Foster Care Licensing Specialist

You will primarily support the following counties:
Morton and Burleigh with additional support to Grant, Sioux, McLean, Mercer and Oliver.

As a Foster Care Licensing Specialist you will help ensure all children who are receiving foster care services have a safe, secure environment with positive and supportive caregivers until the child can return home or until a permanent home is found!

As the Foster Care Licensing Specialist, you will play a key role in the licensing process for individuals and families seeking to provide foster care to children. This position is responsible for conducting comprehensive initial and ongoing home study assessments through face-to-face, onsite visits. These assessments involve interviewing prospective foster families, completing visual inspections of the home environment, reviewing applicable policies, delivering required training, and ensuring all necessary documentation is coordinated and accurately entered into the statewide database.

In addition to the assessment duties, you will facilitate pre-service training for prospective foster care providers and maintain strong, ongoing relationships with licensed families. Your role will also involve participating in local recruitment and retention efforts, identifying and providing ongoing support to foster families, serving as a liaison for foster care providers and other system agents and contributing to the quality assurance activities of the Child and Family Services (CFS) Licensing Unit.

To succeed in this position requires a well-rounded set of professional and interpersonal skills. Strong communication, organizational, and problem-solving abilities are essential, along with empathy, resilience, conflict resolution skills and a firm commitment to child safety. You must be comfortable building rapport with families, communicating effectively across diverse populations, assessing individual and family needs, and managing multiple responsibilities under tight deadlines.

Proficiency with various software programs and databases is necessary, along with a willingness to learn new systems and maintain a high level of attention to detail.

To be considered for this position, you must be at least 21 years of age and have a bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, sociology, counseling, human development, human services, child development and family science or criminal justice AND one (1) year of professional work experience as a foster care licenser, social worker, child protective service worker or professional case manager.

Applicants must have a valid driver's license, and ability to travel to their assigned areas using a state fleet vehicle when available.

ND HHS utilizes a blended workplace model. This position may work from home in the Bismarck/Mandan area with the ability and willingness to travel and work outside regular business hours.

Applicants must live in the Burleigh or Morton County areas of North Dakota or willing to move that area with the ability to travel to surrounding counties.

ND HHS strives to make North Dakota the healthiest state in the nation by reinforcing the foundations of well-being: physical, economic, and behavioral. The keys to success are the 2800 committed, team members who are guided by a simple but powerful belief: when we lead with light, we create systems and services rooted in hope, clarity, and possibility. Their work is supported with more than $6 billion in funding from nearly 400 different federal, state, and special sources.

To succeed in this role, you must lead with LIGHT - leading with hope, instilling purpose and meaning, galvanizing gratitude, honoring health, and talking, walking and teaching civility, kindness and love for all.

In addition to the exceptional health insurance and retirement benefits, HHS values continued learning and career enhancement. Therefore, we offer varying continuing education formats, including in-person and online, as well as tuition reimbursement.

"Far and away the best prize life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." - Theodore Roosevelt

More than 7,500 talented, hard-working people across sixty-three agencies have come together as Team North Dakota. At Team ND, we are driven to succeed through gratitude, humility, curiosity and courage. Our purpose is to…