Resources

• State Fact Sheets on Foster Care
  The NRCFCPPP prepared these state fact sheets about foster care for the National Foster Care Month campaign. Some of the data was supplied by the Children's Bureau for Fiscal Year 2003. Many states have provided more current statistics from their own data systems.

• Foster Care Maintenance Payments
  We have gathered the latest information available to us on foster care maintenance payments. Download this document to find out how much each state provides for children in foster care.

• Hitting the M.A.R.C.
  This study from Children’s Rights, the National Foster Parent Association and the University of Maryland School of Social Work presents a nationwide, state-by-state calculation of the real cost of supporting children in foster care. The report proposes a new standard rate for each state to use in fulfilling the federal requirement to provide foster parents with payments to cover the basic needs of children in foster care, including food, shelter, clothing and school supplies.

• Foster Parent Handbooks
  When foster parents take children into their homes, the children don't come with instruction manuals, but a foster care handbook from the agency is the next best thing. Most handbooks include explanations of the foster care system and the legal system as it relates to foster care, agency rules, what to expect from the children, whom to contact in various situations, what to do in case of emergency, and how to deal with birth family issues. This page provides links to several online agency handbooks.

• Handbooks for Youth in Foster Care
  Youth in foster care are becoming increasingly aware of their own potential to effect change for themselves personally and within the system. One avenue that allows them to learn more about their own rights and responsibilities, and that can lead to empowerment for them, is the use of handbooks written for and about young people in care.

• Bill of Rights for Children in Foster Care
  Several states and organizations have prepared bills of rights for children in foster care. This document lists them.
  
  
• Personal Finance Guides for Foster Youth
  The Casey Foundation and the National Endowment for Financial Education jointly published this series of guidebooks expressly for use by foster children and teens to educate them about personal finance and empower them to make sound decisions about reaching their future goals. They were developed after speaking with foster parents, youth counselors, social workers, and other foster care professionals. The guidebooks include: I Know Where I'm Going (But Will My Cash Keep Up?): Part One and Two; Money Pals: Being Cool with Cash, Part One and Two; and, Caregiver's Handbook for Money Pals: "Being Cool with Cash" and "I Know Where I'm Going (But Will My Cash Keep Up?)”.
  
  
• Foster Care Dynamics in Urban and Non-Urban Counties
  This paper describes foster care utilization in the urban and non-urban counties that are part of the Multistate Foster Care Data Archive. The aim is to understand the extent to which placement experiences differ depending on whether children reside in primary urban areas, secondary urban counties, or non-urban (rural) counties. (February 2002)

• Foster Care Today
  This report, authored by Kathy Barbell and Madelyn Freundlich and published by Casey Family Programs in 2001, is an examination of foster care at the start of the 21st century.

• Children, Families, and Foster Care
  The Winter 2004 issue of The Future of Children from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation is devoted to foster care issues.

• Research Briefs from NSCAW
  Research briefs from Caliber Associates provide information gathered from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). The first, Who are the Children in Foster Care?, describes the characteristics, experiences of abuse/neglect, living situations, and status of 727 children who have been in foster care for one year. The second, Foster Children's Caregivers and Caregiving Environments, provides some information about the families who care for children in foster care, children's perceptions of their caregivers and living arrangements, and reunification plans for this group of children.

• Foster Parents: Who are They?: Reality v. Perception
  Youth Law News published a two-part series that looks at foster parents -- who they are, who the public thinks they are, and how the public's perceptions of them is shaped by newspapers, magazines, and books, as well as movies and television. Part I (July-September 2005 issue) looks at the latest research and information about foster parents -- their age, education, employment, length of service, and motivations. Part II (October-December 2005 issue) explores how foster parents are portrayed in the media, and how that shapes the public's perceptions of foster parents.

• Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care
  This paper uses the removal tendency of investigators as an instrumental variable to identify a causal effect of foster care placement on a range of long-term outcomes, including juvenile delinquency, teen motherhood, employment and earnings. Investigator removal tendencies are found to predict foster care placement in subsequent investigations, despite a rotational assignment process that results in similar child characteristics across investigators. The results suggest that children on the margin of foster care placement have better employment, delinquency, and teen motherhood outcomes when they remain at home.

• Treatment Foster Care: Its History and Current Role in the Foster Care Continuum
  This article reviews the historical development in the United States of treatment family foster care as an alternative to the psychiatric hospitalization or long-term residential treatment of children and youth with serious emotional and behavioral disorders. Treatment family foster care has developed in three discrete systems of care: juvenile justice, child welfare, and mental health. The authors examine the relative contribution of each of these systems to its development, its current role in the provision of services to children with emotional and behavioral challenges, and the evidence-base for this form of care.
  
  
• Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Treatment Foster Care: A Resource Guide
  The guide by The Foster Family-based Treatment Association (FFTA) highlights valuable information, references, resources, and tools for implementing Evidence-based Practices (EBPs) in Treatment Foster Care (TFC) service settings. The Resource Guide identifies specific models, interventions, and tools that TFC providers can use to deliver effective services to the children, youth, and families in their care. It also provides “how-to” information to help TFC providers successfully implement desired EBPs in their programs.
  
  

Resources form the States

• California: Foster Youth Help
  This site is a product of the California Foster Care Ombudsman Office, whose mandates include ensuring that the voice of foster children and youth is heard, and acting on their behalf. The main topics address the rights, responsibilities, entitlements, and resources available to youth in care and those on the verge of aging out.

• New Mexico: Foster Parent Involvement
  This bulletin outlines best practices and describes the roles of caseworkers, judges, attorneys, court staff, parents, foster parents and CASA volunteers.

• Texas: Moving Foster Care Forward
  This document from the Department of Family and Protective Services is to outline the plan DFPS is enacting to continue to bring about change in the Texas Foster Care System and better serve children and families.

• Wisconsin: Supporting Foster Families as Team Members Serving Children and Their Families
  Recommendations from a foster parent advisory group brought together in 1997 to identify the supports foster families need to better serve the children and families in Wisconsin's out-of-home care system.

• Responding to the Challenges of Foster Parenting
  This presentation was given by NRCFCPPP Executive Director Gerald P. Mallon at the Hawaii Foster Parent Association Conference in October, 2005. It looks at the official - and unofficial - roles required of foster parents.

• Foster Care Outcomes: Does Foster Care Help or Harm Children's Emotional and Social Development?
  This presentation was given by Dee Wilson, Executive Director of the Northwest Institute for Children and Families in March 2008 to Washington State Children's Administration medical consultants.

NRCFCPPP Information Packet

• Placement Stability by Kristine Schuerger (August 2002)

Bibliography

• Effectiveness of Foster Parent Training (January 2001)

Websites

• Foster Care Month
  Every May is Foster Care Month, a time to show appreciation for foster parents and raise awareness of the needs of both foster parents and the children and youth in foster care.

• Child Welfare League of America
  CWLA's website contains information about the League's Family Foster Care Services initiatives as well as general information and links on the subject of foster care. Its website contains reports, statistics, and other resources.

• The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care
  The Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care was established to develop recommendations to improve outcomes for children in the foster care system

• Fostering Results
  The Children and Family Research Center at the School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, has launched this public education and outreach campaign.

• Northwest Institute for Children and Families
  The Director's Corner of this website contains research summaries, articles and presentations from Executive Director Dee Wilson.