Programs that establish and enforce health, safety and program standards for foster homes, review applications for licences, issue or deny licences, inspect facilities for compliance with requirements and revoke licences or bring disciplinary action for noncompliance.

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Programs that maintain and, where appropriate, provide copies of records which document that the parental rights and duties of an individual's birth parents have been terminated and assigned to his or her adoptive parents.

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Programs that participate in arranging permanent homes under new legal parentage for individuals whose birth parents are unable or unwilling to provide for their care. Included are programs that provide counselling and assistance for people who decide to relinquish their children for adoption or arrange for an independent adoption; which recruit, select, counsel and match suitable adoptive parents with children who have been relinquished; which assist in the adoption of foreign-born children, stepchildren or adults; which provide foster care for children who have been relinquished for adoption but not yet placed; and/or which assist people who are adopted to locate their birth parents and birth parents to locate the children they relinquished.

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Programs that identify and enlist people who are willing to provide foster care for dependent children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or abandonment and need an alternative family living arrangement, or for children or adults with developmental disabilities, sensory impairments, physical disabilities, emotional problems or multiple disabilities who are unable to live with their birth families or in an independent setting. Programs that recruit families to provide foster care for children and adults with disabilities are generally also responsible for training, certifying and monitoring placements in family homes and for providing support for the family and the individual(s) with disabilities who live with them.

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Mutual support groups for parents who share a common characteristic or circumstance such as being single parents, dual career parents, multiple birth parents, parents with children who are out of control, or parents of children with disabilities, who come together for educational and social purposes as well as for mutual support. Meeting formats may include in-person, telephone or Internet options.

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