Arkansas Foster Care Payment Schedule: Board Rates and Supplements

Arkansas pays licensed foster parents between $451 and $550 per child each month, with the exact amount set by the child’s age. That monthly board rate is the core of the Arkansas foster care payment schedule, and it bundles board and care, clothing, and school or personal needs into one payment. Higher rates are available for children with additional care needs, and separate allowances cover clothing orders, activities, and medical costs that fall outside the monthly amount.

Monthly Board Rates by Age

The current rates took effect in August 2023 and apply to fully licensed resource parents (Arkansas’s term for foster parents). Each payment breaks down into three line items:

Birth through 5 years: $451 per month ($381 board and care, $50 clothing, $20 personal needs)
6 through 11 years: $484 per month ($397 board and care, $57 clothing, $30 school and personal needs)
12 through 14 years: $517 per month ($410 board and care, $67 clothing, $40 school and personal needs)
15 through 17 years: $550 per month ($425 board and care, $80 clothing, $45 school and personal needs)

You can spend the clothing portion each month or save it for a larger purchase, but keep receipts. Your resource worker will ask for them during quarterly visits.¹

If a child is only in your home for part of a month, the payment is prorated based on the number of nights the child stayed with you.¹

Special Board Rates for Children with Additional Needs

When a child’s care needs go beyond what the standard rate covers, DCFS can approve a higher special board rate. The increase depends on the nature of the child’s needs and the extra work involved, such as coordinating therapy or managing specialist appointments. The maximum increase is $460 above the standard rate for the child’s age group. If the child receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the rate may go up to the SSI amount plus $460, with approval from the DCFS Assistant Director of Community Services.¹

The special board rate can also work in the other direction. If a child receives federal benefits like SSI and you are the designated payee, DCFS reduces the board payment dollar-for-dollar by the amount of those benefits. If the child’s federal benefits exceed the standard board amount, the DCFS payment drops to zero.¹

Provisional Kinship Homes Are Paid Less

Relatives and fictive kin who take in a child on shorter notice can open a provisional kinship home before completing the full licensing process. The monthly payment for provisional placements is $240 per child, well below the standard rate. Once the kinship home completes full licensure, the household becomes eligible for the standard board rates listed above.¹

Supplements Beyond the Monthly Board Rate

Several supplemental supports sit outside the standard payment, and many foster parents don’t discover them until a specific need comes up.

Initial and Supplemental Clothing Orders

When a child first enters foster care, DCFS may issue an initial clothing order for new items, evaluated case by case. After that, you can request a supplemental clothing order if the child outgrows clothes, needs items for a school event, or otherwise needs clothing the monthly board rate can’t cover. Supplemental orders require prior approval from your family service worker and are limited to one per quarter.¹

Incidental Expense Fund

For children from birth through age 13, an incidental expense fund covers activities and items meant to give the child a more normal experience: camp fees, extracurricular activities, school uniforms, field trips, and specialized supplies like a required graphing calculator. The fund covers expenses of $25 or more, and you can submit one request per quarter with documentation of the need.¹

Chafee Program for Youth 14 and Older

Youth aged 14 and older qualify for John H. Chafee Foster Care Program funding. It supports activities focused on developing leadership skills, promoting normalcy, and preparing for adulthood.¹

Medical Costs Beyond Medicaid

Every child in Arkansas foster care receives foster care Medicaid. If a child needs emergency medical services or prescriptions that Medicaid doesn’t cover, DCFS may help with those costs, subject to approval from a county office supervisor.¹

When Payments Arrive

The monthly board payment covers the first through the last day of each month and is paid by the 15th of the following month. A payment for January care arrives by February 15.¹

You can receive payments through direct deposit into a single bank account, or by paper check (called a warrant). Direct deposit isn’t required. If you sign up for direct deposit close to a processing deadline, or if your bank account information is entered incorrectly, the payment automatically converts to a paper check so you aren’t left waiting.²

How the Payments Are Taxed

Most foster care payments are not taxable. Federal law excludes qualified foster care payments from your gross income when the money comes from a state, a political subdivision, or a licensed foster care placement agency for caring for a foster child in your home.³

Difficulty-of-care payments (the extra compensation for caring for a child with a physical, mental, or emotional disability) are also excluded, but only up to a threshold. If you care for more than 10 foster children under age 19, or more than 5 who are 19 or older, the difficulty-of-care payments above those limits become taxable. For standard foster care payments that aren’t difficulty-of-care, the exclusion caps at 5 foster individuals aged 19 or older.³

One case where payments are always taxable: if you’re paid to hold an empty bed open for emergency foster care placements, that income has to be reported even though no child is in the home.

Adoption Subsidies Use the Same Ceiling

If a foster placement moves toward adoption, financial support can continue through an adoption subsidy. The subsidy amount cannot exceed what the child would have received under foster care, so the board rates above effectively serve as the ceiling for adoption assistance.⁴

The adoption specialist and the family enter into a written agreement that spells out the amount and conditions, and the application should be completed by the fourth month of placement.⁵

1
Code of Arkansas Rules. 9 CAR 40-831 – Financial Support to Resource Parents
2
Arkansas DHS. DCFS Foster/Adoptive Family Portal Help Info
3
Justia Law. 26 USC 131 – Certain Foster Care Payments
4
Justia Law. Arkansas Code 9-9-409 – Subsidy Amounts
5
Code of Arkansas Rules. 9 CAR 40-931 – Initial Application for Adoption Subsidy