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DSS For Parents
The Department of Social Services offers a number of programs and services designed to meet the needs of Louisiana's parents. Click on the links below to learn more about how we can help you be a better parent, and a stronger family.
BETTER PARENTING AND QUALITY OF LIFE
- Find services and resources for virtually any social service issue
- Guides for Marriage & Children
- Find Licensed Child Care Facilities
- Quality Start Child Care Rating System
FINANCIAL AID
- Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) - Provides assistance to parents to help pay for the child care they need to work or attend school or training.
- Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program (FITAP) - Provides temporary cash assistance to families in need.
- Food Stamp Program - Provides monthly benefits that help low income households buy the food they need for good health.
- Kinship Care Subsidy Program (KCSP) - Provides cash assistance for eligible children who reside with qualified relatives other than parents.
- Child Support Enforcement Services (SES) - Places the primary responsibility for support of children on their non-custodial parent(s) in an attempt to reduce the children's dependence on public assistance.
ADOPTION & FOSTER CARE
- Becoming an Adoptive Parent - The OCS Adoption Program seeks adoptive home placement of children who are in DSS custody and are legally free for adoption.
- Becoming a Foster Parent - Foster parenting is an opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life during a time of crisis. Foster parents help children by providing a home that provides them with stability, supervision, consistency and affection. Foster and adoptive parents provide temporary and permanent placements for children who cannot remain in their own homes.
- Foster Care Services - Foster Care is a protective service provided to children in the custody of the Department of Social Services. It provides substitute, temporary care (e.g. foster family home, residential care facility, etc.) for a planned period of time when a child must be separated from his own parents or relatives because of abuse and/or neglect.
ABUSE & NEGLECT
- Family Services - Family Services are social services, which are provided to families and children in their own homes in order to address problems of abuse/neglect and promote the safety of the children within the family unit.
- Child Protection - Investigation of child abuse and neglect and provision of short term concrete services to children and families. These services are legally mandated, specialized investigations and social services for children who are alleged to be neglected, abused, exploited, or without proper custody or guardianship.
