How Much Do Foster Parents Get Paid in Massachusetts?

Most people considering foster care in Massachusetts have the same two questions: can I afford to do this, and am I doing it for the right reasons? The second question is yours to answer. This post handles the first.

Massachusetts foster parents are not paid a salary. What DCF provides is a non-taxable daily stipend designed to reimburse the direct costs of caring for a child — food, housing contribution, clothing, and daily activities. The stipend does not offset your time, your emotional labor, or the professional skill you bring to the placement. Understanding this distinction upfront helps set realistic expectations before you open your application.

2026 Daily Stipend Rates by Age

DCF sets reimbursement rates by the child's age group. The current rates, effective July 1, 2025, are:

Payments are issued twice monthly via electronic funds transfer. For a child aged 6–12, the monthly payment works out to roughly $1,160–$1,200, depending on the number of days in the billing period.

These rates are for standard Family Foster Care. If you are approved for Intensive Foster Care (IFC) — which covers children with higher clinical and behavioral needs — the daily rate jumps significantly, ranging from $73.35 to $82.45 per day. IFC homes receive both a base stipend and an operational payment routed through the private agency managing the placement.

Quarterly Clothing Allowances

Separate from the daily stipend, DCF issues a quarterly clothing allowance for each child in your care:

These funds are meant to cover seasonal clothing, shoes, and school supplies. They are issued on a quarterly schedule, not monthly.

Additional Payments Most Foster Parents Don't Know About

Beyond the base stipend and clothing allowance, Massachusetts offers several supplemental payments that are easy to miss in the official materials:

Birthday and Holiday Grants: DCF provides $100 for the child's birthday and $200 annually for holiday gifts. These are not automatic — you need to request them through your social worker, so keep a note of the relevant dates.

PACT Program (Parents and Children Together): A supplemental program that pays approximately $10.00 per hour for specific documented care tasks. Ask your licensing worker whether the children in your care qualify.

School Start-Up Assistance: One-time payments or grants — often channeled through the Wonderfund, a private nonprofit that partners with DCF — are available to help offset back-to-school costs. Eligibility varies by office and available funding.

Healthcare and Benefits: The Numbers That Matter

The financial picture is not complete without counting what you do not have to pay:

MassHealth (Medicaid): Every child in DCF custody is automatically enrolled in MassHealth, providing comprehensive health, dental, and behavioral health coverage at no cost to the foster family. In a state where individual health insurance premiums average over $500 per month, this is a significant offset.

WIC: Foster families with children under age five are automatically eligible for WIC nutrition benefits, regardless of the foster parent's income.

Free School Meals: All children in foster care receive free lunch at school regardless of household income. No application required.

Child Care Subsidy: Working foster parents can access subsidized child care slots through the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). In Greater Boston, where infant care can run $2,500–$3,500 per month, this benefit is material.

What the Stipend Covers — and What It Doesn't

The daily stipend is calibrated to cover the marginal cost of adding a child to your household: food, utilities, transportation, toiletries, and a contribution toward housing space. Research consistently shows it falls short of covering all actual expenses, particularly in high-cost areas like Boston, Cambridge, or the Route 128 corridor.

What it does not cover: your time, professional development beyond required training hours, therapy or counseling services above what MassHealth provides, or the unpaid hours of coordination with schools, courts, and DCF workers.

Families who enter foster care expecting the stipend to be meaningful income are usually disappointed and sometimes financially stretched. Families who enter with their own financial footing, treating the stipend as a partial reimbursement rather than income, tend to find the arrangement sustainable.

Kinship Care Financial Considerations

If you are a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or other relative stepping in for an emergency placement, the financial picture has an additional layer. Kinship foster parents receive the same daily stipend and allowances as non-relative foster homes — but only after they are licensed. In the period between emergency placement and licensure (which can run 30–60 days in Massachusetts), you may be caring for a child without any reimbursement.

Ask your DCF worker specifically about retroactive payment for the pre-licensure period. It is not guaranteed, but it is sometimes available, and it is worth asking about before you assume the gap falls on you.

Putting It Together

For a family fostering a 10-year-old on a standard license, the annual DCF financial support looks roughly like:

• Daily stipend: ~$14,100/year
• Clothing allowances: ~$1,400/year
• Birthday/holiday grants: $300/year
• Total direct payments: ~$15,800/year

Add MassHealth coverage, WIC if applicable, and the child care subsidy if you're working, and the actual financial support is higher — but the headline number rarely exceeds the cost of raising a child in Massachusetts, which the USDA estimates at over $20,000 per year before housing in high-cost metros.

If you want a complete picture of the licensing process and financial logistics before you apply — including how DCF calculates your income requirements and what the "stable source of income" standard actually means for your situation — the Massachusetts Foster Care Licensing Guide walks through the full financial framework alongside every other step of the process.

One Honest Word on the Money

The foster parents who navigate the Massachusetts system most successfully are the ones who made the decision before they knew the stipend amount — and then confirmed the numbers were workable. The stipend matters. It needs to be enough to cover the added costs. But it is not why people stay in it for the long term, and it is not why DCF is looking for you. They are looking for people who can provide stable, trauma-informed care for children who have had neither. The financial support is designed to make that possible, not to make it profitable.

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