How Much Do Foster Parents Get Paid in Mississippi?

The payment question comes up early for anyone considering foster care in Mississippi — and that's completely reasonable. Before you commit months of your time to training and home study, you need to know what the financial picture looks like. The answer is more detailed than a single number, and there are some important things the state website doesn't explain clearly.

The short version: Mississippi foster parents receive a monthly board payment that covers room and board for the child. It is not income. It is not taxable. And it does not arrive as quickly as most new foster parents expect.

The 2024 Board Payment Schedule

MDCPS updated its reimbursement rates effective January 1, 2024. The total monthly payment is made up of three components: a base board rate, a clothing allowance, and a personal allowance.

These rates represent the 2024 update, which was the most significant increase in several years. If you're looking at older numbers online — many sites still show pre-2024 figures — the rates above are current.

How Payments Are Calculated

Payments are prorated by the night. MDCPS uses a 30-day month as its baseline for calculation — 31-day months produce slightly higher payments, February slightly lower. The clothing allowance prorates at $2.67 per day, and the personal allowance prorates at $1.00 to $2.00 per day depending on the child's age.

All board payments are deposited directly onto the Mississippi Way2Go debit card — a state-issued prepaid card — on the 15th of each month. This covers the prior month of care.

This is the detail that catches nearly every new foster parent off guard: your first payment arrives on the 15th of the month after the month a child is placed. If a child is placed on September 1st, your first payment arrives October 15th. In a state where a significant portion of households are financially stretched, that 45-day gap to the first payment requires planning. The board payment is designed to reimburse care already provided, not to fund care in advance.

Additional Financial Benefits

The board rate is only part of the financial picture. Several other benefits apply to licensed Mississippi foster families:

Medicaid: Every child in foster care in Mississippi is automatically enrolled in Medicaid. Medical, dental, and vision care are covered without any out-of-pocket costs to the foster parent.

Child Care Subsidy: Working foster parents are eligible for child care vouchers through the MDHS Child Care Payment Program (CCPP). Foster children are classified as a priority group, which often means bypassing the waiting list entirely.

Mileage Reimbursement: Foster parents can be reimbursed for driving a child to court-ordered visits, medical appointments, and other authorized activities. The rate is tied to the federal GSA mileage standard — approximately $0.70 per mile as of 2025.

Higher Rates for Special Needs: Children designated as Special Needs I or Special Needs II — including children with significant behavioral, developmental, or medical challenges — receive higher daily rates. Families willing to provide "Medically Fragile" care require additional certification training but receive the higher Special Needs II rate.

What the Stipend Actually Covers

Mississippi law is specific on this point: the board payment is a reimbursement for the child's room and board costs. It is not intended as compensation for the foster parent's time. This is an important framing because the payments rarely cover the full actual cost of care, particularly for older children or those with higher needs.

Think of it this way: the state covers the child's essential expenses through the board rate and Medicaid. The expectation is that you are "financially self-sufficient" — meaning your household can sustain itself on your own income, and the board payment supplements the child's specific costs.

For kinship caregivers — grandparents, aunts, and uncles who become licensed — the calculation often looks different. Once licensed, relative caregivers receive the same board rates as non-relative foster parents. Unlicensed relative caregivers typically receive no monthly payment at all. For many Delta-region grandmothers raising grandchildren informally, getting licensed is worth $700+ per month in board payments they weren't previously receiving.

Therapeutic and Agency-Based Rates

Private child-placing agencies in Mississippi — like Canopy Children's Solutions or Southern Christian Services for Children and Youth — handle "Therapeutic Foster Care" placements for children with the highest level of behavioral and mental health needs. Rates for therapeutic placements are negotiated separately through the agency and are generally higher than standard MDCPS board rates, but they come with additional training requirements, documentation expectations, and closer agency oversight.

If you want to understand how the board payment, Way2Go card, and first-payment timing work together — including how to prepare financially for the gap before your first stipend arrives — the Mississippi Foster Care Licensing Guide walks through all of it.

The Tax Treatment of Foster Care Payments

Foster care board payments from MDCPS are not considered taxable income by the IRS. You will not receive a 1099 for these payments. They are reimbursements for the care of a child, not wages or income. This applies regardless of the amount — even families receiving $1,800+ per month for a foster teen parent are not taxed on those board payments.

This is meaningfully different from being a paid employee of a foster care agency, which would be taxable. If you have questions about your specific tax situation, consult a tax professional familiar with foster care reimbursements.

Is It Enough?

That depends on your circumstances and expectations. For families who enter foster care primarily as a mission — many motivated by faith-based community drives like "Rescue 100" — the stipend is viewed as covering the child's costs while the family provides the care. For kinship caregivers on fixed incomes in the Delta, the monthly board payment is often the difference between being able to keep a grandchild and losing them to the system entirely.

What the Mississippi rates are not: a meaningful source of income for the foster family. If the financial model only works if the board payments cover your own household expenses, Mississippi's "financial self-sufficiency" requirement means you won't qualify to begin with.

The 2024 rate increase was a real improvement. Whether it's sufficient for your family's situation is a question worth working through before you start the application process.

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