Foster Care

Focus Area

NCYL works to ensure children and youth in foster care benefit from a positive and stable home-like environment. We dismantle practices that harm children in foster care, ensure youth in foster care have access to health care and education, and promote youth-, community-, and family-centered policies that preserve families and reduce reliance on the foster care system.

Center Youth
We litigate in partnership with, and on behalf of, youth to hold foster care systems accountable. We also work with students in foster care to confront challenges in accessing education and to identify opportunities for reform. Additionally, NCYL convenes a Youth Advisory Board made up of current and former foster youth who lead strategies to ensure all young people in foster care receive adequate and appropriate sexual and reproductive health information and support.

M.J. v. The District of Columbia

Filing Date2018-08-01

This class action was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. on behalf of all Medicaid-eligible District of Columbia children who have a mental health disability and are not receiving medically necessary intensive community-based services as required by federal law.

Active

M.B. v. Howard

Filing Date2019-09-06

In November 2018, a group of young people in foster care in Kansas, represented by NCYL and its partners, filed a lawsuit challenging Kansas’s failure to protect the safety and well-being of children and youth in the custody of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF).

Active

D.S. v. Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families

Filing Date2021-01-28

The state of Washington denies hundreds of children in foster care the most fundamental and basic of rights owed when a child is placed in government custody: a place to live and the support and services needed to return home.

Active

See All Laws & Policy

Hawai’i HB900: Relating to Child Welfare Services (2025)

Bill will create a working group — which will include lived experts in the state foster system — to design a pilot for legal representation of foster youth

The National Center for Youth Law has worked closely with current and former foster youth in Hawai’i, as well as local advocates and service providers, to develop and advance HB900, a bill that advances the right to legal counsel for youth in the Hawai'i foster system.

Active

Supporting Students in the Foster System and Students Experiencing Homelessness (2024)

AB 2137 (Quirk-Silva)

Assembly Bill (AB) 2137 that would increase direct support for students, streamline services through better collaboration, and reduce gaps in financial aid application completion.

Active

Expanding Access to Diplomas for Highly Mobile Students (2021 & 2022)

SB 532 (Caballero)

SB 532 builds bridges to a high school diploma and post-secondary educational success for highly mobile students.

Enacted

Related Resources

Federal Advocacy Toolkit for Parents and Caregivers

This non-partisan toolkit is intended to help parents and caregivers to take their first steps, alongside their child(ren), to engage in federal advocacy in the United States, on issues that matter to them and their families.

Youth and Community Advocacy Resources

Cash Benefits and Other Assistance: The Experiences of Expectant and Parenting Youth in California Foster Care

Expectant and parenting youth (EPY) with current or prior involvement in foster care experience multiple educational, health, and financial stressors.

Where We Focus

National Center for Youth Law is committed to achieving large-scale, lasting change across multiple government systems and public agencies. Explore all the areas of our work to Center Youth.

Commercial Sexual Exploitation