Background

Los Angeles County has the nation’s largest child welfare system and cares for one of the largest populations of foster children with severe mental disabilities and behavioral disorders. Foster children with mental disabilities are among those children most likely to be harmed while in foster care and among those children who do most poorly after leaving care.

Therapeutic foster homes allow children with mental disabilities to live with specialized trained foster parents and receive help that addresses children’s individual needs, rather than less effective and more expensive congregate care settings. At a minimum, 300 foster children in Los Angeles County need therapeutic foster care.

Our Work
To address the need for therapeutic foster care parents, Extraordinary Families worked with all 12 of Los Angeles’ foster family agencies licensed to provide therapeutic foster care (TFC) to build their capabilities to recruit and support therapeutic foster parents.