Long-term foster care is a court-approved permanency plan for older youth in state custody who cannot safely return home and for whom adoption, legal guardianship, or placement with a relative is not realistic. Federal law calls this arrangement Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement, or APPLA, and restricts it to children who have reached age 16.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions The state keeps legal custody of the child throughout. A licensed foster family provides the home, raises the young person day to day, and receives financial and medical support, with services that can continue into early adulthood.
What APPLA Is and Why It Exists
APPLA sits at the bottom of a hierarchy. Before a judge can approve it as the plan for a child, the agency has to document intensive, ongoing, and unsuccessful efforts to achieve reunification with the parents, adoption, legal guardianship, or placement with a fit relative. The court must then make two findings: that those efforts failed, and that APPLA is the best permanency plan for this particular child, with a compelling reason why no other option fits.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions
One important feature: APPLA does not require termination of parental rights. Birth parents may retain certain legal rights while the foster caregiver manages everyday life. That is part of why the plan is reserved for older teens. For a younger child, the preference is a legally permanent family. For a 16- or 17-year-old with a complex history and strong views about their own future, forcing a different path can do more harm than good.
Who Qualifies
Federal law draws a hard line on age. APPLA cannot be used as a permanency goal for any child under 16, and some states set the threshold higher.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions The youth must already be in foster care, and the agency must have exhausted the preferred permanency options. Beyond that, the court is looking at the individual child: their wishes, their connections, their history in care, and whether a long-term foster placement with the current caregiver (or a comparable one) will give them the stability they need to finish growing up.
How the Court Establishes a Long-Term Placement
The change to an APPLA goal happens at a permanency hearing in family or juvenile court. The judge reviews the caseworker’s recommendation, input from the child’s guardian ad litem, and the agency’s documentation of what was tried and why it did not work. If the court approves, a permanency order is entered.
The case does not close. Federal law requires a permanency hearing at least every 12 months for as long as the child remains in foster care.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions At each review, the judge reassesses whether APPLA is still the right plan and whether the agency has kept looking for permanent family connections. This is the structural difference from adoption or guardianship. The court never fully steps away.
Becoming a Long-Term Foster Caregiver
Background Checks and Disqualifying Offenses
Every prospective foster parent must pass a fingerprint-based national criminal background check before a child can be placed in their home. The requirement comes from the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and applies regardless of whether the state will be making foster care maintenance payments.2U.S. Department of Justice. Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 The check covers all adults living in the household.
Certain felony convictions are permanent disqualifiers: child abuse or neglect, spousal abuse, any crime against a child (including child pornography), and violent crimes such as sexual assault or homicide. Felony convictions for physical assault, battery, or drug offenses within the past five years also block approval.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 671 – State Plan for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance States also check child abuse registries. There is no waiver process for the permanent disqualifications; they apply even if the conviction is decades old.
Home Study, Medical Evaluation, and Training
After clearing the background check, applicants go through a home study. A social worker visits the home, interviews household members, and evaluates whether the residence can safely accommodate a child. The report also covers finances, living space, and the family’s motivation for fostering. Applicants submit medical evaluations confirming they can meet the physical demands of caring for a child.
Most states require pre-service training, typically 20 to 30 hours, covering trauma-informed care, managing placements, and working within the child welfare system. Licensure stays active only as long as the caregiver meets annual renewal requirements, which usually include additional training hours and updated safety inspections.
Financial Support, Health Coverage, and Taxes
Foster care maintenance payments are designed to cover the real costs of raising a child: food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies, personal items, liability insurance, and transportation for school and family visits.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions The federal government defines what the payments must cover; each state sets its own rates. Monthly amounts vary with the child’s age, special needs, and location, ranging roughly from $400 to over $1,200 per month across states. When a child needs specialized therapeutic care beyond what the standard rate covers, many states offer supplemental “difficulty of care” or “therapeutic foster care” payments.
Children in long-term foster care are categorically eligible for Medicaid, which covers medical visits, prescriptions, dental care, and mental health services. The state agency handles enrollment, and caregivers receive a benefits card to use at appointments.4Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Former Foster Care Children Medicaid Policy Update
The payments themselves are not taxable. Any payment made through a state or local foster care program to a provider caring for a child in their home is excluded from gross income, including basic maintenance and difficulty-of-care payments.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 131 – Certain Foster Care Payments You don’t report them on your return.
A foster child counts as a qualifying child for tax purposes if an authorized agency or court placed them in your home and they lived with you more than half the tax year.6Internal Revenue Service. Qualifying Child Rules That opens the door to the Child Tax Credit, worth up to $2,200 per child under 17 as of 2025 with inflation adjustments beginning in 2026, and the Earned Income Tax Credit if your income qualifies. One catch: the foster care payments do not count as your contribution to the child’s support. Only your own out-of-pocket spending counts when you have to show you provided more than half the child’s support for dependency purposes.
Your Authority as a Caregiver
Day-to-day decisions are governed by the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard, which federal law describes as the kind of careful, sensible decisions any parent would make to keep a child healthy and safe while supporting their emotional growth.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions Under this standard, you can approve sports, school clubs, sleepovers, field trips, and cultural activities without clearing each one with the caseworker or the court. The point is to keep foster children from missing out on ordinary childhood because of paperwork.
The standard has limits. Major medical decisions such as elective surgery typically require consent from the birth parents (if their rights haven’t been terminated) or a court order. In a genuine emergency where waiting would endanger the child, a physician can proceed without prior consent. Out-of-state travel beyond a short trip generally requires written approval from the caseworker. And no decision under the standard can override an existing court order. The underlying reality is that while you manage the household, the state keeps legal custody; you are the child’s primary caregiver without the full legal authority of a guardian or adoptive parent.
School Stability and Sibling Connections
Changing schools is one of the most disruptive things that can happen to a child in foster care. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, a child in foster care has the right to remain enrolled in their school of origin when their placement changes, unless a best-interest determination finds that switching schools would actually serve the child better.7U.S. Department of Education. Frequently Asked Foster Care Education Stability Questions and Answers Transportation costs cannot be used as a reason to move the child. If there is a dispute about who pays, the child stays in the current school while the adults work it out. When a change is approved, the new school must enroll the child immediately, even without the usual records.
Federal law also requires the child welfare agency to make reasonable efforts to place siblings together, with an exception only when doing so would be contrary to the safety or well-being of one of the children. When siblings cannot be placed together, the agency must arrange frequent visitation or other ongoing contact, unless that contact would itself be harmful.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 671 – State Plan for Foster Care and Adoption Assistance For a teenager in long-term care, these connections are often the most durable family ties they will have.
Aging Out: Transition Planning and Extended Care
The 90-Day Transition Plan
In the 90 days before a youth ages out of care, the caseworker must help the youth develop a personalized transition plan. Federal law requires that the plan cover housing, health insurance, education, mentoring, workforce and employment support, and continuing services. The plan must also inform the youth about designating someone to make health care decisions on their behalf and give them the option to execute a health care power of attorney.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 675 – Definitions The youth directs the plan.
Extended Foster Care to Age 21
Most states let youth extend their foster care placement past 18. Approximately 48 states offer some form of extension, with most providing support until age 21.8Child Welfare Information Gateway. Extension of Foster Care Beyond Age 18 Some youth stay with their foster family; others move into supervised independent living or transitional housing.9U.S. Government Accountability Office. Foster Care – States with Approval to Extend Care Provide Independent Living Options for Youth up to Age 21 To qualify, the young adult typically needs to be working, enrolled in school, or participating in a program designed to remove barriers to employment. Participation is voluntary. The young adult signs an agreement to remain under agency supervision and can leave at any time.
Chafee Services and Education Vouchers
The John H. Chafee Foster Care Program funds a broad set of services for youth who experienced foster care at age 14 or older: help with education, employment, financial literacy, housing, and building lasting relationships with caring adults.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 677 – John H Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood The program also serves youth who left foster care after age 16 for adoption or kinship guardianship, so you don’t have to age out to qualify. Former foster youth can access these services between 18 and 21, or up to 23 in states that elected the higher age limit.
Chafee also funds Education and Training Vouchers worth up to $5,000 per year for postsecondary education or vocational training. Youth can use the vouchers until age 26 as long as they are enrolled at least half-time and making satisfactory academic progress, but participation is capped at five years total. The vouchers stack with other financial aid, though the combined amount cannot exceed the cost of attendance.