Programs and services

If you want to form a permanent relationship with your foster child, Paths to Permanency (PDF) outlines different reimbursement options for foster families choosing between adoption or kinship.

Financial support for children is available to eligible families through a program called Northstar Care for Children. Various supports are available depending on a family's situation. Northstar Adoption Assistance or Northstar Kinship Assistance were enacted in 2015 to address the evolving needs of Minnesota families. A former program addressed adoptive families financial supports prior to 2015.

Occasional expenses are eligible for reimbursement from the Forgotten Children's Fund. Some expenses include such as bikes, class rings, art supplies, sports equipment and driver's education. Contact your social worker to apply.

Training for foster parents is available online and in person through the Minnesota Child Welfare Training System.

There's help for youth who are or were in foster care and want to live on their own. There's tuition assistance, job skills training, help finding work, housing and much more. County and tribal social services staff and a network of non-profit agencies make it happen.

• Funding for post-secondary education
• Extended foster care for youth ages 18 through 21
• Healthy Transition and Homeless Prevention program
• Living supports
• Youth Leadership Councils

The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act amended federal foster care Title IV-E, requiring states to support normalcy for all children in foster care. Children and youth in foster care need to experience the same types of developmentally appropriate and social activities that their friends, families and classmates — who are not in care — experience. This law permits foster parents, designated corporate foster care staff and residential staff to allow foster children to participate in normal childhood activities, including…, by applying the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard.

This two-hour training is required for child welfare case managers of foster care placements, child foster care licensing staff, child foster care parents, and designated staff at corporate or residential facilities. Clarify; do they need to review these documents and then are considered trained?

• PowerPoint slides from the May 24, 2016 Virtual Presence Communication (VPN), Normalcy and Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard Training (PDF)
• Minnesota’s Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard Guidance DHS-7684 (PDF)
• Training Certificate  (PDF)
• Normalcy and Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard Training” VPN, YouTube link from May 24, 2016