About Us

Each year, Franklin County Children Services helps more than 30,000 children and their families through prevention, protection, placement, and permanency programs. The agency protects and cares for children in cooperation with parents whenever possible, by providing services to alleviate the problems that led the family to the attention of Children Services. Children Services believes in the importance of family and strives to keep the entire family involved in solving the problems that brought them to the agency.

• How we respond to families – Intervention occurs only to ensure the safety of children or to help the family. The goal is to keep children safely in the home and provide services to families that may prevent the need for opening cases and out-of-home placement.
• How we make decisions with the family – Families are best served when they are truly engaged in both the identification of the issues that are challenging them and in the development of the service plan to help them. Throughout the life of a case, families are encouraged to provide input and to be a part of the team decision-making process.
• How we find stability and permanency for children – The agency is committed to the safety, permanency, and well-being of each child we serve. We strive to provide permanency with kinship, foster, and adoptive families.

Additional services include:

• In-home counseling, community social and mental health services, and day treatment
• Mentor and volunteer services
• Kinship – Services to those taking in young family members
• Foster Care – Placement of children in temporary foster homes
• Adoption – When parents or relatives are unable to care for the children, permanent and loving adoptive families are found.
• Youth transition services and life skills training for youth who are about to age out of the child welfare system 
• Therapeutic arts

Franklin County Children Services protects and cares for children and their families through many community partnerships.

• Family to Family is a partnership with local settlement houses to help families in the community
• Local Resources – We contract with more than 100 organizations to help children and families
• Speaking engagements and displays
• Special events and campaigns, such as our Holiday Wish program, for which we rely on community support to help us collect holiday gifts for more than 6,000 children served by the agency each year (agency funds cannot be used for this purpose)

More than half of Franklin County Children Services' funding comes from two, 10-year property tax levies; a 3.5 mill levy passed in 2019, and a 1.9 mill levy passed in 2024. Franklin County Children Services is grateful for this community support from central Ohio voters.

Children Services is governed by an 11-member volunteer board and is regulated by statutory mandates of the state and federal governments and regulations of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The executive director is responsible for agency operations. The agency is a member of the Child Welfare League of America.