{"id":654296,"date":"2026-03-14T04:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/654296\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T04:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:50:12","slug":"foster-care-in-california-is-in-an-insurance-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/654296\/","title":{"rendered":"Foster care in California is in an insurance crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>Tony and Sara Iagmin hold a three-month-old baby they are fostering at their home in San Diego\u2019s Lakeside neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2026. The couple has worked with Angels Foster Family Network, a foster family agency, since 2013 and has cared for several children over the years. Photo by Adriana Heldiz for CalMatters<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by\u00a0CalMatters<\/a>.\u00a0Sign up<\/a>\u00a0for their newsletters.<\/p>\n

An insurance crisis continues to rattle California\u2019s foster care system<\/a>, threatening to displace thousands of vulnerable children.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since 2024, more than two dozen nonprofits that recruit, train and support foster parents<\/a> have shuttered across 13 counties, according to the California Department of Social Services.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Counties have historically relied on the licensed nonprofits, known as foster family <\/a>agencies, to place children \u2014 especially those in need of intensive support \u2014 in certified homes until they are adopted or reunified with their birth families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their closures come two years after a key insurance carrier backed out of covering foster family agencies, citing rising legal costs. The company, Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California, covered approximately 90% of the more than 200 foster family agencies operating throughout the state, leaving them scrambling to find a replacement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No other California insurers have stepped in since then, forcing foster family agencies to secure coverage from companies outside the state \u2014 and sometimes, outside the country. In an unregulated market, that\u2019s meant that agencies have seen increases of 200 to 400% in their liability coverage. Many are reporting cost hikes of more than $350,000 in annual premiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Legislature last year approved a one-time $31.5 million allocation to buoy the agencies as they face unsustainable premiums, but the money has run out. Assemblymember James Ramos, a Democrat from San Bernardino, and Sen. Mar\u00eda Elena Durazo, a Democrat from Los Angeles, recently requested another $30 million in relief funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But without any long-term policy solutions, advocates warn that the whole system is at risk of collapsing. It would start with some or all of the remaining foster family agencies closing. Foster parents, lacking the support that\u2019s needed to sustain them, could then exit the child welfare system altogether and kids would face even more instability, the advocates say. And medically fragile children \u2014 including kids with feeding tubes, developmental disabilities or drug dependencies from their mothers \u2014 are especially at risk because counties don\u2019t typically have sufficient resources to provide that level of care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be an absolute crisis if the foster family agencies closed,\u201d said Diana Boyer, managing director of research and policy at the County Welfare Directors Association of California. \u201cFoster children are the state\u2019s children. We all collectively need to be doing more to support them and ensure that they have homes and families to go to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crisis is tied to California\u2019s attempts to provide redress to survivors of sexual abuse. Legislation passed in 2019 lifted the statute of limitations,\u00a0allowing survivors to sue government agencies<\/a>. Thousands of lawsuits have been filed since then, and hefty payouts have driven up insurance costs for public agencies across the board. Schools were\u00a0among the first to feel the pinch from rising costs for insurance<\/a>\u00a0to cover liability from the suits.<\/p>\n

The Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California stopped renewing insurance policies following a\u00a0$25 million jury award to three children<\/a>\u00a0after jurors found that a foster family agency in Santa Rosa failed to protect them from sexual abuse. The group had also\u00a0made a mostly failed effort to reform<\/a>\u00a0aspects of California law related to insurance and liability.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our collective responsibility\u2019<\/p>\n

Roughly 300 foster family agencies operate throughout California, providing critical services to approximately 6,500 of the state\u2019s 45,000 foster children.<\/p>\n

Counties run many of their child welfare placements through the community-based nonprofits because of their quality of care \u2014 especially for kids with the highest needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If a child is removed from their home in the middle of the night due to abuse or neglect, foster family agencies quickly step in with supportive homes that are \u201cat the ready,\u201d said Pete Weldy, chief executive officer at the California Alliance of Child & Family Services, which represents roughly 200 foster family agencies around the state.<\/p>\n

After initial placement, the agencies continue to work with foster families and kids to provide sustained support, including around-the-clock care, crisis assistance, and consistent case management.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When an agency shutters, the child\u2019s placement could be disrupted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s one of the untold stories of this whole crisis,\u201d Weldy said. \u201cIt could mean that the youth has to move to a different county, to a different foster family. They could be uprooted from their family. They might have to change schools, maybe move communities, lose their friends.\u201d The disruption, he added, can often exacerbate behavioral health needs. \u201cEventually, it could lead to the worst outcome, which is that the child ends up unhoused,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

If counties are unable to find a placement, Weldy said the child may end up in a hotel, hospital, or conference room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the state\u2019s responsibility and really, therefore, all of our collective responsibility to make sure these really vulnerable kids and youth have what they need to thrive,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s where foster family agencies do such an incredible job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foster families \u2018knew who to turn to\u2019<\/p>\n

Sara and Tony Iagmin have fostered 45 children since 2013, when they started working with Angels, a San Diego-based foster family agency that recently closed due to the insurance crisis. Over that period of time, they worked with three case managers from the agency that would make weekly visits to the child or children they were currently fostering. That consistency served them and their foster children well, they said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew who to turn to and how to get support for everything that came up,\u201d Sara Iagmin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They fear that the increasing number of agency closures will result in more kids falling through the cracks and hurt foster parents, especially those who are new to the child welfare system and may need additional support.<\/p>\n

\u201cFoster family agencies are like AAA and the county is like the DMV,\u201d Tony Iagmin said. \u201cThey have good workers, but it\u2019s a lot of bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since Angels closed, the Iagmins started working directly with San Diego County. They said they feel well-equipped to handle the shift since they\u2019ve been foster parents for so long, but will miss the community they found through Angels.<\/p>\n

In Placer County, Sarah and Michael Prince have worked with the foster family agency Koinonia Family Services since 2016. After struggling with infertility for over a decade, the couple decided to attend the agency\u2019s orientation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI came home buzzing,\u201d said Sarah Prince. \u201cMy intuition said, \u2018This is my home.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It took them two years to go through the agency\u2019s certification process. Since then, the couple has taken in 13 foster children, four of whom they ended up adopting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have done it without a foster family agency,\u201d said Sarah Prince. \u201cIt\u2019s an extra layer of protection for you. They are your family. When the things fall, it\u2019s the knowing that you have somebody to call. It\u2019s consistency for these kids that haven\u2019t had consistency because your foster family agency workers don\u2019t change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura Richardson, a manager at Koinonia Family Services, said the statewide agency works with roughly 360 homes, 99 of which are not taking placements. On any given day, they serve around 200 youth in their foster family homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to Richardson, the organization\u2019s insurance increased by 242% \u2014 from $272,000 to $933,000 per year \u2014 since the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California stopped renewing their policy. It\u2019s meant that they\u2019ve had to rescind their licenses in three cities, transferring those families to other offices that are still operating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Richardson said they\u2019re trying to hold out for as long as they can for the state to come up with a solution. But as more and more agencies shutter, she worries that the homeless population will increase for youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI worry about the safety net for these most vulnerable youth going away,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to stress other parts of the system. So the state is going to have to pay for it somewhere. My hope is that we can fix what\u2019s good about what we already have before we lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony and Sara Iagmin hold a three-month-old baby they are fostering at their home in San Diego\u2019s Lakeside…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":654297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,38261,7337,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-654296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-foster-care","12":"tag-insurance","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116225731874624981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}