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
Meet Dean, an amazing young man who is sure to make a wonderful addition to the right family! Dean describes his best feature as his personality and sees himself as a cool kid who is smart and funny and as someone who understands hard times and likes to help others whenever he can. This eclectic boy has such a fun mixture of interests! Do you like to bbq? Dean does as well and enjoys being in charge of the steaks. He also loves sushi, mashed potatoes with gravy and can bake some really great chocolate chip cookies! If sports are your thing, Dean loves playing and watching both basketball and football, especially when it comes to rooting on his favorite teams, the Lakers and the Chiefs. Dean is a big fan of his math and science classes at school and is looking forward to when the time comes to dissect a frog! He also loves learning about all things computer related and hopes to one day go to college and become a technology specialist. Understanding complex technology will be so helpful when he someday realizes his biggest dream-going to space!
Like most pre-teens, Dean enjoys playing video games but also loves to watch all kinds of movies and to read, his favorite series right now is Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He likes to spend time with family playing card games and just might beat you every time in a rousing game of Uno! Traveling is another activity that Dean really enjoys and he has a big goal of someday traveling to Italy, because it looks so beautiful. Thanksgiving and Christmas are this sweet boys’ favorite holidays and he looks forward to everything about them, especially all of the delicious food and the family time spent together. Though he likes listening to all kinds of music, listening to Christmas music throughout the holiday season is one of his favorite things to do.
Dean’s Permanency Team is searching for a family who will be active and engaged with him and can provide him with structure and clear expectations, while also being easy going and understanding. Dean finds emotional regulation in being able to have conversations about how he is feeling with the trusted adults in his life when he’s struggling with something. Caregivers who are patient, good communicators and who have a good understanding about trauma, grief and loss will be a wonderful match for Dean. Dean’s Team is open to Idaho families, as well as out of state families, and is ideally searching for a family where he can be the only child in the home. A family with a stay at home parent would be an added bonus for him!
Dean has been working hard on overcoming his past hurts and is looking forward to finding a Forever Family who will not give up on him when he goes through hard times. Every single day in Foster Care is one too many for this deserving, resilient young man and he is counting down the days until he has a family to call his own, where he feels as though he truly belongs. If you think that Dean may be a great fit for your family, we would love to hear from you. Follow the steps below!
The Idaho Wednesday's Child Program prioritizes the safety and security of children, above all else. In an effort to protect the safety of the youth we serve, our process requires families to possess a current, approved adoption home study. Only families with a current home study can view youth's full profiles with videos and photos and submit inquiries, on the Secure Gallery Page.