Welcome to Foster Arkansas

Our mission at the Arkansas Division of Children and Family Services is to keep children safe and families together. We do that by engaging families and working together to build supports to assist parents and families in successfully and safely caring for their children. Most of our cases are "in home" cases where we work with families to keep children safely in the home. This is our goal each time we engage families. If a child can't be kept safe in the home, we must place the child into foster care. Our goal in these cases is to return the child to the home or relatives when safe to do so.

On any given day, however, there are thousands of kids in foster care in Arkansas, and not nearly enough foster families for them all. Kids in foster care do better in homes, not facilities. We need caring, patient, and flexible foster families who can provide temporary care to kids while we work to get them safely back home to their original families as quickly as possible.

While we need foster homes for all of our kids in foster care, we especially need homes for teens and for sibling groups. Why teens? Every child comes to us from some sort of traumatic experience. Teens feel this more than others, and they need extra support and guidance. Why siblings? Siblings were family before they came into foster care. They have the right to remain a family while in foster care.

When a child can't be safely returned to his or her family after extensive services and efforts, finding a permanent, safe, stable adoptive home is our next goal. Right now, there are hundreds of amazing children in foster care who need an adoptive home.

If you want to learn more about fostering or adopting, or if you’re ready to take the first step in this journey, you’re in the right place. You'll find all the general requirements to become a foster or adoptive parent here. You'll also find the Foster Parent Inquiry Form, which is the first official step in the foster journey.

Thanks for visiting!