The Foster Care Licensing Division is responsible for licensure and regulatory compliance of all 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week childcare facilities in the State of Kansas. The Division is also responsible for licensure and regulatory compliance of those agencies that provide placement services in the state. Our task is to ensure these facilities are operated and maintained with regard for the health, safety and welfare of the children residing in them.
The Foster Care Licensing Division conducts initial licensure and ongoing compliance inspections, including complaint investigations when necessary. The Foster Care Licensing Division does not place children in care. Children served by licensed childcare facilities are placed by parent or a guardian, by a public agency, such as DCF’s Prevention and Protection Services (PPS) division or by a Child Placing Agency licensed to perform placement services. Below is a list of those licensed by the division:
Family Foster Home:
Twenty-four-hour family care for one to four children between the ages of infancy to 16 years of age.
Group Boarding Home:
Twenty-four-hour nonsecure care for five to ten children between the ages of infancy to 16 years of age.
Residential Center:
Twenty-four-hour nonsecure care for over ten children between the ages of infancy to 16 years of age.
Attendant Care Facility:
Non secure care not to exceed 24 hours excluding weekends and holidays for juveniles taken into custody.
Detention Center:
A secure public or private facility which is used for the lawful custody of accused or adjudicated juvenile offenders under 16 years of age pending court disposition.
Secure Care Center:
A secure youth residential facility, other than a juvenile detention facility, used to provide care and treatment for alleged or adjudicated children in need of care pursuant to the Kansas code for the care of children.
Secure Residential Treatment Facility:
A secure facility operated or structured to provide a therapeutic residential care alternative to psychiatric hospitalization for five or more youth with a diagnosis of severe emotional, behavioral, or psychiatric condition. "Treatment" means comprehensive, individualized, goal-directed, therapeutic services provided to youth.
Staff Secure Facility:
A type of secure residential facility designed to meet the care and safety needs of victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Child Placing Agency:
A social service agency which receives children for services including placement in residential programs or in foster family homes, or for adoption.