How to Become a Foster Parent in Massachusetts

Description

Massachusetts foster care provides children with temporary, safe, nurturing, and stable family environments when they cannot safely remain with their parents. Foster parents support children's healing, development, education, healthcare, family relationships, and everyday needs while the Department of Children and Families works toward reunification or another permanent plan. Foster parents collaborate with children's parents, relatives, Family Resource Workers, ongoing social workers, courts, schools, healthcare providers, attorneys, therapists, and other service professionals.

Agency

The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, commonly called DCF, oversees the Commonwealth's foster-care and adoption system. DCF regional and area offices recruit, assess, approve, supervise, and support foster and pre-adoptive families. Massachusetts also works with licensed private foster-care agencies that may approve and supervise homes for specialized or intensive placements.

Who Can Apply

Massachusetts welcomes applicants from diverse backgrounds. Foster parents may be single, married, divorced, widowed, or partnered and may rent or own their residence. Applicants must demonstrate that they can provide safe, stable, nurturing, and dependable care and meet DCF standards regarding household safety, background history, health, finances, relationships, space, transportation, and parenting capacity.

Average Time To License

The Massachusetts foster-parent approval process generally takes several months, although the exact timeline varies. Completion depends upon the applicant's responsiveness, MAPP availability, background-check processing, references, physical standards compliance, interviews, home visits, and completion of the caregiver assessment and written license study.

Website

Visit the official agency website

Minimum Age

Massachusetts applicants must be at least 18 years old. DCF evaluates whether applicants possess the maturity, judgment, emotional stability, health, parenting ability, and household resources necessary to safely care for children in foster care.

Residency

Applicants must reside in Massachusetts and make their residence available for DCF home visits, physical standards inspections, interviews, and ongoing monitoring. People who have lived outside Massachusetts may be required to authorize additional criminal-history or child-protection record checks from previous jurisdictions.

Marital Status

Massachusetts accepts qualified applicants who are single, married, divorced, widowed, or partnered. Couples residing together generally participate jointly in the assessment and training process. DCF evaluates the stability and functioning of relationships within the household rather than requiring a particular marital status.

Income Requirements

Applicants must demonstrate sufficient and dependable income or financial resources to meet their household's existing expenses without relying upon foster-care payments. Foster-care reimbursement is intended to help cover expenses associated with caring for a placed child and is not intended to serve as the family's primary income.

Home Ownership

Applicants may rent or own their home. Houses, apartments, condominiums, townhomes, and other lawful residences may qualify if they meet Massachusetts physical standards regarding space, sanitation, utilities, sleeping arrangements, privacy, fire safety, and environmental safety.

Bedroom Requirements

The home must provide adequate living and sleeping space, privacy, ventilation, safety, and storage for every household member and foster child. Each foster child must have an appropriate bed. DCF evaluates bedroom-sharing arrangements according to children's ages, sex, relationships, developmental needs, behaviors, and individual safety considerations.

Transportation

Applicants must demonstrate that they can reliably meet children's transportation needs, including school attendance, family visits, healthcare appointments, therapy, court-related activities, childcare, extracurricular activities, and emergencies. Drivers must hold valid licenses, maintain appropriate automobile insurance, and follow Massachusetts child passenger-safety laws.

Health Requirements

Applicants must be physically, mentally, and emotionally able to meet the demands of foster parenting. DCF may request medical information or documentation concerning health conditions, medications, treatment, disabilities, communicable diseases, substance use, or other circumstances that could affect the applicant's ability to provide safe and consistent care.

Pet Policy

Pets and other animals are allowed when they are safely maintained, appropriately vaccinated when required, sanitary, properly supervised, and do not present an unreasonable danger to children. DCF may evaluate animal behavior, veterinary care, household cleanliness, and the applicant's ability to prevent unsafe interactions.

Firearm Policy

Firearms and ammunition must be stored in accordance with Massachusetts law and DCF safety standards. Weapons must be secured against unauthorized access by children, and DCF may inspect storage arrangements or require additional safeguards based upon the ages, histories, developmental abilities, and needs of children placed in the home.

Contact Agency

Prospective foster parents may begin by completing the online DCF interest form or calling DCF Foster Care and Adoptive Recruitment at 1-800-543-7508. A recruitment team member will contact the applicant and help locate an information session offered virtually or in person.

Attend Orientation

Applicants attend a DCF-led information session that introduces the foster-care and adoption process, eligibility standards, family reunification, the role of foster parents, MAPP training, household background checks, physical standards, caregiver assessment, home visits, licensing, and placement matching.

Choose Agency

Applicants may pursue approval directly through Massachusetts DCF or through an authorized private foster-care agency. Families interested in intensive foster care, medically complex placements, or other specialized programs may work with private agencies that provide enhanced training and support.

Documents Needed

• Completed Massachusetts DCF foster or pre-adoptive parent application
• Government-issued identification
• Household member information
• Authorization for criminal and child-protection background checks
• Fingerprinting documentation when required
• Personal references
• Health or medical information requested by DCF
• Employment and income information
• Household financial information
• Driver's license information
• Automobile insurance documentation
• Emergency contact information
• Marriage, divorce, partnership, or other household documentation when requested
• Pet vaccination or veterinary records when applicable
• Firearm and ammunition storage information when applicable
• Private-water testing or environmental documentation when applicable
• Additional records requested during the caregiver assessment

Required

Yes

Description

Massachusetts begins the foster-parent approval process with a DCF-led information session. The session explains the purpose of foster care, family reunification, foster-parent responsibilities, eligibility standards, application procedures, background checks, home-safety requirements, MAPP training, caregiver assessment, licensing, available support, and placement expectations.

How To Register

Prospective applicants may submit the online foster-parent interest form or call DCF Foster Care and Adoptive Recruitment at 1-800-543-7508. A recruitment worker will provide information about available virtual or in-person sessions and guide the applicant through the next steps.

Duration

The length and scheduling of Massachusetts information sessions vary by DCF region or participating agency. They are generally completed before or near the beginning of the formal application and assessment process.

Application Process

After speaking with DCF and attending an information session, applicants complete and sign the foster or pre-adoptive parent application. The application provides information about the applicants and household and authorizes DCF to conduct required background checks. DCF then completes a physical standards inspection, checks household backgrounds, contacts references, conducts interviews and home visits, enrolls eligible applicants in MAPP training, completes the caregiver assessment, and prepares a written license study before approving the home.

Required Documents

• Completed and signed foster or pre-adoptive parent application
• Government-issued identification
• Household member information
• Signed background-check authorizations
• Fingerprint submissions when required
• Personal reference information
• Medical or health documentation requested by DCF
• Employment and income information
• Household financial information
• Driver's license documentation
• Proof of automobile insurance
• Emergency contact information
• Pet records when applicable
• Firearm-storage information when applicable
• Additional documents requested by the Family Resource Worker

References Required

Applicants must provide personal references who can discuss their character, relationships, stability, judgment, parenting capacity, reliability, and suitability to care for children. DCF contacts and evaluates references during the caregiver assessment and may request additional references when necessary.

Interview Process

A DCF social worker meets with applicants and household members through a series of interviews and home visits. The assessment explores family history, relationships, motivation to foster, parenting experience, discipline practices, trauma awareness, health, finances, support systems, cultural responsiveness, household routines, placement preferences, and the family's ability to work in partnership with children's parents and DCF. The social worker uses this information to prepare the written license study.

Required

Yes

Curriculum

Massachusetts requires prospective foster and pre-adoptive parents to complete the Massachusetts Approach to Partnership in Parenting, commonly called MAPP. The program prepares families to care for children who have experienced trauma and to work in partnership with children's parents and the Department of Children and Families. Topics include communication, positive discipline, child guidance, building self-esteem, trauma-informed parenting, separation and loss, family reunification, permanency planning, cultural responsiveness, confidentiality, teamwork, and understanding the responsibilities of foster and pre-adoptive parents.

Required Hours

The standard Massachusetts MAPP program consists of 30 total training hours. Classes are commonly divided into 3-hour sessions held once or twice each week over several weeks, although some 6-hour weekend sessions may be offered. Applicants must successfully complete the training assigned by DCF or their approving private agency before final approval.

Online Available

Yes. Massachusetts offers MAPP training in both virtual and in-person formats. Availability, dates, times, and delivery methods vary by DCF region and participating private agency. Applicants work with their recruitment or Family Resource Worker to select an appropriate training session.

Certification

Completion of MAPP is part of the foster-home approval process but does not by itself guarantee approval. Applicants must also successfully complete the application, household background checks, references, home-safety inspection, interviews, home visits, caregiver assessment, and written license study. Additional training may be required for intensive foster care, medically complex placements, infants, adolescents, or children with specialized developmental, emotional, or behavioral needs.

Required

Yes

Interviews

Massachusetts requires a comprehensive caregiver assessment and written license study. A social worker interviews each applicant and relevant household members to evaluate the family's strengths, needs, relationships, parenting abilities, motivation, stability, judgment, trauma awareness, support system, and ability to work cooperatively with children's parents and DCF. Couples may be interviewed both jointly and separately, and children living in the home may be included in age-appropriate interviews.

Home Visits

The assessing social worker visits the applicant's home multiple times during the approval process. These visits allow the worker to meet household members, evaluate family functioning, confirm compliance with physical standards, inspect living and sleeping areas, assess safety equipment, discuss placement preferences, and identify any repairs or safeguards that must be completed before approval.

Topics Covered

• Applicants' motivation for becoming foster or pre-adoptive parents
• Understanding that foster care is generally temporary
• Commitment to supporting reunification whenever safely possible
• Ability to work with children's parents, relatives, DCF workers, courts, schools, healthcare providers, attorneys, and therapists
• Applicants' childhood experiences and family histories
• Current household relationships and family functioning
• Marital, partner, or significant-relationship stability
• Impact of fostering on children and adults already living in the home
• Previous parenting, foster-care, adoption, childcare, or caregiving experience
• Knowledge of child and adolescent development
• Understanding trauma, attachment, abuse, neglect, separation, grief, and loss
• Positive discipline and child-guidance practices
• Ability to manage trauma-related behaviors safely
• Physical, mental, and emotional health
• Medication, treatment, or health conditions that could affect caregiving
• Alcohol, cannabis, and other substance-use history
• Domestic violence, protective orders, or other household-safety concerns
• Criminal-history and child-protection records
• Financial stability, employment, income, expenses, and debts
• Childcare and supervision plans
• Transportation resources and availability
• Emergency preparedness and evacuation planning
• Extended-family, community, faith-community, peer, and professional support systems
• Cultural, racial, ethnic, religious, linguistic, disability, sexual-orientation, gender-identity, and gender-expression awareness
• Ability to preserve children's family, sibling, cultural, school, and community relationships
• Confidentiality and appropriate use of children's personal information
• Household members' attitudes and expectations concerning foster care
• Pets, firearms, pools, smoking, vaping, cannabis, and other environmental risks
• Bedroom arrangements, privacy, storage, and household capacity
• Placement preferences regarding children's ages, sibling groups, medical needs, developmental disabilities, and behaviors
• The family's strengths, limitations, support needs, and additional training needs
• Ability to maintain records and cooperate with DCF supervision and reassessment

Timeline

Massachusetts does not guarantee a single completion period for every caregiver assessment. The timeline depends upon the applicant's responsiveness, MAPP scheduling, background-check processing, references, home visits, interviews, physical standards compliance, and completion of the written license study.

Bedroom Rules

The residence must provide adequate living and sleeping space, privacy, ventilation, lighting, heat, and safety for all household members and foster children. Each foster child must have an individual bed and appropriate storage for personal belongings. Bedroom-sharing arrangements must be approved by DCF and must account for children's ages, sex, relationships, developmental abilities, behaviors, trauma histories, privacy, and individual safety needs.

Smoke Detectors

The home must have properly installed and functioning smoke detectors and any required carbon-monoxide detectors. Safety equipment must comply with Massachusetts law, local fire requirements, and DCF physical standards. DCF verifies working safety equipment during the household physical standards inspection.

Fire Extinguisher

Applicants may be required to maintain an accessible and properly rated fire extinguisher depending upon the home's characteristics and applicable fire-safety requirements. Exits must remain clear, heating systems must be safely maintained, and household members must be prepared to follow an emergency evacuation plan.

Medications

Prescription medication, over-the-counter medication, vitamins, controlled substances, cannabis products, syringes, and other potentially dangerous medical items must be stored safely and made inaccessible to children. Storage requirements may become more restrictive depending upon the ages, developmental abilities, behaviors, and histories of children placed in the home.

Cleaning Supplies

Cleaning products, pesticides, poisons, fuels, alcohol, cannabis products, vaping liquids, sharp tools, and other hazardous substances must be stored safely and kept inaccessible to children. Hazardous products should remain properly labeled and must not be stored where they could contaminate food or children's belongings.

Firearms

Firearms, ammunition, and other weapons must be legally possessed and stored according to Massachusetts law and DCF physical standards. Firearms must be secured against children's access, ammunition must be safely stored, and keys, combinations, or other access methods must remain under responsible adult control. DCF may require additional safeguards based upon the needs of children placed in the home.

Pools

Swimming pools, hot tubs, ponds, waterfront areas, and other water hazards must be protected against unsupervised access. DCF may require barriers, locked gates, alarms, safety covers, rescue equipment, written safety plans, or other precautions. Foster children must receive active, developmentally appropriate supervision around water.

Pets

Pets and other animals must be safely maintained, sanitary, appropriately vaccinated when required, and free from behavior that creates an unreasonable danger to children. DCF may request veterinary documentation or an animal behavior or temperament assessment when an animal's history, breed, size, behavior, or household circumstances raise a potential safety concern.

Vehicle Requirements

Applicants must have reliable access to safe transportation. Vehicles used to transport foster children must be legally registered, properly insured, maintained in safe operating condition, and driven by individuals with valid licenses. Children must use seat belts, car seats, booster seats, and other restraints required by Massachusetts law.

Fingerprinting

Massachusetts requires background record checks during the foster-parent approval process. Depending upon the age and role of each household member, the review may include fingerprint-based state and national criminal-history checks. Applicants must cooperate with fingerprinting instructions and disclose requested criminal or legal history.

Child Abuse Registry

DCF reviews its records for supported findings of child abuse or neglect involving applicants and covered household members. When a person has lived outside Massachusetts, DCF may request child-abuse and neglect registry checks or equivalent child-welfare records from previous states or jurisdictions.

Criminal History

Background screening may include Criminal Offender Record Information, fingerprint-based criminal-history records, sex-offender registry information, child-protection records, court records, and other legally authorized information. Applicants must accurately disclose arrests, charges, convictions, probation, protective orders, and other legal matters requested by DCF.

Disqualifying Offenses

Certain serious convictions, child-abuse or neglect findings, sex-offender information, or other safety concerns may prohibit approval or result in denial. Other records may receive an individualized review that considers the nature and seriousness of the conduct, when it occurred, surrounding circumstances, rehabilitation, subsequent history, and the potential risk to children.

Additional Checks

DCF may also review personal references, prior foster-care or adoption history, previous child-serving licenses, motor-vehicle information, household member records, restraining or protective orders, health information, and records from other states. DCF conducts household background checks as part of both initial approval and ongoing reassessment.

Steps

• Submit an online interest form or call DCF Foster Care and Adoptive Recruitment.
• Speak with a recruitment worker about foster-parent eligibility and expectations.
• Attend a virtual or in-person DCF information session.
• Complete and sign the foster or pre-adoptive parent application.
• Provide information about every household member.
• Authorize required criminal-history and child-protection background checks.
• Complete fingerprinting when required.
• Participate in the DCF household physical standards inspection.
• Correct any identified room, fire, health, or safety concerns.
• Provide personal references and requested supporting documentation.
• Begin the comprehensive caregiver assessment.
• Participate in interviews and home visits with the assessing social worker.
• Complete the 30-hour Massachusetts MAPP training program.
• Allow DCF to contact and evaluate personal references.
• Work with the social worker to complete the written license study.
• Receive DCF approval of the home for foster care.
• Discuss household capacity and placement preferences.
• Begin receiving placement inquiries after approval.
• Complete ongoing training, home visits, and reassessment requirements.

Average Timeline

The Massachusetts foster-home approval process generally takes several months, but the exact timeline varies. Delays may result from MAPP availability, background-record processing, incomplete paperwork, reference responses, interview scheduling, household repairs, physical standards concerns, or additional information needed for the caregiver assessment.

Renewal Requirements

Approved Massachusetts foster homes remain subject to DCF supervision and periodic reassessment. Families must continue meeting physical standards, background-record, training, documentation, health, safety, and reporting requirements. Foster parents must notify DCF of household changes, new residents, criminal matters, significant health conditions, relationship changes, moves, or other circumstances that could affect approval.

Ongoing Training

Massachusetts foster parents complete ongoing education and training according to DCF or private-agency requirements. Training may address trauma-informed parenting, positive discipline, cultural responsiveness, family engagement, reunification, child development, medication, adolescent needs, behavioral intervention, educational advocacy, normalcy, medically complex care, crisis prevention, and other subjects relevant to children placed in the home.

How Placements Work

After DCF approves the foster home, placement staff work to match the family with a child whose needs are compatible with the family's license, experience, household composition, bedroom space, location, support system, schedule, transportation, training, and placement preferences. DCF also considers the child's age, siblings, family relationships, school, community, culture, medical needs, developmental abilities, behaviors, visitation schedule, supervision requirements, and permanency plan.

Can Decline Placements

Yes. Massachusetts foster parents may decline a proposed placement when they do not believe they can safely or appropriately meet the child's needs. Before accepting, caregivers should ask about the child's history, health, medications, behaviors, developmental needs, education, sibling relationships, visitation schedule, transportation responsibilities, permanency goal, supervision requirements, and available support services.

Emergency Placements

DCF may request an emergency placement when a child must leave their current environment immediately for safety reasons. Approved foster families may receive urgent calls outside ordinary business hours. Relatives or other kin may also be considered for emergency placement while DCF completes required household checks, assessments, and approval activities.

Sibling Groups

Massachusetts seeks to preserve sibling relationships and may prioritize placing siblings together when safe, appropriate, and consistent with their individual needs. Placement workers consider the home's approved capacity, bedroom arrangements, transportation, schools, visitation, supervision needs, behaviors, and available support. When siblings cannot live together, DCF may arrange visits, communication, shared activities, and other continuing contact.

Age Preferences

Applicants discuss the ages, number of children, sibling groups, placement types, medical needs, developmental disabilities, behaviors, and supervision levels they believe they can support. DCF considers these preferences but approves placements only when the match appears appropriate for the child and the foster household.

Monthly Board Rate

Approved Massachusetts foster parents receive daily foster care maintenance payments that are issued on a monthly basis. Payment amounts vary depending upon the child's age, level of care, placement type, and individual medical, developmental, emotional, or behavioral needs. Children receiving intensive foster care or specialized services may qualify for enhanced reimbursement rates. Massachusetts periodically reviews reimbursement rates through the Department of Children and Families.

Clothing Allowance

Massachusetts may provide clothing allowances or reimbursement when children enter foster care without adequate clothing or when additional clothing purchases become necessary because of seasonal changes, rapid growth, school requirements, or other approved circumstances. Resource parents should retain receipts and follow DCF reimbursement procedures.

Daycare Assistance

Childcare assistance may be available when necessary to support an approved foster placement. Assistance may be authorized to allow foster parents to work, attend school, participate in required training, attend court hearings, transport children to visitation, or participate in other activities required by the child's case plan. Eligibility depends upon the child's circumstances and DCF approval.

Medical Coverage

Children placed in Massachusetts foster care generally receive MassHealth (Massachusetts Medicaid) coverage. Benefits typically include primary medical care, dental services, vision care, behavioral health treatment, prescription medications, specialty care, developmental services, hospitalization, emergency care, and other medically necessary services. Foster parents coordinate healthcare with providers, DCF, and the child's treatment team.

Mileage Reimbursement

Mileage reimbursement may be available for approved transportation related to a child's case plan, including medical appointments, therapy, family visitation, court hearings, school meetings, evaluations, and other authorized travel. Foster parents should maintain mileage records and follow DCF reimbursement procedures.

Additional Benefits

Depending upon the child's needs and placement type, Massachusetts foster families may receive additional supports including intensive foster care payments, respite care, behavioral consultation, mentoring, educational advocacy, developmental disability services, interpreter services, placement stabilization resources, support groups, and other state or federally funded assistance.

Respite Care

Massachusetts offers respite care to eligible foster families to provide temporary relief, reduce caregiver stress, and help preserve placements. Respite services are coordinated through DCF or the supervising private agency and depend upon provider availability, funding, and the child's individual needs.

Support Groups

Massachusetts foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers have access to local and statewide support groups, peer networking opportunities, educational workshops, conferences, online communities, and caregiver associations sponsored by DCF, private agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

Mentoring

Many newly approved foster parents are connected with experienced foster families who serve as mentors. Mentors help caregivers understand DCF policies, prepare for placements, navigate court hearings and family visitation, locate community resources, and build confidence while caring for children who have experienced trauma.

Counseling

Children in foster care have access to behavioral-health services, trauma-focused therapy, family counseling, psychiatric care, developmental evaluations, crisis intervention, substance-use treatment when appropriate, and other mental-health services through MassHealth providers and community agencies. Foster parents also receive guidance from DCF and treatment professionals regarding children's emotional and behavioral needs.

Crisis Support

Massachusetts foster parents receive ongoing support from DCF social workers, supervisors, emergency on-call staff, healthcare providers, behavioral-health professionals, and community partners. Foster parents are expected to report emergencies, significant behavioral incidents, placement disruptions, injuries, abuse allegations, runaway episodes, hospitalizations, arrests, or other critical events immediately.

Available

Yes. Massachusetts allows approved foster parents to be considered as adoptive resources when reunification and other permanency options are no longer appropriate and adoption becomes the child's approved permanency goal. Foster parents are expected to actively support reunification efforts throughout the foster-care case whenever reunification remains the court-approved plan.

Process

Most children enter foster care with reunification identified as the primary goal. If reunification cannot safely occur, DCF may pursue adoption, guardianship, placement with relatives, or another permanency option. When adoption becomes the approved goal, DCF considers the child's current foster family, relatives, and other qualified adoptive families. Placement decisions consider attachment, sibling relationships, cultural identity, educational stability, family connections, and each family's ability to meet the child's long-term needs before legal adoption proceedings begin.

Legal Risk

Every foster placement involves legal uncertainty until the Juvenile Court establishes a permanent outcome. Children may reunify with parents, be placed with relatives, enter guardianship, remain in long-term foster care, or become eligible for adoption. Foster parents should understand that placement does not guarantee adoption.

Adoption Subsidy

Children adopted from Massachusetts foster care who meet eligibility requirements may qualify for adoption assistance. Benefits may include monthly subsidy payments, MassHealth coverage, reimbursement for eligible nonrecurring adoption expenses, and post-adoption support services. Eligibility is determined according to state and federal adoption-assistance regulations.

Available

Yes. Massachusetts gives priority to safe placement with relatives or other adults who have significant existing relationships with children whenever appropriate. Kinship caregivers may include grandparents, adult siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, godparents, close family friends, teachers, neighbors, or other individuals with meaningful connections to the child.

Licensing Differences

Relatives may sometimes receive emergency or provisional placement while DCF completes required household assessments, background reviews, and approval activities. Certain non-safety licensing standards may be addressed differently for kinship caregivers when permitted by law or DCF policy; however, all required child-safety standards, background checks, and home-safety requirements must still be satisfied.

Financial Support

Financial assistance available to Massachusetts kinship caregivers depends upon the child's legal status, placement type, caregiver approval status, and household eligibility. Assistance may include foster-care maintenance payments for licensed kinship homes, MassHealth coverage, Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children benefits, SNAP benefits, childcare assistance, guardianship assistance when available, adoption assistance, and referrals to additional community resources.

Can I become a foster parent if I am single?

Yes. Massachusetts welcomes qualified applicants who are single, married, divorced, widowed, or partnered. Approval is based upon an applicant's ability to provide a safe, stable, nurturing home rather than marital status.

How old do I have to be?

Applicants must be at least 18 years old. DCF also evaluates maturity, judgment, emotional stability, health, and the applicant's ability to safely care for children.

Do I have to own my home?

No. Applicants may rent or own their residence as long as it meets Massachusetts DCF physical standards for safety, sanitation, adequate space, utilities, and sleeping arrangements.

Can I work full time?

Yes. Many Massachusetts foster parents work outside the home. Applicants must demonstrate appropriate childcare, transportation, supervision, and scheduling arrangements that meet each child's needs.

Is there a minimum income requirement?

Massachusetts does not establish a specific minimum income level. Applicants must demonstrate sufficient financial stability to support their household without relying upon foster-care reimbursement payments.

How much training is required?

Prospective foster parents complete the Massachusetts Approach to Partnership in Parenting (MAPP), which consists of approximately 30 hours of pre-service training before approval.

Is continuing education required?

Yes. Foster parents complete ongoing training throughout their time as approved caregivers. Additional specialized training may be required depending upon the needs of children placed in the home.

Is a home study required?

Yes. Massachusetts requires a comprehensive caregiver assessment and written license study that includes interviews, home visits, references, background checks, and evaluation of the family's strengths and readiness to foster.

Will everyone in my household undergo background checks?

Applicants and covered household members must complete required criminal-history and child-protection background checks. Additional reviews may be required for individuals who previously lived outside Massachusetts.

Can I have pets?

Yes. Pets are permitted provided they are healthy, safely supervised, appropriately vaccinated when required, and do not present an unreasonable danger to children. DCF may request additional information about an animal's temperament if safety concerns exist.

Can I own firearms?

Yes. Firearms must be stored securely according to Massachusetts law and DCF safety requirements so children cannot gain unauthorized access.

Can foster children share bedrooms?

Yes, when approved by DCF and appropriate for the children's ages, genders, developmental needs, privacy, safety, and individual circumstances.

Can I choose the ages of children I foster?

Yes. Applicants identify their preferred age ranges, sibling groups, placement types, medical needs, and behavioral challenges they feel prepared to support. DCF considers these preferences when making placement decisions.

Can I decline a placement?

Yes. Foster parents are encouraged to accept only placements they believe they can safely and successfully support after learning about the child's needs and circumstances.

Will I receive financial assistance?

Yes. Massachusetts provides foster-care maintenance payments to help offset the ordinary costs of caring for children placed in approved foster homes. Additional assistance may be available depending upon the child's individual needs.

Do foster children receive healthcare?

Yes. Children placed in Massachusetts foster care generally receive MassHealth coverage, including medical, dental, vision, behavioral health, developmental, and prescription services.

Is respite care available?

Yes. Respite care may be available to provide temporary relief for foster families, depending upon provider availability, funding, and the child's circumstances.

Can I adopt a child placed in my home?

Possibly. If reunification and other permanency options are no longer appropriate and adoption becomes the child's approved permanency plan, the foster family may be considered as a potential adoptive resource.

Does fostering guarantee adoption?

No. Foster care is intended to provide temporary care while DCF and the courts work toward a permanent outcome. Many children reunify with their parents or are placed with relatives before adoption is considered.

Does Massachusetts prioritize kinship placements?

Yes. Whenever safe and appropriate, DCF gives preference to placing children with relatives or other adults who have significant existing relationships with the child.

Who do I contact to report suspected child abuse or neglect?

Reports of suspected abuse or neglect should be made to the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families Child-at-Risk Hotline. Emergencies should always be reported by calling 911.

State Agency

Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF)

Phone

1-800-543-7508 (Foster Care & Adoption Recruitment)

Email

Prospective foster parents may submit an online inquiry through the Massachusetts DCF website or contact their local DCF Area Office for additional information.

Address

Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, 600 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111