Requirements To Be a Foster Parent

Must be at least 21 or 25 years old in some areas

Criminal background check and fingerprinting

Stable income - not dependent on reimbursements to support your family

Dependable transportation, and driver’s licenses

Have a bedroom with the required square footage

Attain the required training hours (You will have to do training annually)

Home study

Pass a health and fire inspection

Time to care for a child

CPR and first aid

Your state and agency will or may have additional requirements.

You will go through four steps to become a... more

Self help skills are a big one. Remember who has been there to teach these children. Most all of my children (including babies/toddlers) came with food issues. They are afraid that the next time it is time to eat there will not be any food left. This means they may hoard food (hide it everywhere), eat with their hands while shoveling in and/or want to eat all the time and everything in sight.

Taking a bath even with older children may need to be taught. Don’t take things for granted. Learn from my mistakes. Using soap may have to be explained, shampoo to wash their hair (don’t forget to explain about the rinsing process). We had a 14 year old boy, that had a burr cut. He... more

Children in foster care have suffered some trauma and/or abuse in their life, that is what has caused them to be placed in care. This places great obstacles for the children and foster parents to overcome. These children are not like the children in your family. I will try to explain or hit a few key points.

These children have a lot of anger about most everything going on in their lives when coming into care. The foster parent is the one in the line of fire. The anger may not have a thing to do with you, you are just the person that is there. You are standing in the spot they want their bio parent to be. Their bio parent could have been sexual abusing them, beating them,... more