Some will say the loss of yet another lead foster care provider -- this time it's the Boys and Girls Home -- is another nail in the coffin of Nebraska's public-private reform of foster care.

State Department of Health and Human Services officials Kerry Winterer and Todd Reckling refuse to go there. There have been signs of early success, despite some failures, in trying to move to more in-home care of children and less out-of-home foster care, they say.

The percentage of children in out-of-home care in the Lancaster County area already has dropped from about 70 percent to about 60 percent, said Reckling, director of children and family services.

"Signs tell us that vision (of reform) is right," he said. "It's where things are going nationally."

Still, it was hard on the system to have Boys and Girls Home, which coordinates services for 1,832 children in the central, western and northern parts of the state, pull out, by mutual consent, after months of struggle to pay their bills and keep up with administering services for kids and families.