Foster Care Provider

Workforce Education on Foster Care Providers

The following recorded webinars all contain educational material on North Dakota Foster Care Providers for those serving in a direct practice role in child welfare as either a child protection assessment worker or case manager. Educational material for those in the role of a foster care provider can be found rather here.

Foster Care Provider Reimbursement

Certified Shelter Care Program Overview

• Certified Shelter Care Training Handout

(Recorded Fall 2025)

Licensing 101-New North Dakota Levels

Children and Family Services is pleased to announce two new levels of licensure. The 2023 Legislative assembly passed state law to allow for CFS Licensing Unit to recruit foster homes for short-term placements only (30 days or less). This new level of licensure is referred to as “certification”. In addition, the federal government allowed for states to enhance their relative waiver process to allow for different licensing standards for relative/kin in efforts to support children remaining engaged and placed with familial connections. As of April 1, 2024, both of these new levels will be implemented in North Dakota. This training shares details about the changes, enhancements, efficiencies, and how the licensing process will be managed going forward.

Training Session Resources:

• Levels of Family Licensure Training Handout

(Recorded live on 03.25.24)

Foster Care Provider Child Protection Assessment Workforce Training

From this training foster care providers will gain:

• An understanding of their role in the child protection assessment process in a foster home.
• An understanding of the importance of partnering between agencies while completing CPS assessments in a foster home.
• An understanding of the impact of a CPS assessment outcome on a foster care license.
• An understanding on how to support foster care providers and the resources available to providers and how to support each other through a CPS assessment.

Training Session Resources:

• Licensing CPS Internal Workflow CPS Assessment & Foster Care Provider
• Foster Care Provider CPS Assessment Workforce Training Handout

Licensing 101

In April of 2022, the Children and Family Services (CFS) Division implemented the new CFS Licensing Unit, based on legislative intent to redesign program and service delivery specific to licensing statewide providers. This redesign effort transformed how North Dakota licenses, trains and works to recruit, support and retain foster care providers and serve children and families involved in the child welfare system.

The CFS Licensing Unit is responsible for creating and updating statewide policy and procedures with an overall goal to implement standardized procedures, which offer consistency and efficiencies for licensing specialists, providers and case managers. This training highlighted the following:

• Overview of the CFS Licensing Unit operations
• Licensing Roles and Responsibilities
• Level of Care decisions specific to children in foster care, and
• Overview of the ND Recruitment and Retention State Plan

Training Session Resources:

• Licensing 101 Presentation Handout

(Recorded live on 06.09.22)

Licensing Policy

For more information regarding foster care licensing rules and regulation, policy and forms, please use the following link to the ND Policy Manual

Foster Care Licensing Policy Manual (622-05)

Licensing Questions

For those interested in becoming a foster parent, please contact 1.833.FST.HOME to visit with our ND Recruitment and Retention Specialist. For all other licensing related questions, please contact:

CFS Licensing Unit
701.328.2232
cfslicensing@nd.gov