It depends. You see, if the state is paying the majority of the child's expenses, then you do not qualify to count them as dependents moving forward. The intention is the state pays some for the child and the foster parent pays more to be able to show they provided over half the support. If you are in the business of being a foster parent, additional expenses are not deductible. If you are not in the business and have no plan to continue or claim, then you may have deductible expenses that can be claimed as a charitable contribution.
Publication 501 (2020), Dependents, Standard Deduction states: Foster care payments and expenses.
Payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a child placement agency are considered support provided by the agency. Similarly, payments you receive for the support of a foster child from a state or county are considered support provided by the state or county.
If you aren't in the trade or business of providing foster care and your unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses in caring for a foster child were mainly to benefit an organization qualified to receive deductible charitable contributions, the expenses are deductible as charitable contributions but aren't considered support you provided. For more information about the deduction for charitable contributions, see Pub. 526. If your unreimbursed expenses aren't deductible as charitable contributions, they may qualify as support you provided.
If you are in the trade or business of providing foster care, your unreimbursed expenses aren't considered support provided by you.
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