Foster Care Licensing

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. 

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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.

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View the webinar recording

View the October 11, 2023 webinar which provided an overview of the new federal rule allowing all title IV-E child welfare agencies to adopt kin-specific foster care licensing standards, thus allowing more children to be cared for by financially supported kin they know and love. The webinar rolled out a new national set of recommendations and featured national kinship experts as well as state child welfare leaders in support of the rule change.