DC Foster Care Placement Types: Teens, Infants, and Everything Between

One of the first questions prospective foster parents ask CFSA is: "What age child will I get?" The honest answer is that the District has significant needs across every age group — but if you walk into the process without a realistic picture of who is actually waiting for placement, you may be surprised by what you're offered first.

DC's Child and Family Services Agency serves approximately 1,200 children in out-of-home care, and the composition of that population has shifted substantially. Between 2019 and 2023, the total foster care caseload dropped by 37% as CFSA expanded community-based prevention services. The children who remain in care are, on average, older and have more complex needs than the foster care population of a decade ago.

Placement Types in the DC System

The District recognizes several distinct categories of foster home placement, each governed by DCMR Title 29, Chapter 60:

Traditional Foster Home

This is the standard licensing category for families who want to provide general foster care for children without specific clinical diagnoses. Traditional placements can include any age, from infants to teenagers, and the specific child offered depends on your household profile, available space, and the agency managing your license.

Traditional foster homes are the backbone of the DC system. They are appropriate for children who need stability and nurturing but do not require intensive clinical intervention.

Therapeutic (Treatment) Foster Home

For youth with identified emotional, behavioral, or mental health challenges. Therapeutic foster parents receive additional training and ongoing clinical support from their licensing agency. Board rates are higher at Levels II through IV. See the post on therapeutic foster care DC for details on this track.

Kinship Care Home

Placements with blood relatives or "fictive kin" — close family friends who have a pre-existing relationship with the child. DC prioritizes kinship placement above all other options when a child must be removed. Kinship caregivers can apply for full licensure and receive the same board rates as non-relative foster parents.

For relatives who need immediate placement before completing the full licensing process, DC offers a Temporary Kinship License — a 150-day provisional license issued after a safety assessment and background check. This allows the child to be placed with family right away while the full home study proceeds.

Medically Fragile Home

For children with significant physical disabilities or chronic medical conditions requiring ongoing specialized care. These placements require either a medical background or completion of intensive medical training provided by the licensing agency.

Fostering Teenagers in DC

Teenagers are the population the District most urgently needs homes for. Nationally, older youth are the hardest age group to place, and DC is no exception. Most children available for immediate placement in DC are adolescents — typically between ages 12 and 17 — rather than younger children.

What does fostering a teenager in DC actually look like?

School navigation is immediate. DC's "school of origin" policy means a child can often remain enrolled at their current school even after placement, which is a significant stability factor. You will need to understand both DCPS (DC Public Schools) and the large charter school sector in the District.

Birth family contact is frequent. Because the District is only 68 square miles, most youth in care are placed within 10–20 minutes of their birth families. Regular visitation — sometimes multiple times per week — is the norm, not the exception. Teenagers often have more input into visitation schedules and contact with siblings.

Behavioral complexity is more common. The 37% reduction in DC's total caseload since 2019 means that youth still in care have typically exhausted community-based supports. This does not mean every teenager in care is in crisis, but it does mean that applying with realistic expectations about behavioral history is important.

LGBTQ+ affirmation is required. Between 15% and 30% of DC youth in care identify as LGBTQ+ — among the highest proportions in the country. All DC foster homes must be affirming of sexual orientation and gender identity. This is a licensing standard, not a suggestion.

The board rates for teenagers at Level I are approximately $34.15 per day (around $1,058 per month), with higher rates for youth with additional needs. DC's teenage placement rates are significantly above Virginia and Maryland equivalents.

Specialized agencies like Older Youth Empowerment (OYE) focus specifically on youth ages 15–21 and provide programming around vocational training, life skills, and transition to adulthood alongside standard foster care services.

Infant Placement in DC

Infant placements — children under 12 months — are less common in DC's current system than they were a decade ago. CFSA's prevention initiatives have reduced the number of newborns entering care, and when infants do enter the system, they are frequently placed with relatives first.

For families specifically interested in infant foster care, there are several practical realities:

Your licensing agency matters. Not all contracted agencies handle infant placements with the same frequency. If infant care is your priority, ask agencies directly during orientation how many infant placements they made in the past year and what their typical wait times look like.

Foster-to-adopt expectations should be managed carefully. Many prospective parents who want to foster infants are thinking about adoption. The DC system's reunification-first orientation means that the majority of infants placed with foster families will ultimately be reunified with their birth families. Infant placements that end in adoption typically involve situations where the court has determined reunification is not safe.

The NCCF Maryland connection. Some DC-licensed foster families who accept infant placements may receive children from the DC system who are placed in Maryland homes through NCCF's regional contract. This is less relevant for families focused on infant placements in DC proper, but worth understanding if your situation might change.

Square footage requirements apply even for infants. A single infant requires a bedroom of at least 70 square feet and cannot share a room with an adult once they exceed 18 months. This matters significantly for DC's apartment-heavy housing stock.

Sibling Groups

DC's permanency framework prioritizes keeping siblings together whenever possible. If your home has capacity for two or more children, you may receive sibling group placements. These placements come with the benefit of maintaining family connections but also require more space and coordination around school, visitation, and scheduling.

The minimum bedroom size for two children sharing a room is 100 square feet; three children requires 150 square feet. Children over 5 may not share a room with a child of the opposite sex.

What You Can and Cannot Request

DC's placement system does not operate like a catalog. You can express preferences regarding age range, the number of children you can accept, and whether you are prepared for therapeutic-level needs. You cannot request specific races, ethnicities, or other protected characteristics.

What you can do is be specific and honest in your home study about your capacity and your household's realistic capabilities. A licensing worker who understands that you work full-time, have a 700-square-foot apartment, and are prepared for one school-age child will match you more accurately than one working from vague preferences.

If you want to understand how all of these placement types connect to the licensing process — the home study, the training, the financial supports, and the ongoing agency relationship — the District of Columbia Foster Care Licensing Guide covers each step from application through first placement.

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