Administration for Children and Families

This fact sheet (PDF, 10 pages) provides birth, foster, and adoptive parents and other caregivers with information about the best way to resolve their differences with a child welfare service provider or other related professional. The document discusses many of the challenges experienced by families involved with the child protective ...

This webpage provides a list of resources on accessing higher-education opportunities and financial scholarships for youth in or aging out of the foster care system. Learn more. 

This webpage provides resources on how the school system identifies, responds, and provides support to children, youth, and families exposed to domestic violence. The page also offers support to parents and caregivers who may be victims of domestic violence. Learn more.  

Episodes one and two of the new five-part podcast series entitled Advances in Supporting Kinship Caregivers are now available. The first episode features a discussion of Rhode Island’s approach to kinship support services and the second episode focuses on Washington State’s approach to providing kinship support services. Topics discussed in ...

This letter (PDF, 2 pages) provides recommendations regarding the practice of title IV-E agencies securing an assignment of the rights to child support for a child receiving title IV-E foster care maintenance payments. Learn more. 

This resource (PDF, 15 pages) helps child welfare and adoption professionals expand their cultural competence and skills when working with parents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and other diverse identities and expressions, including Two-Spirit (LGBTQ+) and same-gender or gender-diverse couples. It also examines laws and policies and ...

This series of guides, intended for adults who regularly interact with youth in foster care, define the different components of coregulation and how it can be applied to youth in foster care. There are four guides in the series (one each for caring adults, child welfare professionals, foster families, and ...

This brief provides the context, definitions, and benefits of gender-affirming care and explores how anti-LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning) health policies harm LGBTQ+ youth. The authors advocate that gender-affirming care—i.e., developmentally appropriate supports shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation in young transgender and gender-diverse people—is ...

This resource provides Trauma-Informed Practice Strategies (TIPS) to kinship caregivers and nonrelative caregivers whose placements are actively managed by Tribal child welfare programs. The resource emphasizes the importance of trauma-informed caregiving as well as the importance of ensuring a youth’s ability to have meaningful and authentic connections with their Tribe ...

This factsheet (PDF, 15 pages) helps foster parents learn about LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and other diverse identities and expressions, including Two-Spirit) youth in the child welfare system, the unique risks they face, and the important role that foster parents can play in reducing those risks. The factsheet ...