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SILP vs. Staying in a Foster Home After 18: What Teens and Foster Parents Need to Know

Turning 18 in foster care comes with a choice nobody explains well: stay in your foster home, or move to a SILP and get the check yourself. Here's what each one actually is, what the money looks like in California right now (and what's supposed to change in 2027), the option in between that most people never hear about, and how I'd decide if it were my kiddo. Sources included, because you should be able to check my work.

October 7, 2026

I had a kiddo in my home for months before I understood what SILP actually was. I knew it was "the one where they get the check" and I knew social workers brought it up around the 18th birthday, and that was about it. Nobody handed me a plain English explanation, and the kiddo definitely didn't get one either (she heard "you get $1,300 a month" and stopped listening, which is fair).

So here it is. If you're a teen about to turn 18 in care, or a foster parent with one of those teens in your house, this is what the two main paths look like after 18, what the money actually is, and how I'd think about choosing. I've been on the foster parent side of both. I'm writing from California, so the rules and dollar amounts here are California's.

One thing up front: none of this is legal advice, and your county can have its own forms and quirks. Your social worker is the person who approves any of this. This post is so you walk into that conversation knowing what you're asking for.

First, what doesn't change

Both paths live inside Extended Foster Care. In California that's AB 12, the law that lets foster youth stay in care from 18 up to 21. Once you turn 18 and choose to stay, you become a nonminor dependent, or NMD (you will hear "NMD" constantly, so get used to it).

As an NMD you still have an open case, a social worker, and a court hearing every six months. You sign a Mutual Agreement (the SOC 162) saying you'll participate, and you keep a Transitional Independent Living Plan, which is a fancy name for the list of goals you and your worker update every six months. To stay eligible you have to be doing one of five things: finishing high school or a GED, in college or vocational school, working at least 80 hours a month, in a program that helps you get a job, or unable to do those because of a medical condition.

All of that is identical whether you stay in a foster home or move to a SILP. The difference is who holds the placement, who gets the money, and how much supervision comes with it.

Option one: stay in a foster home

This is the one most people call "straight foster" or "regular placement." You turn 18 and nothing about where you live changes. You can stay in the home you were already in, or move to another approved resource home, and the placement works exactly like it did when you were 17. The foster parent is still the caregiver, still has to be RFA approved, still gets home visits, and still gets the monthly payment.

That last part matters. In a foster home the money goes to the caregiver, not to you. Whatever your foster parent gives you for gas, phone, or clothes is between you and them (and the good ones will tell you exactly what they're spending it on, so ask).

What the home gets depends on your Level of Care, which is the county's rating of how much support you need. For the 2025 to 2026 year, resource family rates in California run from $1,301 a month at the basic level up to $1,741 at the highest level, and some counties add a Specialized Care Increment on top for specific needs. So a foster home can receive more than a SILP pays, and the check goes to the caregiver, not to you.

However, you are not supposed to get nothing. The California Foster Youth Bill of Rights says every youth in care, including NMDs, has the right to an age appropriate allowance, and since 2019 that applies in every placement type, not just group homes. I have met more than one 18 year old who had no idea this was a thing. If you're in a foster home and you've never seen an allowance, that's a conversation to have with your foster parent first and your social worker second. If you're the foster parent, the allowance isn't a nice gesture, it's part of the deal, and for an 18 year old it should be enough to actually practice budgeting with.

In practice, a lot of foster parents loosen up at 18. Curfews get negotiated, overnights get easier, and the relationship starts to look more like roommates who happen to care about each other. However, legally it is the same placement it always was. If you break house rules at 19 the way you did at 16, your foster parent can still give notice, and you can still be moved.

This is the right path when you still need the structure, when your Level of Care is above basic (because that money disappears in a SILP), when you're in school full time and not working, or honestly when you just aren't ready to run a household on your own yet. There's no shame in that. Plenty of 18 year olds who were never in foster care aren't ready either.

Option two: SILP

SILP stands for Supervised Independent Living Placement. The state's own description is that it's a flexible, unlicensed placement for NMDs who are developmentally ready to live independently in a less restrictive setting. Translation: you live on your own, the county checks in on you, and the check comes to you.

Three things make a SILP a SILP. First, you find the housing. Not your social worker, you. Second, you are the payee. SILP is the only foster care placement in California where the monthly rate is paid directly to the youth. Third, there's no caregiver. Nobody is being paid to supervise you. Your social worker is the oversight, through monthly contact, the six month plan update, and a yearly reinspection of wherever you live.

The housing can be almost anything that passes a health and safety checklist. An apartment, alone or with roommates. A college dorm. A rented room, including a room in the home of a former foster parent or relative. A single room occupancy hotel. Even the home of a parent you were removed from, if your worker determines it's safe now. The court has said flat out that nothing in the law disqualifies a former caregiver's home as a SILP, which matters for the next section.

Getting approved is two steps and three forms. Step one is a readiness assessment (the SOC 157C) that you and your worker fill out together. It's not a test you pass or fail. It walks through things like whether you've ever managed your own money, whether you have a backup plan if a roommate bails, and whether the people you're planning to live with are safe. If most of the answers are "still struggling," the worker can say not yet and reassess in six months. Step two is the unit itself: the SOC 157A placement agreement and the SOC 157B health and safety inspection. In LA County the inspection can now be done virtually, and a unit that was approved for another NMD in the last 12 months doesn't need to be reinspected.

Timing is the part that bites people. You don't get paid for any day you live in a SILP before it's approved. Do not move in and then tell your worker. Get the 157A signed, then move.

If you're a parent, a SILP is usually where you'll land, and the $900 a month infant supplement rides on top of your rate and comes to you.

SILP is the right path when you can show basic money management and you have a real plan: a job, financial aid, a roommate, or a cheap room. It's the only placement that teaches adulthood by actually handing you the check. The downside is real too. A statewide study found about one in five California NMDs in SILPs experienced homelessness, and the reason is simple math: $1,301 does not rent an apartment in Los Angeles.

The option nobody explains: a SILP in your foster parent's house

This is the one I wish someone had told me about earlier. A youth can stay in the exact bedroom they had at 17, and the placement converts to a SILP where they rent that room from their former foster parent.

Here's how it works. The youth gets assessed for readiness like any other SILP. The home gets the 157B inspection (which it will pass, because it already passed RFA). The youth becomes the payee and gets the $1,301. The youth then pays the former foster parent rent under a written agreement that the social worker reviews. The foster parent stops being the paid caregiver for that youth and stops being under RFA oversight for them, because the youth is now an adult tenant, not a placement.

Why would anyone do this? Because it's training wheels. The youth learns to pay rent on time, budget a month of money, and live with the consequences when they don't, all while someone who knows them is still down the hall. If it goes sideways, nobody is on the street. For the foster parent, it's a way to keep a kid you love without staying in the caregiver role for three more years (and without the home visits).

The tradeoffs are real. The household's total money drops to the flat $1,301, with no Level of Care bump and no Specialized Care Increment. If the youth was at a higher level, that's a real cut. And the youth has to actually be ready, because the county assesses them exactly as if they were moving into their own apartment. The rent conversation also has to be a real one. Charge rent. Put it in writing. A youth who pays nothing in a SILP learns nothing, and a foster parent who quietly keeps the whole check is doing something they shouldn't.

The money, side by side

For the 2025 to 2026 year, a SILP pays the youth $1,301 a month, flat, statewide. Bakersfield or Santa Monica, same number. There's no Level of Care increase and no Specialized Care Increment in a SILP, ever. Parenting youth get an extra $900 infant supplement, and pregnant youth can get a $900 expectant parent payment for the three months before the due date.

A foster home placement pays the caregiver $1,301 to $1,741 depending on Level of Care, plus any Specialized Care Increment the county approves. The youth gets whatever the foster parent passes along.

Foster home (straight foster) SILP
Who gets the check Foster parent Youth
Monthly rate, 2025 to 2026 $1,301 to $1,741 by Level of Care, plus SCI if approved $1,301 flat statewide
Infant supplement if parenting $900 to foster parent $900 to youth
Who finds the housing County and foster parent Youth
Oversight RFA home visits plus social worker Social worker only
Can you lose it for breaking house rules Yes, foster parent can give notice No house rules, but the unit can be unapproved

Now the part that's coming. In 2023 the state approved a county based housing supplement for SILPs (so LA youth would have gotten more than youth in cheaper counties). It got cut in the next budget before a single payment went out. What replaced it is a statewide increase baked into California's new foster care rate structure. Under that plan the SILP payment goes to $2,288 a month, with $1,788 for basic needs and $500 for what the state calls strengths building activities, which means things like sports, classes, and extracurriculars.

The catch is the date. The state says those new rates start July 1, 2027, or whenever the payment system automation is finished, whichever is later, and the 2025 budget made it contingent on future funding. So if you're 18 today, you may age out before you ever see it. Treat $2,288 as a plan, not a promise, and don't let anyone tell you it's already here.

How I'd actually decide

The question isn't which one pays more. It's whether you can run a household on $1,301 a month in this rental market, and whether the adults in your life are honest with you about that.

If you're the teen: be honest with yourself about the last six months. Did you keep a job? Did you show up to the thing you said you'd show up to? Do you know what your phone bill is? If the answer to most of that is no, a SILP is not freedom, it's a countdown to a couch. Stay in a foster home one more year, or do the room rental SILP with your foster parent, and build the record first. The check will still be there. Also, a SILP is not a one way door. If it falls apart, you can go back to a resource home or into transitional housing (THP NMD) without losing extended foster care, as long as you stay under the court. The readiness form literally asks for your backup plan. Have one.

If you're the foster parent: don't let the money decide this for you in either direction. If your kiddo is at Level of Care 2 or higher, moving to a SILP costs your household real dollars, and you should say that out loud instead of pretending it isn't part of the conversation. On the other side, if you're keeping an 18 year old in a regular placement mostly because the rate is good, you're doing them a disservice. They turn 21 having never been a payee, never signed anything, and never managed a month of money, which is the exact skill set extended foster care was built to teach. The room rental SILP exists for precisely this situation (and in my experience, the social workers are happy when a foster parent brings it up, because it means they don't have to find housing).

Either way, start the conversation months before the 18th birthday, not at the hearing. The readiness assessment can come back "not yet" and that's a six month wait. Ask your worker for the 157C early, fill it out together, and let it tell you what to work on.

Sources

Everything above comes from these. Rates are current as of October 2026 for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year. If you're reading this later, check the rate chart first because the numbers move every July.

Related Topics

foster care
SILP
NMD
SILP vs. Staying in a Foster Home After 18: What Teens and Foster Parents Need to Know | Counted Doors