Facility Types
The Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD), Children’s Residential Program licenses several categories of children’s community care facilities. CCLD is responsible for all aspects of licensing and the enforcement of Title 22 licensing regulations and interim licensing standards. Some of the licensing functions include: conducting orientations, application review and processing, providing oversight of the homes/facilities, consultation, technical assistance, conducting complaint investigations, participating in legal consultations, processing administrative actions, and caregiver background checks. A brief description of each licensed children’s residential category and program are as follows:
Crisis Nursery
A facility licensed to provide short-term, 24-hour non-medical residential care and supervision for children under six years of age, who are voluntarily placed by a parent or legal guardian due to a family crisis or a stressful situation, for no more than 30 days.
Adoption Agency (AA)
Nonprofit organizations licensed to assist with the permanent placement of children to adoptive parents. The AA is governed by the Community Care Facilities Act.
There are two types of AA:
Full-service adoption agency: A licensed entity providing adoption services, that does all of the following: (A) Takes responsibility for the care, custody, and control of a child from when the child is placed with the agency or when there has been an involuntary termination of parental rights to the child. (B) Assesses the birth parents, prospective adoptive parents, or child. (C) Places children for adoption. (D) Supervises adoptive placements. (E) Recruits prospective adoptive parents, locates children for an adoption, or acts as an intermediary between the parties to an adoption.
Noncustodial adoption agency: A licensed entity providing adoption services, that does all of the following: (A) Assesses the prospective adoptive parents. (B) Cooperatively matches children freed for adoption, who are under the care, custody, and control of a licensed adoption agency, for adoption, with assessed and approved adoptive applicants. (C) Cooperatively supervises adoption placements with a full-service adoptive agency, but does not disrupt a placement or remove a child from a placement. (D) Recruits prospective adoptive parents, locates children for an adoption, or acts as an intermediary between the parties to an adoption.
For more information about Adoptions, visit our Adoption webpage.
Foster Family Agency (FFA) and the Foster Family Agency Suboffice
A Foster Family Agency (FFA) is a public agency or private organization, organized and operated on a nonprofit basis. FFAs recruit, approve, provide training for, and provide support and services to Resource Families. FFAs coordinate with county placing agencies to find homes for dependent children in need of care. An FFA suboffice is any additional, independently licensed office set up by the FFA to supplement the services provided by the administrative office.
Homes overseen by FFA and FFA suboffices:
Resource Family Approval (RFA): In order to care for dependent children, individuals must become approved caregivers through the Resource Family Approval process.The RFA process unifies approval standards for all caregivers regardless of the child’s case plan, includes a comprehensive evaluation, home environment assessment, and training for all caregivers, which prepares them to better meet the needs of children in the foster care system and allows a seamless transition to permanency.
RFA and the Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) support the Continuum of Care Reform (CCR).
The QPI, in partnership with caregivers, aims to redesign child welfare organizations at the local level to better recruit, support, and retain quality foster caregivers who can effectively parent vulnerable children.
The CCR aims to provide home-based placements for children in care and move children away from congregate care settings.RFA aims to increase capacity and support for Resource Families and improve placement options for dependent children and nonminor dependents.
Intensive Services Foster Care: Sometimes children may require more intensive structured care. Intensive Services Foster Care (ISFC) provides more intensive care within a Resource Family. ISFC Resource Families receive additional training and support in order to provide more intensive care to children who may have complex mental health, behavioral, or medical needs.
Small Family Home (SFH)
A facility or home, that provides 24 hour care for six or fewer children who have mental health disabilities, or developmental, or physical disabilities and who require special care and supervision as a result of their disabilities. A small family home may accept children with special health care needs. In addition to accepting children with special health care needs, the department may approve placement of children without special health care needs, up to the licensed capacity.
Group Home (GH)
A GH provides 24-hour non-medical care and supervision to children, age 0 through 17, and non-minor dependents, age 18 through 21, in a structured environment, with services provided by persons employed by the licensee. Children in a GH are in treatment programs under court jurisdiction or as dependent children removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.
GHs include the following subcategories:
Care for Children Under the Age of Six: A GH program which provides care for children under the age of six years who are dependents of the court, regional center placements, or voluntary placements who are not accompanied by the minor parent.
Community Treatment Facility (CTF): A CTF provides 24-hour non-medical care and mental health
treatment services to children in a secure environment, which are less
restrictive than a hospital. A facility's program design is subject
to program standards developed and enforced by the State Department of Health
Care Services (DHCS).
Enhanced Behavioral Supports Home: A facility certified by the State Department of Developmental Services (DDS) and licensed by CCLD as a group home that provides 24-hour non-medical care to individuals with developmental disabilities who require enhanced behavioral supports, staffing, and supervision in a homelike setting. An enhanced behavioral supports home has a maximum capacity of four residents.
Community Crisis Home for Children (CCH): An Adult Residential Facility or a Group Home certified by the Department of Developmental Services and licensed by CCLD that provides 24-hour nonmedical care to individuals with developmental disabilities receiving regional center services and in need of crisis intervention services, who would otherwise be at risk of admission to a more restrictive setting. A Community Crisis Home shall have a maximum capacity of eight clients.
Minor-Parent Program: A GH program that serves pregnant minors and minor parents with children younger than six years of age, who are dependents of the court, nondependent, voluntary and/or regional center placements, and reside in the GH with the minor-parent, who is the primary caregiver of the young child.
Youth Homelessness Prevention Programs: A Youth Homelessness Prevention Center is a nonprofit group home licensed by the Department to provide voluntary, short-term shelter and personal services for up to 25 participants who are homeless youth, youth who are at risk of homelessness, youth who are exhibiting status offender behavior, or runaway youth who are 12 to 17 years of age, inclusive, or 18 years of age if the youth is completing high school or its equivalent.
Group Homes for Children with Special Health Care Needs (GHCSHCN): A facility certified by the Department of Developmental Services and licensed by CCLD as a group home that provides 24-hour health care and intensive support services in a homelike setting that is licensed to serve up to five children with developmental disabilities.
Nonminor Dependent Program (NMD):A GH program that provides care and services to nonminor dependents who are current or former dependent children or wards of the juvenile court between the ages of 18 to 21 and are participating in a transitional independent living case plan.
Facts You Need to Know - Group Home Board of Directors
Important Group Home Administrator Certification Information
Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Program (STRTP)
A residential facility licensed by CCLD and operated by a public agency or private organization that provides short-term, specialized, and intensive therapeutic and 24-hour care and supervision to children. The care and supervision provided by an STRTP shall be non-medical, except as otherwise permitted by law.
STRTPs include the following subcategories:
Care for Children Under the Age of Six: An STRTP which provides care for children under the age of six years who are dependent of the court, regional center placements or voluntary placements who are not accompanied by the minor parent.
Dependent and Nonminor Dependent-Parent Program: An STRTP that cares for minor or nonminor
dependents who are pregnant or parenting children younger than six years of
age, who are dependents of the court, nondependent, voluntary and/or regional
center placements, and reside in the STRTP with the minor or nonminor dependent
parent, who is the primary caregiver of the young child.
Children’s Crisis Residential Program (CCRP):A facility licensed by CCLD as a STRTP and approved by the State Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), or a county mental health plan to which DHCS has delegated approval authority, to operate a children’s crisis residential mental health program approval to serve children, nonminor dependents, and individuals 18 to 20 years of age, experiencing mental health crises as an alternative to psychiatric hospitalization.
Facts You Need to Know - Group Home Board of Directors
Important Group Home Administrator Certification Information
STRTP Application Outline Process Infographic
Temporary Shelter Care Facility
A temporary shelter care facility is a facility owned and operated by the county or on behalf of a county by a private, nonprofit agency that provides for 24-hour non-medical care for up to 10 calendar days, for children under 18 years of age who have been removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect. During the child’s stay, the county is identifying and placing the child with a suitable family member or in an appropriate licensed or approved home or facility.
Transitional Housing Placement Program (THPP)
A licensed provider who operates programs which include supportive housing and a wide range of supportive services to youth from 16 to 21years of age, who are in or were formally in foster care on their 18th birthday. Supportive services shall include: counseling, educational guidance, employment counseling, job training and assistance reaching emancipation goals outlined in a participant’s Transitional Independent Living Plan, the emancipation readiness portion of a youths’ case plan.
The THPP may oversee two types of programs:
THPP Program for participants who are Minors (THPP-M): An independent living program that serves children at least 16 years of age and not more than 18 years of age who are in foster care.
THPP Program for participants who are Nonminor Dependents (THPP-NMD):An independent living program that serves youth ages 18 to 21 who are in foster care or who had been in foster care at age 18.