Delaware Foster Care Licensing Guide vs. the DFS Website: Which Actually Gets You Licensed

The DFS website at kids.delaware.gov is the official source for Delaware foster care licensing information. It is also incomplete, scattered across multiple pages, and features two critical portals — the Foster Parent Portal and the Background Check Request Portal — that have displayed "Coming Soon" for months. The website tells you what Delaware requires. It does not walk you through how to actually accomplish each requirement, in what order, or how to avoid the specific mistakes that delay applications in New Castle, Kent, and Sussex Counties.

A Delaware-specific licensing guide covers the same regulatory territory — 9 DE Admin. Code 201, the PRIDE training requirement, the background check process, the home study standards — but organizes it as a sequential, actionable process rather than a collection of policy pages and downloadable trifold brochures. The guide fills the gaps the DFS website leaves open: which IdentoGO service code to use for "Foster Parent - DFS," how to coordinate multi-state background checks if you work in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, where PRIDE training sessions are actually scheduled across all three counties, and what the current board rates look like after COLA adjustments instead of the 2009 payment schedule that most public resources still reference.

The answer to which you should use is both — but for different purposes. The DFS website is your primary source for official forms, contact information, and regulatory text. The guide is your operating manual for navigating the system those forms and regulations create.

Side-by-Side Comparison

What the DFS Website Does Well

The DFS website is not useless — it is the authoritative source for several things a guide cannot replace.

Official forms and applications. When you need the actual application paperwork, the DFS website or a direct request to the 1825 Faulkland Road office in Wilmington is where you get it. No guide replaces official state documents.

Regulatory text. The full text of 9 DE Admin. Code 201 and related policies like Policy 1302 (Approval of Foster Family Homes) are available through the Delaware regulations website. If you want to read the law itself rather than a plain-language interpretation, the government source is the right place.

Contact information. Phone numbers, office addresses, and the general inquiry process for each county office are listed on the DFS pages. The guide references these contacts but the website is the primary source for current phone numbers and addresses.

Legal authority. The DFS website is the official government position. Anything it states about eligibility, disqualifications, or requirements carries the weight of the agency that actually issues your license.

Where the DFS Website Falls Short

The gaps are specific and documented.

The portal problem. The Foster Parent Portal and Background Check Request Portal have been listed as "Coming Soon" for an extended period. These were intended to be the digital tools that modernized the application process. Their absence means applicants who follow the website's own workflow hit a dead end on two critical steps. The guide routes around this by providing the manual process for each task the portals were supposed to handle.

No process sequencing. The DFS website presents requirements as a collection of facts distributed across multiple pages and linked PDFs. It tells you that you need a background check, PRIDE training, a home study, and specific home safety standards. It does not tell you the optimal order to tackle these, which steps can run concurrently, or which ones create bottlenecks if handled in the wrong sequence. The guide arranges these into a timeline that reflects how applications actually move through the DFS system.

The IdentoGO gap. Delaware moved to digital fingerprinting through IdentoGO, but the specific service code for "Foster Parent - DFS" is not prominently listed on the DFS recruitment pages. The IdentoGO website lists dozens of service codes for different Delaware agencies. Selecting the wrong code routes your fingerprints to the wrong division — and you will not discover the error for weeks, at which point you pay again and restart. This is one of the most common early-stage delays in Delaware foster care applications, and the website does not address it.

Outdated board rates. The most widely linked payment schedule on the DFS site references July 2009 rates. Facebook groups and forum posts regularly cite these numbers as current because they are what the official site appears to offer. The actual rates with COLA adjustments are significantly different, and the Level of Care (LOC) and GFT rate structure is not explained in a way that helps prospective parents understand what financial support looks like in practice.

No county-level operational detail. Delaware has three counties with meaningfully different logistics. New Castle County applicants often work across state lines in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, creating multi-state background check coordination that the website does not address. Sussex County applicants face significant travel distances to Georgetown or Dover for PRIDE training sessions. Kent County applicants near Dover discover that proximity to DFS headquarters does not translate to faster processing. The website treats the state as a single unit.

Who Should Rely Primarily on the DFS Website

• You are at the very earliest stage — you have not decided whether to pursue foster care at all, and you want the official overview before committing any resources.
• You need to download official forms or verify current contact information for a specific DFS office.
• You are a policy researcher, social worker, or attorney who needs the regulatory text itself rather than a plain-language interpretation.
• You have an existing relationship with a DFS caseworker who is actively guiding you through the process and answering your questions in real time.

Who Should Use a Guide Alongside the Website

• You have visited the DFS website, found the "Coming Soon" portals, and are stuck on how to actually begin the background check or fingerprinting process.
• You work in Pennsylvania or New Jersey and need to understand how your out-of-state employment affects your Delaware licensing timeline — something the website does not cover.
• You want to know the current board rates with COLA adjustments, not the 2009 base schedule.
• You need to decide between DFS direct licensing and a private agency, and the website does not compare these paths or identify which agencies hold current state contracts.
• You live in Sussex County and need to plan around PRIDE training logistics without calling multiple offices to piece together the schedule.
• You are a kinship caregiver with an urgent timeline who needs a complete process map immediately, not a gradual discovery through scattered web pages and phone calls.

Who Should NOT Use a Guide

• You are already licensed and renewing — the renewal process is handled directly through your existing DFS relationship.
• You are in a contested legal situation (custody dispute, TPR challenge, ICWA proceeding) — you need a family attorney, not a licensing guide.
• You want to foster in a different state — this guide is specific to Delaware's DFS system and 9 DE Admin. Code 201.

Tradeoffs

Using only the DFS website: Free, official, authoritative — but incomplete, poorly sequenced, with critical portals that do not function and board rate information that has not been updated on the most commonly linked page. You will spend significant time on the phone with DFS offices piecing together the process, and you risk early-stage errors (wrong IdentoGO code, uncoordinated multi-state checks) that add weeks or months.

Using only a guide: Well-organized, current, and actionable — but it is a third-party resource, not an official government document. You still need the DFS website for forms, for verifying current contact information, and for any regulatory updates that occur after the guide's publication date. A guide cannot issue your license.

Using both: The DFS website for official documents, forms, and contact verification. The guide for the sequential process, the gap-filling detail the website omits, the county-level logistics, the current financial information, and the preparation templates that turn scattered requirements into a manageable plan. This is the approach that matches how Delaware's foster care system actually operates: the official process exists, but the tools to navigate it efficiently do not come from the agency itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will the DFS website eventually replace the need for a guide?

If the Foster Parent Portal and Background Check Request Portal launch and function as intended, they will address some of the gaps — particularly around digital applications and fingerprinting coordination. They will not address process sequencing, county-level logistics, DFS-vs-agency comparison, or board rate transparency. The guide's value is in organizing and interpreting the system, not just providing access to it.

Is the information in the guide different from what DFS would tell me on the phone?

The substantive requirements are the same — both reference 9 DE Admin. Code 201. The difference is organization and completeness. A DFS phone call addresses whatever question you ask in that moment. The guide addresses the questions you do not yet know to ask, in the order you need to address them.

Can I use the guide if I am going through a private agency instead of DFS directly?

Yes. Delaware's licensing standards under 9 DE Admin. Code 201 apply regardless of whether you go through DFS or a contracted private agency. The home study, background checks, and training requirements are the same. The guide also covers the DFS-vs-agency decision itself, including which agencies hold current state contracts for foster care placement.

What if the DFS website updates after I buy the guide?

The guide is built on the regulatory framework of 9 DE Admin. Code 201 and current DFS policies. Minor website changes (new phone numbers, office hours) do not affect the guide's core content. If Delaware enacts a regulatory change to the licensing standards themselves, the guide would need updating — but the administrative code revision process in Delaware is slow and well-documented.

Is the free Quick-Start Checklist enough, or do I need the full guide?

The free checklist covers the essential first steps — the actions that move you from inquiry to active application. If your situation is straightforward (single county, no cross-state employment, no kinship urgency), the checklist plus the DFS website may be sufficient. If you work across state lines, need the county-level detail, want the board rate tables, or are navigating the DFS-vs-agency decision, the full guide is where that information lives.

I already called DFS and they told me to attend the monthly information session. Do I still need a guide?

The monthly information session provides an overview that the DFS website also covers. It does not provide the document-ready preparation, the IdentoGO service codes, the cross-state background check coordination, or the home study room-by-room walkthrough. Attending the session with the guide's preparation completed means you arrive document-ready rather than starting from zero — and you can use the session to ask the specific questions the guide surfaces rather than absorbing the general overview.

See more United States guides →