Nebraska foster care and adoption guidelines
Thank you for your interest in our waiting children. The adoption and foster care process may take some time, but the rewards are well worth the effort. You will find there are many resources available to you, and we recommend that you become involved in as many ways with the foster and adoption community as you feel comfortable.
On this page:
- Contact information
- Foster and adoption licensing requirements
- Costs to foster and adopt
- Post-adoption support services
- Information on Nebraska's children
Contact information
- Nebraska Foster and Adoptive Parent Association
- Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
- Nebraska Heart Gallery
Foster and adoption licensing requirements
Both foster and adoptive parents must complete the TIPS-MAPP training course. TIPS-MAPP stands for Trauma Informed Partnering for Safety and Permanence – Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting. TIPS-MAPP will help prospective foster and adoptive families learn the following objectives:
- Ensure the family assessment is objective and described in specific, behavioral terms.
- Increase the amount of responsibility prospective foster parents and adoptive parents take in the decision-making process, as a foundation for the responsibility they will take after a child is placed in their home.
- Set the foundation for partnership between parents and social service agency staff.
- Provide an opportunity for prospective foster parents and adoptive parents to make an informed decision about their ability to foster or adopt, based on an assessment of their ability to respond to simulated foster care and adoption experiences.
- Prepare prospective adoptive parents and foster parents for the initial and long-term impacts of a new child in their family system.
- Give new foster parents and adoptive parents some guidelines and practice to deal with issues that most often cause placement disruptions (e.g., children's behavior during the grieving process; children's feelings toward birth or other families; working with the agency).
- Prepare adoptive parents for the life-long issues they will confront as their child matures to and through adulthood.
Costs to foster and adopt
None.
Post-adoption support services
See a comprehensive list of post-adoption and guardianship support services and support groups available to families who live in Nebraska.
Information on Nebraska's children
There are 6,231 children in foster care in Nebraska; 913 of these children are waiting for adoptive families.