Who claims child, foster care scenario?

[mainah0]

Who gets to claim the child as a dependant in the following scenario?

Newborn baby born on May 30th, 2018.

The baby is then placed into foster care by the state on July, 7th 2018.

The baby changes homes and is placed with a different foster family on September 25th, 2018.

Time under care in 2018:

Bio-Parents ~38 days

Foster Family 1 ~81 days

Foster Family 2 ~98 days

[Critter-3]

No one can claim the child in this situation. 

[Opus 17]

Since none of the legal parents (bio or foster) had actual custody for more than half the number of days the child was alive in 2018, then no one has the automatic right to claim the child as a dependent.  

Any parent (parent A) who provided more than 10% of the child's financial support can claim the child as a dependent if they get a signed agreement from all the other parents (B and C) who also paid more than 10% of the child's support in which parents B and C agree that parent A will claim the child and parent B and C will not.  This is called a multiple support agreement and is covered on page 20 of IRS publication 501.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p501.pdf

Also note that this type of dependent would qualify the parent who claims them for the $500 credit for "other dependent" and not the $2000 credit for a "qualifying child" dependent.