Foster Care Finances

There are some people who believe that people who do foster care are in it for the money. I don't know the rates for all the other states but it just doesn't seem to me that you can make that much money in South Carolina.

Yes, you get paid a stipend of about $400 a month. But with that $400 you are supposed to provide everything for that child. They also pay a quarterly clothing allowance of $100. So a total of $400/year to clothe a child (if you receive it). The challenge with clothing a child is typically they arrive with next to nothing. I am often amazed at the cost of underwear, socks, shoes and pj's. Things I won't buy used. Right now many folks are not getting those allowances because the state didn't request enough money to fund it. Heck, we aren't even sure when we will get our subsidies, any time between the 10th and 16th.

One thing to realize about the subsidy is that you will not receive it until the middle of the next month. So if you receive children on the first of the month, you won't get any money for about 6 weeks. You have to be sure that you are prepared to clothe, feed, entertain, buy school supplies and such for 6 weeks before you receive any funds. If you receive more than one child the costs are multiplied.

I try to keep some clothing at my house so I have some stuff for the kids. The $100 placement check doesn't go far. There are also foster closets around. When I got the two boys I just didn't have any clothing for them. I had not had any older boy placements in a long time. I contacted the local closets and got them some items. They even supplied some boy toys. Because of the clothing closet I was able to fill in the needs; swim suits, shorts for the older boy, socks, slides and such. I like to have enough clothing for a week. It will grow over time if they stay. Our current placement is supposed to be short term and if it ends up being that way we will have spent much more on them then we ever received. Right now I have to put in the back of my mind that if they aren't short term I have another birthday to buy for, two more kids on our NC vacation and school supplies and clothing. We will receive about half a month subsidy for them right before school starts.

So, no we don't do it for the money. However, we do need the subsidies. We got out to eat, go to the movies, travel, do activities. We include our foster kids. We couldn't afford to do so without the subsidies. I don't know of many people who could, yet they want to deny foster parents the financial means to offer the kids a "normal" lifestyle. The sad thing is that some folks will spend the money on other things and not provide well for their foster kids. They make all foster parents look bad. I would hope that people would get to know folks before making a judgement all across the board.