Delaware Foster Care Agencies: DFS vs Private Agencies

One of the first decisions you'll face as a prospective foster parent in Delaware is whether to go through the Division of Family Services (DFS) directly or work with a private child-placing agency. The answer isn't obvious, and choosing wrong can mean months of frustration with the wrong support model for your situation.

How Delaware's Public-Private Model Works

Delaware uses a "public-private partnership" for foster care. DFS — the state agency under the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families (DSCYF) — retains ultimate licensing authority. Every foster home license in Delaware is issued by DFS, period. But the state contracts with private agencies to handle much of the recruitment, training, and ongoing support.

This means that even if you work with a private agency, your license comes from DFS. The private agency acts as an intermediary — they train you, support you, and often manage your placements, but the regulatory authority stays with the state. This is different from some states where private agencies can issue their own licenses.

DFS operates through three county offices. New Castle County is headquartered in Wilmington at University Plaza, handling the state's highest-density urban placements and coordinating with corporate community partners. Kent County runs out of Dover, managing suburban and rural transition zones and serving as the central training coordination hub. Sussex County operates from Georgetown and Milford, covering rural agricultural communities and the coastal areas around Rehoboth Beach.

The Major Private Agencies

Children & Families First (CFF) is the largest contracted agency and the one you're most likely to encounter first. They deliver PRIDE pre-service training across all three counties and handle foster parent orientations at scale. CFF is the "general contractor" of Delaware foster care — broad reach, standardized delivery, and the capacity to move a lot of families through the pipeline.

Children's Choice focuses on therapeutic and medical foster care. They provide 24-hour support and specialized training for parents taking in children with significant behavioral or medical needs. If you're open to higher-needs placements — children with serious mental health diagnoses, developmental disabilities, or complex medical conditions — Children's Choice offers a level of wraparound support that DFS alone typically can't match. Their case managers carry smaller caseloads, which translates to more responsive support when issues arise at 2 a.m.

A Better Chance for Our Children (ABCFOC) specializes in minority child placement and kinship care support. They focus specifically on connecting children of color with culturally competent families and supporting relatives who step in as caregivers. If you're a kinship caregiver navigating an emergency placement, ABCFOC is often the most helpful starting point.

Adoptions from the Heart primarily handles adoption but works closely with DFS on foster-to-adopt transitions. If your long-term goal is adoption through the foster care system, this agency's dual focus on fostering and adoption provides continuity from licensing through finalization.

How to Decide: State vs Private

Think of DFS as the "factory" — high volume, standardized processes, and the full weight of the state system behind you. Private agencies are "boutiques" — smaller caseloads, more personalized support, and often more intensive case management and "cluster" support group access.

Go with DFS directly if you want the most straightforward path and are comfortable navigating bureaucratic processes independently. DFS staff are managing over 500 active cases with limited resources, so prospective applicants sometimes compete for attention with active placement emergencies. You'll need to be proactive about following up and pushing your paperwork forward.

Choose a private agency if you want more hands-on guidance, if you're interested in specialized or therapeutic fostering, or if you value having a dedicated support coordinator who isn't also juggling active child protection cases. Private agencies often provide more intensive "cluster" support groups where you meet regularly with other foster families, which can be invaluable during your first placement.

One critical thing to verify: make sure any private agency you consider actually has a current state contract for foster care placements. Some agencies listed in online directories focus exclusively on private adoption and don't place state foster children. Working with an uncontracted agency means you'll eventually need to re-engage with DFS or a contracted partner anyway, wasting months.

What About Cost?

Going through DFS is free. Private agencies contracted by the state are also free to you — the state pays them through the contract. Be cautious of any entity that asks for upfront fees from prospective foster parents. Legitimate contracted agencies in Delaware do not charge applicants for licensing, training, or placement services. If someone asks you to pay, that's a red flag worth investigating.

Ongoing Support Differences

The choice between DFS and a private agency has long-term consequences beyond the initial licensing phase. Once you're licensed and receiving placements, the quality of your day-to-day support varies significantly.

DFS caseworkers are managing large caseloads across active child protection cases, court proceedings, and family reunification work. Your needs as a foster parent — a question about a child's medication, a concern about behavioral regression, a scheduling conflict with a required visit — compete for attention with emergencies. Response times can lag, and you may find yourself leaving voicemails that take days to return.

Private agencies like Children's Choice offer more responsive support because their staff are dedicated to foster family services, not splitting time with investigations and removals. They organize regular "cluster" support group meetings where you connect with other foster families facing similar challenges. For first-time foster parents especially, this peer network can be the difference between feeling supported and feeling abandoned by the system.

Making the Decision Before It's Made for You

Here's a practical reality: many families don't actively choose. They attend a DFS information session, get assigned a Foster Home Coordinator, and end up wherever that coordinator directs them. If you have a preference, express it early — at the information session or during your first conversation with your FHC. Once you're midway through the process with one agency, switching adds months of duplicated work.

Our Delaware Foster Care Licensing Guide includes a breakdown of every contracted agency's service area, specialization, contact information, and support model so you can make this decision with full information before you commit.

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