Thank you for your interest in becoming a resource parent to children and youth in state care. In New Jersey, the number of youth in foster care continues to be reduced each year due to a focus on services that strengthen and assist families to prevent abuse and neglect, and the prioritization of  kinship care when out of home placement is required. This has afforded us the opportunity to reevaluate the capacity of our current pool of resource families and their ability to meet the unique needs of special populations of youth in care.  

As a result, the state has begun to process only the inquiries of prospective resource families who are willing and able to provide a loving home to the following :

• Children and youth with complex behavioral health, developmental and medical needs
• Adolescent youth ages 13-17
• Sibling Groups of 4 or more
• NJ children and youth cleared for adoption
  *NJ children and youth who are currently cleared for adoption have unique needs and include characteristics of the other 3 specialized populations described above

If you experience any issues with completing this inquiry please call 1-800-222-0047 

If you are interested, click on the link below to apply:
https://www.embrella.org/become-a-foster-parent-nj/

Please continue to check our website for any future updates as we continue to assess our needs.

This is important information about your DCF Debit MasterCard.  If you receive the board and clothing payment for the child(ren) in your care on a debit card, we want you to know that the debit cards expire after three years and new cards will be issued  and mailed to the address on file.  Should you have moved and not updated your address with DCF, it is critical that you do so as to not interrupt  your monthly payments. We have been notified that a significant number of debit cards are due to expire the end of June.  The expiration date is indicated on your debit card. 

Therefore, we strongly encourage you to check your cards in order to determine when they expire and again, please be sure to reach out to us at DCF to  update your address if you have moved.

Foster and Kinship Parents – contact your child’s caseworker in the DCP&P Local Office

Adoptive and Kinship Parents receiving an Adoption or Kinship Subsidy – contact Adoption Operations at 609-888-7460

Resource Family Home Care, Relative Care, Kinship Legal Guardianship, and Subsidized Adoption Rate Tables (PDF)

We are excited to announce that all New Jersey resource and kinship placements have been selected to participate in the Mobile Response and Stabilization Services (MRSS) project.  All children and youth placed by CP&P local offices will receive services through MRSS at the time of placement.  More..