Indigenous Foster Care in Alberta: DFNAs, Bill C-92, and Cultural Obligations

Nearly 70% of children in Alberta government care identify as Indigenous. If you are applying to become a foster parent anywhere in Alberta — in Edmonton, in Red Deer, in a rural community, or anywhere in between — the probability that you will care for an Indigenous child at some point is not a remote possibility. It is close to a certainty.

This is not a detail you can set aside for later. Alberta's child welfare legislation, federal law, and the ethical obligations of the caregiving role all require prospective foster parents to understand how Indigenous child welfare works in the province. Entering the system without this knowledge puts both you and the children you care for at a disadvantage.

Why There Are So Many Indigenous Children in Alberta's Care

The overrepresentation of Indigenous children in child welfare systems is not the result of greater dysfunction in Indigenous families. It is the direct legacy of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, ongoing poverty driven by historical land dispossession, and a system that for decades applied non-Indigenous standards to assess Indigenous family environments. The intergenerational trauma created by these policies is explicitly recognized in Alberta legislation and in the federal Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families (Bill C-92).

Understanding this context matters practically. It shapes how social workers talk about cultural continuity plans. It explains why the placement hierarchy in Alberta strongly favors Indigenous families and communities for Indigenous children. And it is the reason why cultural competency is not an optional extra in the training curriculum — it is a mandatory component.

Delegated First Nations Agencies: What They Are and How They Work

A Delegated First Nations Agency (DFNA) is an Indigenous organization that has been granted legal authority by the province to provide child intervention services to First Nations children and families. Alberta has over 20 active DFNAs, including agencies serving the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe Child Protection Services), the Siksika Nation (Siksika Family Services Corporation), the Stoney Nakoda communities (Stoney Nakoda CFS Society), and the Tsuut'ina Nation (Tsuut'ina Nation CFS Society), among others.

DFNAs hold the same legal authority as provincial CFS regional offices. They can conduct investigations, make placement decisions, apply for court orders, and approve foster homes. Foster homes approved through a DFNA are assessed against the same provincial standards under the Foster and Kinship Care Regulation — but the training provided by a DFNA will include significantly more community-specific cultural content than the standard provincial PRIDE curriculum.

If you are fostering through a DFNA, you may be asked to participate in community ceremonies, to learn specific cultural protocols relevant to the nation whose children you are serving, and to facilitate regular contact between children in your care and their home communities. This is not optional — it is part of your caregiving role.

Bill C-92: Federal Law and Indigenous Sovereignty Over Child Welfare

In 2019, the Canadian federal government passed Bill C-92, formally titled "An Act respecting First Nations, Inuit and Métis children, youth and families." This legislation represents a fundamental shift: it affirms the inherent jurisdiction of Indigenous peoples over child and family services affecting their children.

What this means for foster placements in Alberta:

The Hierarchy of Care. When an Indigenous child cannot remain with their parents, placements must follow a specific priority order: first, an extended family member; second, another member of the child's community or a person chosen by the child's community; third, any other Indigenous person; and only then, a non-Indigenous family. This hierarchy applies both to initial placements and to permanency planning, including adoption.

Coordination with Indigenous Governing Bodies. CFS and DFNAs are required to coordinate with recognized Indigenous governing bodies when providing services to their children. This means that if a First Nation has passed its own child welfare law under Bill C-92, that law takes precedence over provincial legislation for children who are members of that Nation.

Jordan's Principle. This related federal policy ensures that First Nations children can access all government-funded services — health, education, social — without delay due to jurisdictional disputes between federal and provincial governments. As a foster parent, if you encounter a situation where a child's service needs are being disputed between agencies, Jordan's Principle is the mechanism to raise.

What Cultural Competency Obligations Mean for Foster Parents

Alberta's CYFEA (Section 107) requires the Director of Children's Services to involve a designated representative from a First Nation or Indigenous community in all planning and decision-making for an Indigenous child. This representative — sometimes called a First Nations Designate or Cultural Support Worker — will be involved in the child's Plan of Care from the beginning.

As a foster parent, your cultural competency obligations include:

Facilitating community contact. This means transporting the child to cultural events, ceremonies, and visits with extended family in their home community. If you live far from the child's community, you need to be prepared to discuss with the caseworker how this will be managed — it is not something that can simply be omitted.

Incorporating cultural practices into daily life. This varies significantly by nation and by child. For some children, this means regular smudging, access to cultural foods, or contact with an Elder. For others, it means speaking their language at home or maintaining connections with their cultural community in the city. Your caseworker and the cultural support worker named in the Plan of Care will be your guides.

Attending cultural training. The PRIDE pre-service training for all Alberta foster parents includes modules on cultural identity and historical trauma. If you are specifically fostering through a DFNA or are placed with a child who has strong community ties, additional cultural training may be required as a condition of your placement.

Avoiding cultural erasure. This means not discouraging a child from speaking their language, not substituting mainstream celebrations for cultural ceremonies, and not expressing negative views about the child's family, community, or Indigenous identity. Children who experience cultural disconnection during foster placements are at higher risk for poor mental health outcomes in adulthood.

The Alberta Foster Care Guide includes a detailed section on cultural obligations for foster parents, including what to expect when working with a DFNA and how to prepare your household for an Indigenous child placement.

Fostering Through a DFNA vs. Through Provincial CFS

Prospective foster parents in Alberta can apply through their regional CFS office or through a DFNA that serves their area. For non-Indigenous families, the most common route is through the provincial regional office or through a contracted private agency. However, non-Indigenous families can be approved through a DFNA process if they live in close proximity to a First Nations community and are willing to commit to the cultural obligations.

The key practical differences:

If you are unsure whether a DFNA operates in your area and serves the population you want to care for, the Government of Alberta maintains a current directory of all active DFNAs at alberta.ca/delegated-first-nation-agencies.

Preparing Yourself Before the First Placement

If you are applying through the provincial system and are open to caring for Indigenous children — which, given the demographics, effectively means you are open to most placements — there are concrete things you can do before your first child arrives:

Learn the names of the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities that are local to you and to the children likely to be in your care. Understand the difference between on-reserve and off-reserve jurisdiction. Research the specific DFNA, if any, that operates in your region. Ask your caseworker early in the placement process who the child's cultural support worker is and how to contact them.

These are not abstract gestures. They are the practical groundwork for actually doing the job you have applied to do.

The overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Alberta's care system is a crisis that the province is working to address — including through increased DFNA authority under Bill C-92 and through ambitious targets to reduce the number of Indigenous children in provincial care. The most meaningful contribution any foster parent can make to that goal is to provide culturally grounded, relationally rich care that keeps a child connected to who they are while their family works toward reunification.

For the complete framework — including the documents, training requirements, and specific obligations that apply when you are matched with an Indigenous child — the Alberta Foster Care Guide is the most direct resource available.

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