COEUR d’ALENE — When Tali Nichols was a 21-year-old newlywed, she didn’t plan to have children for a few years, maybe not until after she finished her degree in elementary education. 

Then she and her husband, Morgan, got a call that changed their lives.

A family member had lost custody of her baby, who was just six days old. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare was looking for kinship caregivers — relatives or close family friends who could care for the baby. 

“We had 24 hours to decide if we would take in a newborn baby,” Nichols recalled. 

They’ve raised the boy ever since. Two and a half years after he first came into their home, they adopted him. The 8-year-old boy has been joined by two biological siblings, aged 7 and 4, as well as many foster siblings over the years. 

“We’ve used this as an opportunity to show the love of God to others and what it means to be a family,” she said. 

The Nichols are among just 219 foster families in the five northern counties. There are about 1,500 foster children in Idaho at any given moment. The Idaho Department of Welfare needs to recruit more foster parents like the Nichols, with a goal of doubling the rate of qualified foster families in Idaho. 

In the near-decade since the Nichols began fostering, they’ve cared for 19 different children, ranging in age from newborns to older teens. Many of the children stayed with the Nichols only briefly, while relatives got licensed to provide kinship care. Others stayed for longer. 

“Foster care is this hidden crisis,” said Mishaela “Shae” Mouchette, Region 1 recruitment coordinator for Fostering Idaho. “People don’t know how many children are in foster care at their child’s school or in their church. They just don’t see it.” 

In North Idaho, the number of foster children is usually about equal to the number of foster homes, but most foster parents prefer to care for children under the age of 12. Only about 10% of foster parents are open to caring for teens, according to IDHW. 

“People are scared of teens,” Mouchette said. “Our goal is to show people that these are just kids. All they need is some love and some stability. They’re not to be feared.” 

When there are no foster homes available for teens, they must live in group homes. Mouchette said such settings can be damaging for teens who have already experienced trauma and instability. 

“It’s no way to live,” she said. “It doesn’t come close to being in a foster home and having one-on-one people there to love and care for you.” 

In addition to her role at Fostering Idaho, Mouchette is a foster mom. She and her husband became licensed in 2020. Their first long-term placement was a pair of siblings, a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy, whom they fostered for two years and ultimately adopted. They’ve also welcomed a biological son and will soon continue fostering. 

Mouchette emphasized that her family’s adoption experience is not typical and, in some ways, not ideal. The No. 1 goal of foster care is to reunite children with their biological parents or, barring that, with other biological relatives. 

About 65% of Idaho children in foster care are eventually reunited with their parents, Mouchette said. Most other children are permanently placed in the care of relatives, whether through guardianship or adoption.   

“It is a win every time a child is reunified with family,” she said.   

Many people become foster parents for the same reason as the Nichols did: to care for a specific child, typically that of a relative or a close friend, in an emergency. Of 219 foster families in North Idaho, 92 are providing kinship care for a specific child. 

“They can’t be called for an emergency placement,” Mouchette said. 

That’s why it’s important to increase the number of foster parents in Idaho. 

“Anybody who feels they have the capacity in their heart and their home, that’s who we’re looking for,” said Monty Prow, deputy director of youth and family services for IDHW. “We can work with you to get the rest of the way there. If a family’s heart is pulling them in this direction, the rest is detail. We can work that out.” 

Mouchette said some people mistakenly think they’re unsuitable for fostering because they’re unmarried, don’t own a home or don’t fit into another preconceived idea about what foster parents should be. But it takes all kinds. 

Foster parents can be single, married or divorced. They can live in apartments. They can be parents or have no parenting experience. They can be part of the LGBTQ+ community. They can come from any culture or religious faith. In fact, Mouchette said, foster parents from different backgrounds are needed because foster children come from diverse backgrounds, too. 

“They need people who will accept them for who they are,” Mouchette said. 

Social support and other resources are available for foster parents in Idaho. In addition to frequent group events where foster parents can meet and build community, each Region 1 foster parent has a mentor they can turn to when they need advice or support. 

“That is a huge support that other states don’t have,” Mouchette said. 

Respite care options are available for foster parents who need a break. Both Nichols and Mouchette have provided respite care for other foster families. 

Foster parents also receive a monthly reimbursement to offset the costs of caring for children. This reimbursement is a flat amount based on the child’s age, beginning at $632 per month for children aged 5 and younger and topping out at $759 per month for children aged 13 to 17. 

Nichols said she and her husband will continue to foster for the foreseeable future. 

“We’ll be there as long as the kids need us,” she said. “It’s hard. You can’t go in with blinders on. You have to be aware of the struggles and be willing to embrace grief. But there is so much joy and so much healing. It’s always more than you expect at the beginning.”  

To learn more about foster care for prospective families, call 211 or 800-926-2588 or visit the foster care page on the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare website. 

As wildfires continue to pop up across Idaho and the U.S., it’s important they everyone be aware of the burn bans and restrictions currently in effect in their area.

Southern Idaho has several burn bans in place as of July, including Ada County, Canyon County, Owyhee County and Payette County. All outdoor burning is prohibited in counties with burn bans.

Several counties, including Elmore and Boise County, have varying burn restrictions. Boise County has an Open Burning Ban in effect, which prohibits any open fires on private lands between July 1 and October 20. This ban doesn’t prohibit campfires in “appropriate structures” at private residences.

According to Idaho Department of Lands, individuals living outside city limits anywhere in Idaho who plan to burn for any reason — including crop residue burning and excluding recreational campfires — from May 10 to October 20, must obtain a fire safety burn permit.

For the full map of burn bans and restrictions across Idaho, go to deq.idaho.gov.

Idaho’s chief election officer believes there could be a significant price tag to purchase equipment that can do ranked choice voting tabulation if the proposed Open Primaries initiative were to pass in November.

Supporters argue that it could be cheaper than he is anticipating, and that the result is worth the cost.

Secretary of State Phil McGrane wrote to the Legislative Council on July 3 to outline the information he found from researching other states who implemented ranked choice voting, and he said it cost between $25 million and $40 million to get new equipment capable of tabulating the ranked choice ballots.

“Now the petition has ripened to the point that it’s headed to the voters, I thought it was important to get some of the information out there in terms of what are the practical implications related to all this,” McGrane said in a phone interview.

He said he wanted the legislators, who would be in charge of appropriating and potentially legislating how to implement this, to be aware of some of his findings.

The Open Primaries initiative, which would create a primary election open to all voters regardless of political affiliation and implement ranked-choice voting for the general election, turned in enough signatures on July 2 to clear it to appear on the November ballot.

McGrane said he has been careful not to weigh in on the “philosophical” arguments about the initiative and did not provide his position on the idea itself because he is both the member of the executive branch who oversees the initiative process and as well as the top election officer who will implement changes if the initiative passes.

“Given my dual roles here, I am mindful of my outsized voice in the petition process and elections,” he wrote in the letter. “My office has received many questions from people on both sides of this issue along the way, many of which we were not initially able to answer. I have tried to ensure we have approached this thoughtfully and done our due diligence.”

Changing to the top four open primary could result in a savings for many counties, McGrane wrote, because every voter would receive the same ballot instead of separate pre-printed ballots for different parties.

However, McGrane told lawmakers that there may be a cost to the general election vote counting, because the two vote tabulation vendors that are certified for use in Idaho are not capable of the ranked choice tabulation. He noted that it was difficult to estimate prices because the two states that have implemented ranked choice voting statewide — Maine and Alaska — run elections differently from Idaho.

There is a nonprofit software, known as RCTab, that has been tested and would be much less expensive, but McGrane said he wouldn’t consider it unless the software was certified by the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, EAC. He said Idaho doesn’t have the resources to do its own certification process and has always relied on EAC certification. 

Per Idaho law, vote tabulation equipment does not necessarily need to be certified by the EAC and only needs to be tested and meet the EAC guidelines.

Idahoans for Open Primaries spokesperson Luke Mayville said under the law, Idaho could use the lower-cost nonprofit software. Mayville also shared with the Idaho Press a technical analysis from a former clerk of a Utah county that put in place ranked choice voting, and the clerk’s analysis found the software could be eligible for certification in Idaho.

“There is nothing in Idaho code that prevents our state from utilizing the low-cost software that is currently available to all 50 states,” Mayville said. “RCTab is a fiscally conservative option that can easily be certified in Idaho.”

McGrane also wrote in his letter that the state would likely need to do an education campaign to inform voters on the changes and how the voting process would work if the initiative were to pass. Alaska spent about $3 million on its advertising and education campaign, said Carol Beecher, director of Alaska Division of Elections.

“Other states that have implemented ranked choice voting have found that the education process is very straightforward and that ranked choice voting is very simple to explain,” Mayville said.

Mayville also said that the outcomes that supporters strive for with the election changes are well worth the cost that may be incurred at the beginning.

“The experience of other states suggests that the cost of implementing ranked choice voting is minimal,” Mayville said, ”and that the cost is well worth it in order to create an election process that gives every voter a voice.”