State Child Welfare Policy Guide

6.3 Adequate financial support for family foster care

An adequate level of financial support for foster care providers contributes to recruitment and retention of foster families, may limit the number of children’s placement moves, and helps to ensure that the basic needs of children in family foster care are met.  Foster parents and other advocates routinely report that current payment rates in most every state do not cover actual costs, and there is some evidence that inadequate rates negatively affect foster parent recruitment and retention and the care that children in foster care receive.  Research documents that foster parents incur expenses that exceed foster care rates, often pay out of their own pockets to meet children’s needs, and consider no longer providing care as a result of financial strain. [i]  

A recent study established “Minimum Adequate Rates for Children in Foster Care” (MARC) for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia by analyzing consumer expenditure data reflecting the costs of caring for a child, identifying and accounting for additional costs particular to children in foster care, and applying a geographic cost-of-living adjustment.  These calculations are based on expenditures that are allowable under the Title IV-E Foster Care Maintenance Program, which defines foster care maintenance payments as covering the cost of providing food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies, personal incidentals, insurance and travel for visitation with a child’s biological family. [ii]

Policy Option:   States can authorize and fund foster care payment rates that meet M.A.R.C. standards.