Foster Families Grant Program

2017 Assembly Bill 787 ( Act 260)

This legislation would create a grant program for counties, non-profits, and tribes to fund initiatives that support foster families as they strive to provide normalcy for Wisconsin’s foster care population.

Wisconsin faces a shortage of foster care placements and a rising number of children in out of home care. We struggle to recruit and retain foster families, as even the most committed families’ face challenges in providing normalcy for the children in their care. This legislation would help retain foster families and support foster children by providing flexible funding that may be used for necessary resources, specialized training to meet individual needs, and to cover expenses that help foster children achieve normalcy. Like other families, foster families face additional expenses for extra-curriculars, sports, and field trips, but foster care payments generally cover only basic care and support. Whether it covers the cost of a music program, fees and equipment to play football, or the money needed to go on a school field trip, these grants would enable foster families to ensure their foster children have the same opportunities as other children.

This bill was a part of the Foster Forward package of bills that came out of the Foster Care Task Force Representative Subeck served on in 2017.