Foster Care – Adjacent County Applicants and Reporting Requirements

HB 570 permits foster parent applicants to apply for approval in the county where they live or in a county adjacent to their residence. It prohibits local social services departments from denying foster parent applications solely based on the applicant’s county of residence, as long as the applicant lives in the same county as the department or an adjacent county. The bill also requires local departments to submit quarterly reports to the state Department of Human Services detailing the number of children waiting for foster placements and available foster home vacancies in their county. This directly affects foster parent applicants, local social services departments, and the state’s oversight of foster care capacity.