Case Study: Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families achieves streamlined foster-care licensing — increasing kinship licensing from 11% to 70% and cutting licensing time from 160 to 60 days with Medallia

Ideas to transform foster care licensing, and childrens’ lives

The Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families faced an overburdened foster care licensing process that left only 11% of kinship caregivers licensed, delaying financial support and perpetuating inequities—barriers ranged from complex federal-based home standards that disadvantaged tribal homes to long processing times and socio-economic bias. To address this, Washington partnered with Medallia and used the Medallia Crowdicity idea collaboration platform to gather broad stakeholder input on licensing challenges and opportunities.

Using Medallia Crowdicity via the DCYF Innovation Hub, Medallia helped collect feedback from more than 3,000 stakeholders and surface 300+ actionable ideas; the state implemented immediate fixes (new technology, moving licensure online with an anticipated 90% uptake, launching a Caregiver Engagement Unit, and applying a race and equity lens) and organized longer-term legal and administrative changes. The Medallia-enabled effort produced measurable targets and early impacts—plans to increase licensed kinship caregivers from 11% to 70% and to reduce licensing timeframes from roughly 160 days to about 60 days, with several improvements already in effect.

Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families