After actually using the list, I have amended it somewhat. Still, it worked pretty well.

At the agency I work for there is a standard checklist. We have to help the children and unpack with them. List what they have including play clothes and dress/school clothing. Right on the list there is a "standard number" that the child should have upon admission. If their clothing does not meet the minimum requirment...off to shop we go.
We also complete the clothing record when they are leaving our care to ensure that they have more when they leave then when they came...or at least enough to get them through should they have grown out of some things. It also is a good record to show that you have been taking care of that need. (I'm in Canada...not sure where you are...but the requirements for care are pretty formal where I foster)

I'm in Washington. If they don't have enough clothes when they come into care, we get a $50 voucher that can be spent at one store. Our current placement came with two outfits, a pillow, and a comforter. Between school supplies, necessary clothes, and hygiene/beauty products, we spent a couple grand the first weekend she was with us. And that was trying not to overwhelm her with too much new stuff. The state has no formal checklist of what is necessary, though.

We give her $50/month for a clothes allowance, on top of her regular allowance, but we want to make sure that doesn't need to be bumped up for back-to-school stuff or if she needs to be strongly encouraged to focus her shopping in a certain area. We know, for example, that she needs a winter coat. That we will just get her.

Here in MI it depends on the county but we've fostered from two different ones so far. For our girls we got about $150 clothing allowance 2x a year. For our boys we got a checklist and depending on their age we got to spend about $200 right away on each which was reimbursed and then they still get the clothing allowance 2x a year. We could even include 1 month of diapers and wipes for our 15 month old. This county was great! The checklist we were given was age appropriate and designated how many of each item including shoes/sandles they could have. I think this amount was more accurate because we could include things like a school backpack, soccer cleats, swimming suit with life jacket, snow pants.

Where I am, we get a clothing voucher of $50 once, and that's only if they determine that the FC doesn't have enough clothes when they come into care. After that, it is supposed to come out of the monthly stipend.

I should also add, that based upon C's checklist, we doubled her clothes budget for back-to-school (she normally gets $50/month) and, on top of that, we bought her new every day shoes, winter boots, and a winter coat. Normally, the shoes and boots would come out of her budget, but she was still bare bones enough that we wanted her to focus more on warm shirts. The coat's a big enough purchase, though, that that would have been on our dime no matter what, although we are definitely hoping that it will last more than a year.

Love your list! I'm very new to fostering, but here in Mass it seems to be $185 4 times a year for clothing allowance.

In AZ we only get $150 once a year. Ha, I spend more than that in one trip to Target for clothes. Like the list, thanks for sharing.

bump

I was a foster kid and I wasn't thrilled when it came to getting clothing. The state doesn't give a lot so you have to stretch what you have. High school is tough socially and clothing is a part of it. I wrote about it here http://www.imafoster.com/2012/12/clothing-in-foster-care.html

Thanks for your reply. I agree with your post. My state gives a $50 voucher for a specific BRANCH of a specific store, a month after a kid arrives. When we got a teenager with only one backpack worth of clothes and no school supplies, we had to spend over $2000 immediately. We could find a basic clothes wardrobe for pretty cheap, but I refuse to buy discount shoes if they are the main thing you wear. They wear out within weeks and are bad for your feet. School supplies can also be pretty spendy, especially when you are buying them in the off season. And then there were the toiletries that we couldn't buy until we knew age/gender. Even a basic makeup kit is pricey.

This is why we break out the credit cards when we get a placement, if necessary. We also make sure that the first shopping is only the basics. We also go to Value Village before the department stores, so the money stretches as much as possible. We might be breaking out the credit, but we don't want to be stupid about it either.

Since each kid gets a $50 clothing allowance each month (bio or foster) that's usually the one emergency shopping. Start of the year shopping can be expensive as well, but that's an expected expense.

This is probably a great idea, but I'd never pass up an excuse to open a dialog with a new foster child

When I was in foster care, we got $350 a year for clothes if the foster parents applied for it. Some of the homes I was placed in didn't apply for it but a couple of them did.

Dave,

Instead of trying to avoid a conversation, I use the list to make sure we don't forget something important. It is easy to look at the stuff that draws your eye and forget about things like underwear or socks or that the weather's going to change in a month. It also helps the kids figure out what they need for a basic wardrobe. For the rest, the monthly shopping trips quickly fill up the closet.

Luckless,

That is really depressing, and my husband and I made a conscious decision to never do that. I don't know if we dole out the specific amount allotted for clothes (we haven't sat down and calculated it) but we do make sure that all our kids are dressed well, whether they are foster or bio. Yes, we do go to Value Village first on the initial shopping trip and on the start of the school year shopping trip, but we do the same for ourselves, so they can see that they aren't being treated any differently than the rest of us. Actually, to ensure that, we upped the money we budgeted for ourselves. We didn't want any foster kids to feel like they were getting privileged treatment out of pity, and we didn't want our bio daughter to feel resentful once she got old enough to realize what was happening.

Dryad,

I had a couple of really horrible foster homes and a couple of awesome ones. Most were in between. All but one was better than my home situation. In a couple of the homes, all I had was what I came with. My best friends mom started going shopping and giving me clothes because she felt horrible about how I was dressing. A lot of my clothes for school were stained or ripped from use. Except when I was stuck in catholic school when I had to wear a suit and tie and that was only for a few months.