North Carolina
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Pre-Service Training

Prospective foster parents are trained using the 30-hour TIPS-MAPP (Trauma Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence – Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) curriculum. The training is optional for prospective adoptive parents, but strongly encouraged and mandated by some agencies. Relative caregivers have the option of becoming licensed and if they choose to become licensed must adhere to the same approval process as foster parents, including the 30-hour pre-service training.  

Services Offered Through the State’s Post-Permanency Support Program

Post-permanency services in North Carolina are provided statewide to adoptive, guardianship, custody, and reunified families through contracts with three agencies: Catawba County Social Services, Boys and Girls Homes of North Carolina, and Children’s Home Society of North Carolina. Beginning April 1, 2025, all post-permanency services are based on the Success Coach model and will be consistent across the entire state. The Success Coach model is based on resiliency theory as described by Fraser, Richman, and Galinsky (2004, 1999). The theory is that families who are more resilient in the face of stressors have increased ability to provide safety, stability, and permanence for their members; building child and parent resilience should prevent re-entry into the child welfare system and facilitate children’s successful transitions to adulthood.  

Services include:

Success Coaches work with and assess child and family protective factors, needs, trauma history, and goals related to the following: functioning, resiliency, well-being, safety, economic self-sufficiency, community and family connections, education, employment, and concrete needs. Coaches then partner with the family to create a success plan that will drive the supports provided. 

Success Coaches work with families to strengthen six child and family well-being domains: mental/emotional health; family functioning; caregiver self-sufficiency; child education; environment; and social/community capital or support. The Success Coach meets with the family according to the success plan agreement, usually in their home, at least once per month. Coaches provide training and support to help families build skills essential to achieving stability and well-being. Coaches also help families by connecting them with other needed services, including clinical services. Families can receive Success Coach services for up to two years. The Success Coach and family decide together when the family has met their goals and is ready to end the service.  

Success Coaches are available to respond to families 24/7.  

Coaches are available to help families manage crises. The intensity of support increases during crisis. 

The Success Coach program includes supporting families as they address educational challenges, including having coaches attending IEP meetings. Coaches also help families increase their own ability to be educational advocates. 

Families receive respite services through reimbursement for licensed foster homes or a caregiver the families identify. 

Providers are able to help families meet some concrete needs such as utility payments or transportation. 

Staff are available to respond to questions and provide referrals to training opportunities and community-based resources, including mental health services.  

The agencies host various training sessions for families.

Each provider hosts various events each year to allow parents and children an opportunity to connect with each other. 

For more information, visit https://www.ncdhhs.gov/divisions/social-services/child-welfare-services/adoption-and-foster-care/post-adoption-support-and-resources. 

Geographic Area Covered

All seven regions of the state are covered by the contracted providers, and services are consistent statewide.  

Eligible Population for the Overall Post-Permanency Program

  • All families who adopted from the state’s foster care system

  • All families who adopted from foster care in other states, territories, or tribes

  • All families who adopted through intercountry adoption

  • All families who adopted through private adoption

Variations in Eligibility for the Post-Permanency Program

None.

Outreach and Engagement

When families sign the adoption or guardianship assistance agreement, they are informed about the availability of post-permanency services and given information about their regional provider.   

The contracted providers are charged with providing outreach and education to all types of adoptive and guardianship families, including informing those who have adopted privately or from other countries that they are eligible for services. Outreach efforts include lunch and learn meetings, marketing on Facebook and agency websites, contacting adoption attorneys and guardians ad litem, and sending program information to all private adoption agencies statewide. Some providers have made connections with specific schools that have a high population of adopted children. Another provider started a quarterly newsletter devoted to post-adoption services and resources. The newsletter is available to all families served in their regions, private and public adoption agencies across the state, and professionals who are on the provider’s email list. The agencies regularly report on their outreach efforts to the state. 

How the Post-Permanency Program Is Operated

  • Through contracts or grants with multiple private agencies that offer mostly the same set of services, each operating in a different region

Notes About Who Provides Which Service(s)

The state contracts with three agencies: 

  • Catawba County Social Services serves regions 2. 
  • Children’s Home Society serves regions 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. 
  • Boys and Girls Homes serves region 6. 

Adoption/Guardianship Assistance/Subsidy Review and Changes

The state sends a yearly notice to adoptive parents to remind them of their responsibility to notify the agency of any changes that could affect benefits, as well as school attendance requirements. Adoptive parents have the responsibility to keep the agency informed of circumstances that would make them ineligible for payments. 

In guardianship cases, the state must review the guardianship assistance agreement periodically to ensure that the child remains the financial responsibility of the legal guardian(s). The periodic review includes yearly notice to legal guardians. Notification increases to twice a year for youth 18 to 21 who continue to receive benefits. It is the responsibility of the legal guardian to notify the child welfare agency of any changes affecting their legal and financial responsibility for the youth and other changes affecting the receipt of benefits. 

Adoption and guardianship assistance agreements include the state mandated cash payment rate based on the child’s age, and no adjustment can be made to those rates.  

Tracking Adoption/Guardianship Discontinuity

North Carolina tracks entry into foster care for children who were adopted or placed in guardianship, including tracking those adopted privately or from another country using the AFCARS field on whether a child was previously adopted. The state is soon moving to a statewide data system that will make tracking discontinuity easier.  

Post-Permanency Program Spending (FY 2026)

  • $5 million – $9 million

Funding Sources for the Post-Permanency Program (FY 2026)

Adoption savings (reported on CB 496 Part 4 – Annual Adoption Savings Report) 

 

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