1819 News: The Podcast Revolutionizing Foster Care: The Alabama Model Changing America w/ Lee Marshall
Feb 25, 2026
Lee Marshall, CEO and founder of Kids to Love, is a faith-driven reformer reshaping foster care with a privatized model and trauma treatment center. She discusses how privatization speeds permanency, protects siblings, supports mothers in recovery, trains clinicians, and scales a trauma-focused approach across counties and states.
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Privatized Foster Care Speeds Permanency
- Kids to Love privatized foster care in Alabama and uses licensed child-placing agency status while refusing state funds to speed permanency.
- Example: a mother voluntarily placed her child, TPR granted within months, and adoption completed in about a year and a half.
Voluntary Placement Led To Rapid Adoption
- A pregnant mom battling addiction voluntarily placed her baby with Kids to Love and met the foster family who agreed to adopt if reunification failed.
- Kids to Love pursued TPR and moved the child from juvenile to probate court, completing adoption in under two years.
Private Agencies Preserve Sibling And Mother Bonds
- Privatized agencies can keep sibling groups intact and prevent unnecessary separations that state systems might cause.
- A judge placed a teen mom and baby with Kids to Love to avoid separating them, preserving the mother–child bond.