FOSTER PARENTS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR PAID LEAVE.
Welcoming a child into your care is a big change—for everyone involved. Paid Family and Medical Leave offers time to help a child or children transition into your home and helps you all adjust to the changes in your lives without losing your job or income.
If you’re a new foster parent or kinship caregiver in Washington, you can take advantage of the state’s new insurance program to take up to 12 weeks of paid time off of work. You’ll receive up to 90 percent of your weekly pay—a maximum of $1,327 a week—when you qualify.
When foster parents and kinship caregivers take paid family leave, it offers an opportunity to build a connection with the child in your home as well as with the child’s parents, to make sure that the child/ren you both care about is best supported while in foster care.
To apply, visit paidleave.wa.gov.