Foster Care

Current as of:

Through the title IV-E Foster Care program, the Children’s Bureau supports states and participating territories and tribes to provide safe and stable out-of-home care for children and youth until they are safely returned home, placed permanently with adoptive families or legal guardians, or placed in other planned arrangements for permanency. The program is authorized by title IV-E of the Social Security Act, as amended, and implemented under the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 45 CFR parts 1355, 1356, and 1357.

Foster Care Programs

CB provides funding to states and tribes to provide safe foster care placements for children and youth who cannot remain in their homes. Our funding also provides assistance to youth aging out of foster care so that they can achieve self-sufficiency.

The Children’s Bureau implements the following foster care programs:

How to Become a Foster Care Parent

The Children’s Bureau, together with its services, Child Welfare Information Gateway and AdoptUSKids , provides resources about the foster care system. See the following for more information and resources about becoming a foster parent and foster parenting:

Foster Care Reporting Systems

The Children’s Bureau collects case-level information from states on all children in foster care, and we recently began collecting information on independent living services for youth in foster care and those who age out of care.

See the following for more information about our reporting systems:

Foster Care Training and Technical Assistance

The Children’s Bureau provides training and technical assistance to states and tribes through its Capacity Building Collaborative:

Additional resources are available through the following CB-funded entities: 

Special Initiative

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Children’s Bureau value the input of youth/young adults who have lived experience in the foster care system. The ACF Youth Engagement Team 2020-2021 used the expertise of youth formerly in foster care to identify key recommendations toward achieving permanency for all children and youth waiting in foster care. This team of young adults provided specific recommendations on how agencies and courts could improve permanency outcomes by supporting connections with kin, securing relational permanency for youth, and achieving successful adoptions for older youth.

Permanency Innovations Initiative

The federal Permanency Innovations Initiative (PII) was a multi-site federal demonstration project designed to improve permanency outcomes among foster care children who had the most serious barriers to permanency. This 5-year initiative included six grantees, each with a unique intervention designed to help a specific subgroup of children leave foster care in fewer than three years.

Foster Care Highlight

For the most recent foster care data from AFCARS, please see Adoption and Foster Care Statistics under Statistics and Research.

Badge for FindYouthInfo.gov: Working to Improve Youth OutcomesYouth.gov provides interactive tools and other resources to help youth-serving organizations and community partnerships plan, implement, and participate in effective programs for youth.