New York State Foster Care Boarding Rates 2020
IMPORTANT: New York State Foster Care Boarding Rates Increase Update for Payment to Foster Parents and for Adoption Subsidies
In July 2010 the Adoptive and Foster Family Coalition of New York filed a lawsuit against the State of New York to compel the state to reimburse foster parents for the actual costs associated with children placed in their homes as described in the Federal Child Welfare Act of 1980. This Federal law requires reimbursement for the cost of providing food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies, a child’s personal incidentals, liability insurance with respect to a child, reasonable travel to the child’s home for visitation and reasonable travel for the child to remain in the school in which the child is enrolled at the time of placement. In December of 2021, the Coalition and the State signed a settlement agreement to resolve this litigation.
As a result of the lawsuit, families all over the state are seeing changes and increases in the state aid coming to them as the counties rates increases go into effect. Previously, the state set a minimum and a maximum rate and each county could set the rate based on their budget. The lawsuit has eliminated that range and now each county must pay a standard base rate. The only differences are between “Metro” (Metro includes the following districts: NYC, Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester counties) and the rest of state. The Upstate counties were given the leeway of doing 50% of the difference between old and new now. All counties will reach the 100% by next year (7/1/23).
There are three main time frames of rate increases to note. The new maximum/minimum rate will take effect fully after 7/1/23.
PREVIOUS New York State Foster Care Rates
PLEASE NOTE: This information below on the 2020 RATE CHARTS are NO LONGER CURRENT based on the results of the lawsuit and the increase in the rates since then.( see above) We have made the decision to leave them up for now so that families can use them to compare their differences in rates with the increase.
Foster Care boarding home rates differ significantly in New York’s 58 social services districts as each local district (LDSS) or county is allowed to set its own rates. The state only determines the maximum amounts it will reimburse to the local districts as each local district is allowed to set its own rates within state guidelines. Although New York is a state supervised, locally administered system, New York State OCFS does not routinely collect, or maintain, rate information for individual social services districts. In 2009 and then in 2019, the Coalition began the process of collecting and updating the data. Every county has been contacted multiple times since with requests for the updated boarding rate and foster care subsidy information.
Basic Rate Foster Care Subsidy
Basic foster care payments are made to foster parents who provide care for a child who has no identified special or exceptional needs.
Special Rate Foster Care Subsidy
In order to receive the special rate, adoptive or foster parents must participate in at least 4 hours of agency training per year, actively participate in case conferences, and have the necessary training and background to care for the child who’s needs fit the “Special” criteria.
Exceptional Rate Foster Care Subsidy
To receive the exceptional rate, adoptive or foster parents must participate in at least 5 hours of training per year, actively participate in case conferences, and have the necessary training and background to care for the child. whose needs fit the “Exceptional” criteria.
Clothing and Diaper Foster Care Subsidy
Departments of social services set their own clothing allowance rates up to the maximum allowed. A regular clothing allowance, based on the child’s maximum age, is included with the board rate and is part of the monthly payment. A diaper allowance is automatically authorized for children from birth through 3 years of age.
Don’t see your county listed? Give them a call and ask them to please participate. Counties may provide updated information by downloading this form Subsidy Rate Questions 2020 form and providing the current rate information as requested. Completed forms may be faxed, emailed or sent via post to the Coalition.
If you have any additions or corrections, please let us know at info@affcny.org.