How Much Do Foster Parents Get Paid in CT? (2025 Board Rates)

Connecticut foster parents receive a monthly board rate from DCF to cover the cost of caring for a child — food, clothing, transportation, incidentals. These payments are not income in the traditional sense. They are reimbursements for the cost of care, and they are not taxable under federal income tax rules.

Here is what the numbers actually look like, and what they do and don't cover.

Connecticut Foster Care Board Rates by Age

Connecticut's base maintenance payments are calculated as a daily rate multiplied by the number of days in the month. The rates are tiered by age:

These are the standard core foster care rates. They are not the ceiling. Children with higher levels of need receive higher rates.

Enhanced Rates: Therapeutic and Medically Complex Care

Children with significant emotional, behavioral, or medical needs are placed in specialized foster homes with enhanced reimbursement rates. The most intensive level — medically complex care — is reimbursed at a substantially higher daily rate:

Therapeutic Foster Care rates fall between the standard and medically complex tiers, depending on the placement agency and the child's specific clinical needs. Families providing therapeutic care are typically licensed through private agencies such as Wheeler Clinic, Klingberg Family Centers, or The Village for Families and Children, which have their own rate schedules that run higher than DCF core rates.

Pending Rate Increases

In May 2026, the Connecticut House of Representatives approved funding to increase the base foster care maintenance rates. The stated goal is to reach a minimum of $1,100 per month per child in the standard care category. As of May 2026, that legislation is pending final passage. Families licensed now will benefit from the increases once enacted.

What the Board Rate Covers

The board rate is intended to cover:

• Food (including formula for infants)
• Clothing (see also the clothing allowance below)
• Transportation to school, medical appointments, and visits with birth family
• Personal care items
• School supplies and activity fees
• Incidentals

It is not designed to represent a profit margin. In Connecticut's high cost-of-living environment, particularly in Fairfield County or the Hartford suburbs, the standard rate covers costs with limited margin. Families caring for infants or toddlers with high supervision needs will find the rate covers expenses but not additional childcare labor.

Clothing Allowance

Beyond the monthly board rate, DCF provides an initial start-up clothing allowance when a child first enters your home. This is a separate one-time payment to cover immediate clothing needs, since children often arrive with very little. Quarterly clothing vouchers or supplements are also available.

The specific amounts vary and are updated periodically by DCF. Your licensing worker will confirm the current figures when you receive a placement.

HUSKY Health Coverage

Every child in Connecticut foster care is covered by HUSKY Health, Connecticut's Medicaid program. This coverage is comprehensive:

• Medical care (primary care, specialist visits, emergency care)
• Dental care
• Vision care (including eyeglasses)
• Mental health therapy and psychiatric services
• Prescription medications

HUSKY coverage applies regardless of the foster family's own insurance situation. Foster parents do not need to add the child to their own health insurance and are not responsible for medical copays or deductibles for the child's care.

For many foster families, HUSKY is one of the most practically valuable parts of the support structure. Children entering foster care often have significant unmet health needs — dental work that hasn't been done, vision problems that haven't been identified, or behavioral health conditions that haven't been treated. HUSKY covers all of it, at no cost to the foster family.

Respite Care

Licensed Connecticut foster parents are entitled to periodic respite — short-term relief care where the child stays with another licensed foster family for a few days. This does not reduce the foster family's board rate. It exists to give caregivers a break and to support placement stability over the long term.

Are Payments Taxable?

Foster care maintenance payments in Connecticut are not considered taxable income for federal income tax purposes, provided you are caring for a child placed by DCF or a licensed private agency. This is true whether you foster one child or several. However, if you adopt a child from foster care, adoption subsidies paid after finalization may be treated differently. Consult a tax professional if you are in an adoptive placement receiving ongoing subsidies.

What Foster Parents Are Actually Earning

To be direct: Connecticut's board rates are among the more competitive in the Northeast, but foster parenting is not a revenue-generating activity for most families. The standard rate for a 7-year-old is approximately $828 per month. In a metro area where childcare alone can run $1,500 or more per month, that payment covers expenses if the foster parent is not working — but it does not replace a salary.

Families who foster successfully do so because they want to, not because the math makes it a business decision. The payments make it financially viable, not financially lucrative.

Understanding the payment structure is one part of the picture. If you want to know what the full licensing process looks like — including the TIPS-MAPP training, home study requirements, and how placements actually work — the Connecticut Foster Care Licensing Guide covers the complete process from first inquiry to first placement.

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