Adoption, Foster Care, and Other Child Related Issues
Find resources on adopting or fostering a child, raising the child of a relative, finding and paying for quality childcare, and receiving child support. Get help for a runaway teenager or one who’s thinking of running away.
Paid Leave for Many Workers Due to Coronavirus
If you work for a business with less than 500 employees, under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act you may be eligible for paid sick or family leave due to impacts from the coronavirus pandemic.
Starting April 1 and through December 31, 2020, you may get:
Up to two weeks of paid sick leave if you or a family member is quarantined or has symptoms of COVID-19
Up to an extra 10 weeks of paid family and medical leave if your child's school or daycare provider is closed or unavailable
Businesses will receive funds from the government to cover costs of providing leave. If you own a small business with less than 50 workers, you may not have to provide leave for childcare purposes.
Find information for employees and employers about paid leave due to the coronavirus emergency.
Help for Children Living with Grandparents and other Relatives
Find resources for children living with their grandparents or other relatives.
Learn About Kinship Care
In kinship care, children live outside of their own home, either temporarily or on a long-term basis, with a relative instead of their parents.
If you are providing kinship care for a child and need support for your family, consider these resources:
Benefits and Financial Assistance
Child Care and Additional Resources
Report Child Abuse and Neglect
Each state has an agency that receive and investigate reports of suspected child abuse and neglect. Find out how to report child abuse and neglect in your State.
Select a Child Care Provider
Learn how to find and select quality child care.
How to Select Quality Child Care
Children's healthy development depends on safe and positive experiences starting at an early age throughout childhood and teenage years. Follow these recommendations to measure the quality of providers and centers:
Find Help Paying for Child Care
Use these resources to find affordable services in your area:
- State agencies offer child care assistance to eligible families. Eligibility and how to apply varies by state. Learn more from your state’s social services office.
- Head Start promotes school readiness for children under five through education, health, social, and other services. Families with an income at or below the poverty level may be eligible for the programs. You can find a Head Start program in your area.
- Use Child Care Aware’s child care budget calculator to see how child care costs affect your monthly budget.
- You may be eligible for child care tax credits:
Find adoption and foster care resources.
Learn About Adoption and Foster Care
Adoption is the creation of a new, permanent relationship between an adoptive parent and child. Once this happens, there is no legal difference between a child who is adopted and a child who is born into a family.
Foster care is a form of “out-of-home” care. Children in out-of-home care may live in relatives' homes, non-family related foster homes, treatment foster homes, or group or residential care.
How to Become an Adoptive or Foster Family
These programs can help you learn more about adoption and foster parenting:
Emotional and Health Aspects of Adoption and Foster Care
Adoption Resources from MedlinePlus - find links to adoption and foster care resources from a medical perspective to help you, your foster or adopted child, and your other children adapt to change
Get Help Collecting Child Support
Child support is the monthly amount a court orders a child’s noncustodial parent to pay the parent with primary custody. It helps pay for a child’s needs on a daily basis, from food and housing to clothing and medical needs.
Learn About Child Support
You can apply through your state for child support services if you have primary custody of your child and need help to:
You will automatically get a referral for child support services if you get help from any of these programs:
How to Get Child Support
To get help with child support, follow these steps:
Contact your state or local child support office.
Gather documents you’ll need to present with your application.
Complete an application from your state.
If you can't resolve the problem through your local office, check these next steps from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE).
In most cases, the state or local government manages problems like nonpayment. If you know the location of a noncustodial parent who may be behind in their payments, reach out to the state where the child support case is active.
Child Support Enforcement Abroad
For questions about child support payments from or to someone in another country, search OCSE's international resources. There may be a state or national agreement to provide child support services with the country in question. If you need further help, submit your international child support questions through the OCSE online form.
Help for Runaway and Homeless Youth
The National Runaway Safeline (NRS) works to help keep America's runaway and at-risk youth safe and off the streets.
Call the NRS at 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2929) if you are:
- A teenager who is thinking of running away from home
- A friend or family member of someone who has run away and are looking for help
- A runaway ready to go home through the Home Free program
- Looking for information on how you can help someone who may be at risk of running away from home
If you aren't ready to call, visit the NRS website to live chat, email the crisis center, or post to the bulletin board.
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Last Updated:
May 12, 2020