California is marking Foster Care Awareness Month by renewing its commitment to helping youth and shining a spotlight on past investments and ongoing supports aimed at keeping young people who are in foster care connected to family and strengthening California’s child welfare system.

“When children enter foster care, one of our top priorities is to make sure they remain connected with their families,” said California Department of Social Services Director Jennifer Troia, who with her husband grew their family through adoption from foster care and kinship caregiving. “This kin-first approach has been proven to be in the best interest of children, and we’re committed to this effort through foster care rate reform and other means.”

With this approach in mind, California has made many transformative changes and investments to better meet the needs of individual foster youth and improve California’s foster care system. Access a new Issue Brief on this issue.

“California has made great strides for youth in foster care, keeping them connected with their families whenever possible,” said David Sanders, executive vice president of Systems Improvement at Casey Family Programs, which teamed up with the CDSS last year on a video. “The data are clear - when children are placed with kin, their outcomes are better.”

California’s continued commitment to improving the lives of foster youth includes:

Foster Care Rate Reform: California became the first state in the nation to restructure foster care rates in a way that will support children in family settings by enabling families to receive the care they need to thrive. The new permanent tiered rate structure is based on the child’s assessed level of need and strengths, not on placement type. These changes – which are in the process of being implemented - will support more children in family homes, where research shows they do best. Access additional information and a summary of the new rate structure.

Center for Excellence Partnership: The Center for Excellence in Family Finding, Engagement, and Support — a CDSS partnership with the University of California, Davis – provides statewide, culturally appropriate training and technical assistance to county child welfare and other child-serving stakeholders. In 2024, the Center provided dozens of direct consultations and technical assistance calls with counties, issued toolkits, and developed a Statewide Peer Learning Collaborative.

Quality Parenting Initiative: The Quality Parenting Initiative supports caregivers, birth parents, youth, and child welfare agencies in 25 counties with training and resources related to supporting kinship caregivers, reducing trauma to youth in out-of-home care, supporting partnership among birth parents, navigating legal systems, and engaging communities to recruit and retain high quality caregivers. This initiative is a partnership led by the Youth Law Center that includes the CDSS, the County Welfare Directors Association, the California State Foster Parent Association, and the California Youth Connection.

College for Foster Students: In 2023, California expanded the Middle Class Scholarship (MCS) to include the Fostering Futures program, covering tuition, fees, and other related expenses at universities in California for students with experience in foster care. For the current award year, 1,478 foster youth have been paid an MCS award through the Fostering Futures program.

Guarantee Income Pilots for Foster Youth: The State launched state-funded Guaranteed Income Pilot Programs aimed at supporting former foster youth.

Child Savings Accounts: California bolstered college and career-ready mindset by investing $1.9 billion in the CalKIDS program to establish child savings accounts of up to $1,500 for every foster youth.

Building the Child Welfare Workforce: The CDSS supported the California Workforce Innovation, Support, and Education program, which aims to strengthen and develop the statewide child welfare workforce through data-informed education, training, and support initiatives. The Title IV-E social worker education program, previously administered by the California Social Work Education Center, is now co-led by the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Foster Youth Verification Letters: Assembly Bill 592 authorized the CDSS to provide former foster youth with written verification of their time spent in foster care. These verification letters provide former foster youth with the documentation needed to receive assistance from programs for former foster youth. Verification letter requests rose to 5,685 in 2024, up from 2,307 in 2023.

Foster Youth Bill of Rights Training: The Office of the Foster Care Ombudsperson provides in-person Foster Youth Bill of Rights and Reasonable and Prudent Parent trainings to county child welfare and probation professionals.

Resources: The CDSS, in partnership with the Resource Center for Family-Focused Practice, provides coaching and/or consultation to agencies and organizations for complex care/trauma-informed care, wraparound services, peer partner programs, and system of care.