Foster Caregiver Licensing

Recommended foster caregiver licensing standards created by Child Welfare Playbook, ABA Center on Children and the Law, Generations United, and Think of Us, with input from agency staff, licensing workers, subject matter experts, foster caregivers, and former foster youth. The document includes a list of recommended standards, the reasonining for certain standards, tools for implementing the standards, background check guidance, and form templates.

For the full set of implementation tools, view the foster caregiver licensing standards sample forms page.

Released by ACF Children's Bureau to update the National ModelFoster Family Home Licensing Standards. These new standards are designed to reduce unnecessary administrative burden,clarify expectations, and make it easier for qualified families to become licensed while maintaining safety. Included is a comparison to the kin-specific standards and an appendix which addresses licensing agency responsibilities and recommendations, with a focus on improving timeliness, responsiveness, and overall efficiency in the licensing process.

On February 4, 2019, the Children’s Bureau released final National Model Foster Family Home Licensing Standards (National Model), as required by the Family First Prevention Services Act.

This guidebook, developed by our partners at the National Indian Child Welfare Association, particularly Subject Matter Expert Terry L. Cross, MSW, ACSW, LCSW and Mariah Meyerholz, MSW, discusses several important considerations and suggests a process through which tribes can develop locally appropriate standards. It is based on the premise that foster care standards, including care by relatives, are most useful when developed by the tribal community in which they will be used and when a broad segment of that community participates in the development and implementation process.

The first brief from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's "Family Ties" series based on a state-by-state survey of kinship care policies. This resource explores survey data about two state policies that can help kinship caregivers obtain foster home licenses: provisional or emergency licensure, and waivers for certain foster home licensing requirements that do not affect a child’s safety. It examines existing state policies and opportunities for change in light of a recent federal rule change that gave states the option of creating specific licensing standards for kinship caregivers.