors who adopted (through a foster-to-adopt program). I couldn't understand why those children weren't in safe, loving families. It didn't seem fair. All those years later, that touched my heart, and since beginning Wednesday's Child in 2004 in the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene market, that passion took flight! In 2007, I co-founded a charity that clothes children in foster care, and in 2015 because a foster parent, myself. These children and their stories will forever be a part of who I am... and I will not stop advocating for them!
Every child deserves a loving home and I’m proud to help connect foster children with their forever families. Dee Sarton handed off Wednesday’s Child to me when she retired in 2019 from KTVB. She said I was the perfect person to continue advocating for the children in our community. I’m excited for the opportunity and promise to do my best for the foster care system.
