California Foster Care Rates Reform

In 2024, the Youth Law Center achieved a transformative victory in California with the passage of a new foster care rate structure that embeds funding for enrichment and extracurricular activities. This billion-dollar investment ensures youth in family-based placements can access the same behavioral health supports and developmental opportunities, such as sports, music, and art, that were previously available primarily in institutional settings. The new rates structure aligns funding for placements with what youth need most: connection, belonging, and opportunity, close to home. The new rate framework, shaped by our multi-year advocacy in partnership with California Youth Connection, reflects a seismic shift toward building a foster care system centered on thriving in families, not institutions, and is first in the nation to include dedicated funding for strength-building activities.

June 2025 Update: We immediately began the hard task of working towards 2027 implementation of the new rates structure by leading the effort to ensure partnership between child welfare and mental health stakeholders and doubling-down on the youth engagement efforts that are so critical to developing the details of on-the-ground implementation that will ensure this vision becomes reality. In an unfortunate recent development, this advocacy victory is now threatened by California administration politics surrounding the state’s $12 billion dollar deficit and the current Governor’s political aspirations. The administration has proposed a conditional implementation of the new rates structure on whether sufficient General Fund resources are available in spring 2027. We have been busy educating the public and stakeholders on the unacceptable position of balancing the state’s future budget on the backs of youth in foster care who have waited too long for the families and opportunities they deserve.