The need for foster parenting in the USA is great at present. Close to 443,000 US children were in foster care in 2017, most of them with nonrelated families and the rest in institutional care or with relatives. Although several US families want to become foster parents, they find the licensing procedure difficult. Simultaneously, they have to handle negative social attitudes and dysfunctional welfare systems.
Most US states support the dual licensing procedure, which makes families eligible to foster as well as adopt. A prospective foster family has to undergo the following four steps before getting the state’s approval to receive children into their care.
- Find an agency that can help you with the licensing and training procedures.
- Apply to become a foster parent.
- Attend training sessions that last anywhere in the range of 4 – 10 weeks, during which you can learn about the needs of foster children, meet and interact with other foster families, and get ready to integrate a foster child into your family.
- Undergo a home study.
Apply to Become a Foster Family
The official paperwork to become a foster family begins here. When you approach a state licensing agency, you will meet a caseworker who will guide you through the procedure.
You can help by cooperating with the caseworker as much as possible in the following ways.
- Be honest while interacting with your caseworker and filling in the application form.
- Provide the required information quickly and accurately.
- If you don’t understand something, ask for help.
- Promise that you will not reveal details of the children in your care.
You also have to go through a home inspection, a protective service check, and a criminal background check. If you feel that your life situation or an incident in your life may disqualify you from becoming a foster parent, discuss the issue with your caseworker. Agencies do everything in their power to help you become a foster parent.
The agency will reject your application if your caseworker feels that you are dishonest or if the documents you provided during the home study do not match the information you provided in your application.
While applying to become a foster family, you have to provide the following documents:
- Letters of reference from employers or people who know you
- Age proof
- Criminal record checks from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies
- Income proof
Undergo Training and Complete a Home Study
You have to attend training sessions to become a foster family. These sessions are called “pre-adoption training” or “pre-service training.” Just as licensing procedures vary from one state to the other and from one county to the other, the length and nature of training sessions also vary.
The purpose of the training sessions is to help you understand the difficulties your foster child or children has faced and to teach you the best ways to integrate the child into your family.
After completing the application procedure and attending the training session, you have to complete a home study. In some states, a home study is required only if you want to adopt. Home studies help you and your state agency to determine the type and the number of children who can be integrated into your family.
A home study includes home visits, documentation of key facts, interviews, and reference checks with employers, neighbours, and others who can talk about your ability to foster children. At the end of the procedure, your caseworker prepares a home study report, which includes the age group and number of children who can be integrated into your family and the characteristics and conditions of the children you wish to foster.
Your agency can also submit your home study report to other agencies that can match a child with your family. You have to request your caseworker to give you a copy of your home study report so that you can correct errors if any.
Also, here are a few steps you need to take before fostering a child or children:
Explore Your Reasons to Foster Children
Why do you want to become a foster family? If you think that fostering a child will ultimately lead to adoption, you may be disappointed because most of the children who enter the fostering system want to return to their biological parents.
Ideally, a foster family has to support the procedure of returning the child to his/her biological family at the earliest possible.
Take to Licensing Agencies
Usually, state and local governments administer foster care through agreements signed with private agencies. In several states, private as well as public agencies administer the system, and in a few states, only private agencies administer it.
Finding the right agency is important for families who wish to foster. Prospective foster families need to be able to get along with the agency because the agency has to prepare them to receive children.
Even after integrating a child, foster families have to continue working with the agency. Many foster families leave the system not because they have problems with their foster children but because they receive no support from the agency.
Analyse Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Foster families have to ask themselves whether they can be consistent adults capable of giving their foster children a sense of unconditional belonging.
States provide the expenses of raising foster children, and if you have biological children, you may want to receive foster children in the same age group. If foster families undergo the required training and carefully analyze their limitations and capacities, they will be able to maintain the foster placement effectively.
If you are unable to integrate a child into your family but would still like to help, you can consider providing respite care for shorter periods. You can also consider the option of distance parenting teenagers and young adults who are attending college and need a place to spend their vacations and weekends.
Interact with Other Foster Families
While the foster care system requires you to maintain confidentiality, there is nothing to prevent you from joining communities of foster families so that you can exchange stories, views, and experiences and learn from the collective fostering experience. When you interact with passionate foster families, you learn things that you never learn in pre-service training sessions.
While foster families don’t have to fight for their child’s rights, it often turns out to be a huge part of foster parenting. Prospective foster families, therefore, have to be ready to ensure that their children get the required support from the state. Under such circumstances, your interaction with other foster families will be of great help.