Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards

The following is a press release from the ABA:

The American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Generations United and the National Association for Regulatory Administration (NARA) are thrilled to announce the release of Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards.
 Our partnership has been working for several years on these comprehensive pre-placement licensing standards that, for the first time, help ensure children in foster care are safe while also establishing a reasonable, common-sense pathway to enable more relatives and non-related caregivers to become licensed foster parents.

While we acknowledge that not all states will be able to implement this model in its entirety without any modifications, we challenge all states to use the Model to assess and align their own standards.
  
The package of materials includes:

• Purpose statement

• 10 guiding principles

• The Model Standards

• An Interpretative Guide, which summarizes the purpose of each standard and  provides instructions for compliance determinations

• A crosswalk tool, which is designed to assist states and counties in comparing and aligning their current standards with the Model      

We are committed to assisting states and counties in implementing this Model.  Attorneys at Generations United and the ABA Center on Children and the Law are available to provide technical assistance to jurisdictions seeking to align their current rules, policies and practices with the Model Family Foster Home Licensing Standards.  This technical assistance is available free of charge thanks to support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  Contact Ana Beltran at abeltran@gu.org  or Heidi Redlich Epstein at Heidi.Epstein@americanbar.org .   Licensing experts are also available through NARA to provide agencies with in-depth consulting services.  www.naralicensing.org  

The standards are posted on www.grandfamilies.org or are available HERE.