Foster Care in Georgia: Requirements, Payments, and Home Study

Foster care in Georgia is run by the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), which places children who cannot safely stay with their birth families into approved homes while working toward a permanent plan. Reunification with the biological family is the first goal; when that is not possible, the agency looks to relatives, licensed foster families, or specialized providers depending on the child’s needs.¹ Becoming a foster parent takes background checks, training, a home study, and ongoing oversight, and the state supplies a daily payment, Medicaid coverage, and educational protections for every child in care.

Types of Placements Georgia Uses

Georgia treats kinship care as the preferred option. When a child has to be removed, DFCS looks first for a relative or close family friend who can take them in, on the theory that a familiar caregiver eases the trauma of removal.² When no relative is available, the child goes to a traditional foster family — a trained household with no prior connection to the child. Children with significant medical, emotional, or behavioral needs may go into therapeutic foster care with caregivers who have specialized training and higher reimbursement. Respite and emergency placements cover the gaps: short stays that either give a full-time foster family a break or house a child removed after hours.

Who Can Foster in Georgia

Applicants must be at least 21 years old and legal residents of Georgia.³ Single applicants must be at least 25. Every foster parent, regardless of marital status, must be at least 10 years older than any child placed in the home.⁴

Background Screening

Every adult in the household is screened. DFCS runs criminal records checks through the Georgia Crime Information Center and searches the state’s Child Protective Services registry, the national Sex Offender Registry, the Pardons and Parole system, and the Department of Corrections database.⁴ The Adam Walsh Act adds fingerprint-based national checks and requires searches of the child abuse registry in every state any adult household member has lived in during the past five years.⁵

Medical and Financial Requirements

Every household member has to provide a medical report from a physician confirming they are free of communicable disease and any physical or mental condition that would interfere with caring for a child. You also have to show enough income to run the household without relying on foster care payments. DFCS wants to see that the per diem will go toward the child, not toward existing bills, and will ask for documentation such as pay stubs or tax returns during the home study.³

Training Before and After Approval

The process starts with a two-hour IMPACT orientation, which walks prospective families through the realities of fostering and adopting in Georgia and what to expect from the approval process.⁶ After orientation, applicants complete the National Training and Development Curriculum, a 34-hour pre-service program.⁷ Content covers recognizing and reporting child abuse, child development, behavior management, medical emergencies, and medication management.⁸ Both pieces have to be finished before a child can be placed.

After approval, foster parents are required to complete at least 15 hours of relevant training each year.⁸

The Home Study

The entry point is Georgia’s inquiry line, 877-210-KIDS. Callers receive an information packet and an invitation to a county orientation.⁶ Once orientation and pre-service training are done, the applicant submits the full packet to a local DFCS office or a licensed private child-placing agency.

Then comes the home study. A caseworker interviews everyone in the household, evaluates family dynamics, contacts non-family references, and inspects the residence room by room. Sleeping arrangements, storage of hazardous items, and the overall condition of the home and grounds all get scrutinized. If the household meets Georgia’s Safety and Quality Standards, the approving authority grants Full Approval and the home is licensed for placements.⁹ After approval, the home must keep operating in line with what the home study report documented.¹⁰

Home Safety and Sleeping Rules

Georgia’s administrative code sets specific physical standards. Sleeping arrangements are where families most often need to make adjustments before approval.

Children have to sleep in actual bedrooms, not living rooms or converted spaces.
A foster child may share a bed with another child only if both are the same sex, both are under five, and the bed is a double or larger.
No foster child over five may share a bedroom with a child of a different sex, and no foster child over 24 months may sleep in the same room as an adult.
Every foster child’s bedroom must allow for privacy and adequate space for personal belongings.
All firearms in the home must be locked and inaccessible to children.
Every level of the home needs a functional smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector.
Pools or bodies of water on the property must be safeguarded against unsupervised access and meet local ordinances.
The home and grounds must be reasonably clean and free of hazards, debris, and pest infestations.

Georgia caps the number of foster children in one home at six, with exceptions to keep siblings together or to let a parenting youth in care stay with their own child.⁸

Payments and Financial Support

Georgia pays a daily per diem to cover food, basic clothing, and everyday expenses. As of July 2025 the basic rates are:

Birth through age 5: $29.20 per day
Ages 6 through 12: $31.51 per day
Age 13 and older: $34.27 per day

These payments are meant for the child’s routine costs.¹¹ Children with substantial mental, emotional, or physical needs beyond what the basic rate covers may qualify for a specialty rate, which DFCS evaluates case by case.¹²

On top of the per diem, Georgia provides an annual clothing allowance of $690 per child per fiscal year (July through June), the same amount regardless of age. It can be spent in a lump sum or in increments, but it cannot be claimed during the calendar year the child first enters care.¹¹ Children who arrive with few belongings may also receive an initial clothing stipend.

Kinship caregivers who meet certain criteria may qualify for additional support through the Enhanced Relative Rate program or, if they take permanent guardianship, the Subsidized Guardianship program.¹³

Healthcare Coverage for the Child

Every child in foster care in Georgia gets medical and dental coverage through Georgia Families 360°, a managed care program run by Amerigroup Community Care.¹⁴ Coverage includes primary care, dental, mental health, and specialty services at no direct cost to the foster parent, and each child is assigned a primary care provider and a primary dental provider. When a child enters or leaves care, or changes placement, the caseworker has to notify Amerigroup within 24 hours using the GA Families 360° DFCS Referral Form.¹⁵

Taxes on Foster Payments

Foster care payments are not taxable. Under federal law, qualified foster care payments made through a state program are excluded from gross income, and the exclusion covers both the basic per diem and difficulty-of-care payments for children with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities.¹⁶ The exclusion applies to care for up to 10 foster children under age 19 and up to 5 who are 19 or older.

Families who go on to adopt a child from foster care may also be eligible for the federal adoption tax credit. For tax year 2025 the maximum credit is $17,280 per qualifying child, with a phase-out beginning at a modified adjusted gross income of $259,190, and up to $5,000 of the credit is refundable starting in 2025.¹⁷ Georgia adoptions from foster care usually involve little in the way of legal fees because the state typically covers or reimburses those, but the credit can still apply to other qualified adoption expenses.

School Stability

Changing schools is one of the sharpest disruptions when a child enters care, and federal law tries to blunt it. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, a foster child has the right to stay in the school of origin when placement changes, unless a formal best-interest determination finds that staying is not in the child’s interest.¹⁸ Transportation to the school of origin has to be provided, and cost is not a valid reason to move the child.

The best-interest analysis weighs distance from the new placement, the child’s own preference, safety, availability of special education services, and how far into the school year the change would happen. If a new school is chosen instead, enrollment happens immediately — even without records — and the new school is responsible for pulling academic records from the previous one. Foster parents can and should attend the best-interest meeting.

Permanency and Adoption

Every child in Georgia foster care has a permanency plan, and reunification with the birth family is the first goal. When reunification isn’t possible, the alternatives are adoption, permanent guardianship, or placement with a fit relative. Under the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act, the state must file a petition to terminate parental rights once a child has been in foster care for 15 of the most recent 22 months, with limited exceptions.

When adoption becomes the goal, foster parents who have had the child for an extended period are often considered first. Georgia caps the maximum adoption assistance rate at the foster care maintenance payment the child was receiving at the time of adoptive placement, so financial support continues after adoption.¹⁹ Kinship caregivers who choose permanent guardianship instead may qualify for subsidized guardianship payments.¹³

Support for Older Youth and Aging Out

Georgia’s Independent Living Program serves eligible youth ages 14 to 21 with life skills training, academic support, college preparation, career readiness, budgeting, and housing help.²⁰ To qualify, a youth must have been in foster care for at least six months (not necessarily consecutive) before turning 18 and must have been in care at some point on or after their 14th birthday.²¹

At 18, a youth can stay in care through Extended Youth Support Services rather than exit immediately. A youth who leaves care can also ask to return within six months, provided they haven’t yet turned 21 and meet the basic eligibility criteria. Post-care resources funded through the federal Chafee program include transitional living help with rent and utility deposits, emergency aid to prevent homelessness, and Education and Training Vouchers that cover tuition, books, room and board, and application fees for postsecondary education.²⁰

Grievances and Foster Parent Rights

Foster parents have a formal process for raising complaints about placement decisions or case management. There are three steps, each with a deadline.

Step one: submit a written complaint to the local DFCS county director.
Step two: if the complaint is not resolved within 15 business days, escalate it in writing to the state DFCS Division Director, along with the original complaint and the county’s response.
Step three: if the Division Director does not resolve it within another 15 business days, send the full complaint packet to the State Mediation Committee. This has to be filed within 10 business days of the Division Director’s response, or the grievance is closed.

Mediation through the State Mediation Committee ends in either a written agreement or an impasse, and either outcome is final.²² The 10-business-day window for step three is a hard cutoff, so document concerns in writing from the start and track every response date.

1
Division of Family and Children Services. Georgia Division of Family and Children Services Child Welfare Policy Manual – 16.0 Introduction to Room Board and Watchful Oversight
2
Division of Family and Children Services. Georgia Division of Family and Children Services Child Welfare Policy Manual – Introduction to Kinship
3
Child Welfare Information Gateway. Home Study Requirements for Prospective Foster Parents – Georgia
4
Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children Services. General Information
5
Child Welfare Information Gateway. Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006
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Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Family and Children Services. IMPACT Orientation
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Division of Family and Children Services. 14.8 Pre-Service Training
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Georgia Secretary of State. Rules and Regulations for Child Placing Agencies
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Division of Family and Children Services. 14.15 Household Approval Status
10
Cornell Law Institute. Georgia Code 290-9-2-.07 – Foster Care Services
11
Georgia Department of Human Services. COSTAR 3001 – Family Foster Care Programs
12
Policy and Manual Management System (PAMMS). 16.5 Specialized Foster Care Per Diem
13
Division of Family and Children Services. Georgia Division of Family and Children Services Child Welfare Policy Manual – Financial and Non-Financial Supports for Children in Foster Care or Who Have Achieved Permanency
14
Georgia Medicaid. Georgia Families 360
15
Policy and Manual Management System (PAMMS). 9.2 Applying for Medical Services at Initial Entry and Exit
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 131 – Certain Foster Care Payments
17
Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 6311 – State Plans
19
Child Welfare Information Gateway. Adoption and Guardianship Assistance – Georgia
20
Division of Family and Children Services. 13.0 Introduction to the Independent Living Program
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Division of Family and Children Services. 13.1 Eligibility and Enrollment
22
GA Division of Family and Children Services. Foster Parent Bill of Rights