Short term foster care can be a few weeks to a few months. When they remove child to do a proper investigation of possible abuse, the children then would be placed in short term foster care. You do not see this wanted a lot, most investigations will take place in the home and the children then will only be removed if there is some form of abuse occurring in the home. In case where the children are removed first and the investigation follows, this tends to involve serious concerns were the death of a child may be present.

Another reason can be a parent is facing a crisis whether it be financial, health, other personal reasons, etc. and they do not have family or others to turn to for support. A parent may need to place their children in short term foster care, until she gets to a point to care for her children again.

Several years ago, some family members provided this type of foster care through a private agency. Parents could work with the agency without getting involved with Child Protective Services (CPS); it came to the point the CPS was becoming more involved. That agency stopped offering the service, because of the involvement of CPS and parents not using it due to CPS' involvement. A parent that is in need of help, seeks it and gets their life back together does not want a Child Protective Services becoming the ones that make the decisions for their children because she needed help at one time in her life.

A lot of the foster children that you see in short term foster care are waiting for placements with family members or they are looking for family members willing to provide care for the children. You tend to see a lot of infants in short term care because family members are more willing to take an infant than an older child.

Related posts:

How to Decide What Kind of Foster Care is Right for Your Family

How to get licensed as a foster parent