People seem surprised that we moved while doing foster care. Other foster parents have stated they did not know you could move while you had foster children in your home.

Your family can move any place within your state and continue doing foster care. Where you move can have an impact on whether your foster children will remain in your home. There will be a number of things and areas that you will need to address in the process of your move that I will be covering.

Moving within the same town or city with your foster children can be a headache but manageable. The school district will transfer the foster children's folder to their new school. Your agency should not change, and everything should easily fall into place. You need to let your foster care agency know that you are looking to move, and also your foster children’s caseworkers need to be notified as soon as possible.

Moves outside of the city or long distance moves can be a major pain. There is a lot more for you to do. Below are a couple of questions to help you know what steps you need to do.

Does you foster care agency cover the area you will be moving to?

Even if you know that your agency does not cover the area, talk to them. Some agencies are expanding their areas all the time. We moved to an area that our agency was in the process of expanding into. They gave us special permission to move. Our caseworker did have to agree to the longer travel distance, until they could open an office in our area.

If they do not or will not cover the area that you will be moving to, you will need to look for a new foster care agency in your new area. This should be your first step and the biggest hurdle for you to overcome.

Do your foster children have ongoing visits with their biological families?

The major factor here is who will be transporting the children to their visits. Another thing that will be considered is how often and what length are the visits. The caseworkers can choose to work things out by making the visits easier on you. We moved over three hours away so our once a week for one hour visit was changed to every other week for two hours.


I will be covering how to prepare to move while in another post. This will give you a check list and things to look into before moving.