From time to time a foster home may be placed inactive or on hold. This means that for a period of time that the foster home is not open to new foster placements. This does not mean that if you have foster children already living in your home that they will be moved.

Any time foster families can choose to place their home on hold just to allow themselves to take a break from fostering. The truth is that we all need breaks from time to time so this is not a bad thing. One thing you may want to check on before placing your home on hold is how this affects your status and what you will need to do to start fostering again when you are ready.

With my agency, if your home goes inactive, or placed on hold, you have to do an updated home study. That is not something that I look forward to, so we just do not accept placements during that period of time.

With most agencies, when a foster family goes through a life or family change they place the home inactive or on hold for six months. Life or family changes could include death, birth, pregnancy, major illness, and adoption. It does not mean that in some cases that they will be looked over or that you have to take off the entire six months.

With my first adoption, a few weeks after the adoption was final we received a foster placement for two mentally retarded brothers who turned out to be a very hard placement. Our home was not placed on hold because of a couple of reasons. First, we (caseworker, agency, and us) talked about if we felt it was needed. We had already been parenting my new adopted children for a year so, they were already settled in, which why it is done in the first place. The last reason is because they were real short on foster families that they could place with.

More reading:

How to Decide if Foster Care is Right For Your Family

Extended Family Dealing With The Family’s Choice To Do Foster Care Part 1

Extended Family Dealing With The Family’s Choice To Do Foster Care Part 2