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ARK HOMES FOSTER FAMILY AGENCY



Foster Family Agency
Fact Sheet




What is a Foster Family Agency?





A Foster Family Agency, or FFA, is a community based, nonprofit organization licensed by the State of California to provide foster family care.

When FFAs were created by State statute in 1985, the Legislature stated “that, because of the more difficult nature of foster children and the increased costs of caring for them, it is becoming difficult to recruit and train foster parents. One solution is to encourage the development of private, nonprofit foster family agencies which recruit, screen, certify, train and provide professional support services to foster parents.”

What do FFAs do?

FFAs work with county departments of social services and juvenile probation to assure permanence for children and youth who have been removed from the care and supervision of their own families. Permanence for children in the foster care system may include reunification with family, adoption, or guardianship with another family member. Permanence for foster children is what FFAs work with counties to achieve.

When children and youth are referred, FFAs provide an assessment to assure their needs can be best met in a family-based setting. FFAs then match children with appropriate certified foster families and, once a child is placed with a certified foster family, the FFA provides the child, the foster family and the child’s family with a host of services that may include:

  • At least twice monthly face-to-face visits with a social worker.
  • Development and updating of children’s needs and services plan.
  • Professional support services for foster parents including, crisis intervention, advice and     counseling, liaison with schools, and referrals to respite care.
  • 24-hours a day, 7 days-a-week availability for emergencies.
  • Maintenance of contact with brothers and sisters.
  • Transportation of children to visit birth parents.
  • Individual, group and family counseling.
  • Behavioral intervention.
  • Respite care.
  • Independent living and transition services.
  • Pre-adoption services.

Each county has unique needs and uses available FFA resources to meet the diverse challenges of the county’s children and families. Most often, FFAs work with children and youth whose individual or familial needs require a higher level of care and supervision than can be provided in county licensed foster family homes. In almost all cases, children placed in FFAs would otherwise be placed in shelters, group homes or other institutional settings.

How many FFAs are there in California?

There are over 250 FFAs in California caring for about 25,000 children, over half of the children in nonrelative foster care in the state.

How are FFAs funded?

FFAs are paid a capitated monthly rate for the care of each child placed. The rate varies according to the foster child’s age and stipulates a minimum level that must be paid foster parents for the care of the child and a minimum that must be spent on social work support. The remainder of the FFA payment must cover all other costs including expenses associated with recruiting, training and certifying foster families. As in all California foster care, the federal government pays 50% of the cost for eligible children; counties pay 30% of the nonfederal share and the state pays 20%. For non-federally eligible children, counties pay 60% and the state pays 40%.

Who oversees FFAs?

The Community Care Licensing Division of the State Department of Social Services licenses FFAs and investigates all program complaints lodged against FFAs and certified foster parents. The Foster Care Audits Branch oversees the use of foster care funds. Each FFA is required to obtain an independent financial audit annually, and to submit the audit and a cost report to the Audits branch. State staff compares the financial audit of each FFA to its cost report and federal IRS Form 990. Additionally, counties monitor FFAs for contract compliance, and all California Alliance FFA member agencies submit to an additional level of scrutiny by undergoing accreditation through a statewide or national accrediting body.

Have FFAs been successful?

In the first 10 years of their existence, FFAs doubled the number of available foster family placements in California and substantially decreased the number of children inappropriately placed in group homes.

As FFA placements grew, group home placements remained stable although the number of children entering foster care doubled. Meanwhile, the number of lower level group homes – group homes where children would be placed who most likely could be served in foster family-based settings – decreased significantly from 75% of group home capacity to 25%, while the number of higher level group homes serving youth with more challenging problems increased proportionately.

FFAs have been highly responsive to counties’ needs developing specialized approaches to foster care including pre-adoptive services, foster care for special populations (e.g., developmentally disabled, pregnant and parenting teens, juvenile offenders, gay and lesbian youth), foster family-based residential treatment, and emergency shelter care.

Over the past 5 years FFAs have begun to help California children achieve permanence and leave the foster care system through adoption.  In just this short time FFAs account for 10% of foster children adopted out of the child welfare system, and that number is growing.

In short, FFAs are a success story. Their success should be applauded and their roles expanded.

Frequently Asked Questions
Did you know?

FFAs account for the adoptions of over 10% of the children adopted out of the public child welfare system each year. That’s more adoptions than are facilitated by any single California county.