Foster Care Agencies in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona

Arizona uses a hybrid licensing model. The Department of Child Safety (DCS) is the ultimate licensing authority and issues every foster home license. But you do not work directly with DCS for most of the application process — you work through a contracted private child welfare agency. Your agency recruits you, trains you, conducts your home study, and supports you once you are licensed. Choosing the wrong agency — one that is understaffed, poorly matched to your family, or geographically distant from your situation — is one of the most common reasons the licensing process stalls in Arizona.

DCS cannot legally recommend one agency over another. They give you a list. The selection is yours to make.

Here is what is actually known about the agencies operating in Phoenix, Tucson, and the broader Arizona market.

Why the Agency Choice Matters

Your licensing specialist — the person assigned to you by your agency — is your guide through the entire process. They submit your file, coordinate your training, schedule your home study, and communicate with the DCS Office of Licensing and Regulation (OLR) on your behalf. An engaged, responsive specialist can accelerate your timeline by weeks. A specialist managing 80 cases with inadequate support can lose your file, miss deadlines, or give you incorrect information about what the inspection requires.

Private agencies in Arizona are also your primary support system during placements. When a child is placed in your home and you need guidance at 10pm, you are calling your agency — not DCS.

Agencies Serving Maricopa County (Phoenix Metro)

Arizona's Children Association (AzCA) The largest child welfare nonprofit in Arizona, AzCA operates statewide. In Maricopa County, they are known for working with families interested in therapeutic foster care (TFC), medically complex placements, and LGBTQ+ youth. AzCA has multiple regional offices across the Phoenix metro and a well-established infrastructure for high-need placements. Families seeking to be matched with children who have higher support needs often find AzCA has the training depth to prepare them.

Child Crisis Arizona Headquartered in Phoenix, Child Crisis Arizona is notable for its emergency shelter operations alongside its foster licensing program. This means their staff have direct experience with children entering the system in crisis — an orientation that shapes how they train and support foster families. They serve military families, Spanish-speaking families, and LGBTQ+ applicants. Their blended pre-service training program has been specifically cited for its online delivery format.

Christian Family Care (CFC) CFC is the dominant faith-based agency in the Phoenix corridor. They operate from Phoenix and Tucson and draw heavily from evangelical and broadly Christian communities in the East Valley (Gilbert, Mesa, Chandler) and in Tucson. Their training incorporates biblical frameworks for family service alongside standard DCS curriculum. Families for whom faith-integration is important — particularly those connected to the "Foster the Arizona Way" movement in Valley churches — frequently work through CFC. They also operate thrift stores in Phoenix and Tucson that serve as physical community hubs.

Arizona Faith and Families Smaller than CFC but similarly faith-oriented, Arizona Faith and Families specifically serves Christian families and provides training with an explicit biblical basis. This is a niche choice for families who want a tighter faith-community alignment in their training and support experience.

A New Leaf A New Leaf serves Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal counties and is known for working with families across diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. They are active in therapeutic foster care and have experience with families navigating financial complexity. They are considered a more accessible option for families who do not identify with faith-based or LGBTQ+-focused agencies.

StepStone (Res-Care) StepStone specializes in therapeutic foster care for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs. They also coordinate respite care placements, which is a distinct service not all agencies provide at the same level. For families specifically interested in fostering children with developmental disabilities, StepStone's specialized staff make them worth evaluating.

Agencies Serving Pima County (Tucson)

Tucson City of Children Association (TCAA) TCAA is the primary Tucson-based non-profit in foster care licensing. They have an established reputation in Pima County and are familiar to the local DCS regional office. Families in Tucson who want a locally rooted agency with proximity to the Pima County DCS structure often start here.

Native American Connections Native American Connections serves families throughout southern Arizona with specific expertise in culturally appropriate foster care for Native American children. Given that Arizona has 22 federally recognized tribes and a high proportion of Native American children in the DCS system, an agency with substantive ICWA training and tribal relationship experience is a distinct advantage for families in or near tribal regions.

Catholic Charities Catholic Charities serves northern and central Arizona, with training programs that include therapeutic foster care and a specific intake pathway for married couples (required to have been married at least one year). They maintain a service presence in Tucson and serve the military community through a dedicated track.

Lutheran Social Services Lutheran Social Services is active in Pima County and other southern Arizona regions, offering culturally specific support alongside standard foster care licensing. They provide services across a diverse applicant base and are not limited to Lutheran families.

Rural Arizona

If you are outside the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas — Flagstaff, Yuma, Sierra Vista, Kingman, Prescott — the agency landscape is thinner. Most statewide agencies like AzCA have regional offices or assign licensing specialists who cover rural areas, but the responsiveness and local knowledge can vary.

For families in rural areas, the DCS regional structure matters more. Arizona divides the state into five regions: Northwest, Northeast, Maricopa West, Maricopa East, and South. Your licensing and any placement referrals will flow through your regional DCS field office. Knowing which region covers your county, and which private agencies have assigned specialists in that region, is the practical first step.

Applicants in Navajo County, Coconino County, and the Apache Reservation areas face an additional layer of ICWA compliance given the tribal populations in those regions. Agencies with active ICWA training programs — Native American Connections, AzCA, and some Catholic Charities offices — are better positioned to prepare families for the specific expectations in tribal territory placements.

How to Compare Agencies Before Choosing

DCS publishes a list of contracted agencies at dcs.az.gov/foster/agency/list. But the list does not tell you response times, specialist caseloads, or whether the agency's training culture matches yours.

Practical steps for comparison:

• Call two or three agencies before committing. How quickly they return the call, and the clarity of their first explanation of the process, tells you something about day-to-day responsiveness.
• Ask specifically: "What is the current average caseload per licensing specialist?" and "How long does it currently take your agency to move from completed home study to license issuance?"
• Ask whether the agency provides an adoption support team if a foster case moves toward adoption finalization.
• If faith-based training is important to you, ask whether the biblical component is integrated throughout or just a module. If it is not important to you, ask whether the faith-based content is optional or required.
• Ask what respite care options the agency coordinates and whether they manage their own respite network or rely entirely on the DCS system.

What Happens After You Choose

Once you select an agency, you are assigned to a licensing specialist who will create your Quick Connect portal profile and guide you through paperwork, training enrollment, and the home study schedule. If you are dissatisfied with your specialist, most agencies allow transfers to a different specialist within the same agency — though asking for a transfer early in the process is usually handled better than waiting until a conflict has escalated.

You can also change agencies before licensure is complete, though this resets some documentation and causes delays. Changing agencies after licensure is more complicated. Choosing carefully upfront matters.

The Arizona Foster Care Licensing Guide includes a comparison framework for evaluating Arizona licensing agencies and a list of questions to ask before committing to a specific provider.

See more United States guides →