Foster Care Licensing

Use this kinship licensing data collection template to assist in evaluation of your jurisdiction's implementation of new kin-specific licensing standards. The template will open as an editable Excel spreadsheet.

A brief article written by Ana Beltran for the National Association of Counsel for Children explaining the 2023 federal rule allowing for separate, tailored, commonsense foster care licensing standards for kin. 

• View the webinar recording

This webinar with ABA Center on Children and the Law and Generations United examines how child welfare agencies follow the requirements in the long-standing federal Adam Walsh law. This law sensibly bars individuals who have been convicted of violent felonies from ever becoming licensed or approved as foster parents. But, most jurisdictions go well beyond federal requirements and prevent individuals from becoming foster parents for minor, non-violent crimes. 

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.

Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network page with links to webinar recording, presentation slides, and other resources about the progress that states and tribes have made in implementing kin-specific licensing standards. Learn from the experiences of three title IV-E agencies that are piloting the standards, and explore what to consider as you implement them in your state or tribe.