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Support for foster parents

Being a foster parent is a rewarding—and challenging—job. Learn about your role and the resources available to help you succeed

When a child or sibling group is placed in your home, a journey begins that can last anywhere from overnight to several months. After the immediate safety of the child has been addressed, the next priority is reunifying the child with the family from which he was removed. Slightly more than half of all children who go into foster care return to their families.

On this page:

Providing for the needs of the child

While a child is placed in your home, you will need to ensure that his emotional, medical, dental, and educational needs are being met. “Questions to Ask When Accepting a Foster Placement,” an article on our blog, offers advice from workers and families about ensuring you can meet a child’s needs.

Children in foster care are removed from their families due to an abusive or neglectful situation and may require treatment to help them through past trauma and losses. It’s up to you to work with the child’s caseworker to connect children with therapy and the other services and supports the child is entitled to receive.

Requirements differ slightly among states, but foster parents are usually responsible for:

  • Medical needs, including mental health. Most children who receive foster care payments from their states are automatically eligible for Medicaid.
  • Educational needs. When a child or youth has to change schools it can create stress and set them back in their academic achievement. Some children have IEPs [individual education plans] and need special education services in their school setting. As the foster parent. you are often the one who is interacting with the school staff and need to keep the child’s caseworker up to date with their progress.
  • Day-to-day needs, such as food, clothing, and school supplies. The state provides reimbursement to foster care parents using standard rates that reflect the child’s age and special needs. Each state sets its own rates for reimbursement. If you have questions about reimbursement rates in your state, contact your local foster care agency.
  • Sleeping arrangements. Most children may share bedrooms. They must have a separate bed and children of the opposite sex can only share a room if they are under an age specified by the state (usually around 6 years old). Some children cannot share bedrooms because of behavior concerns.
  • Other needs and special circumstances, such as going on vacation. Always check with the child’s caseworker first.
  • Actively working with the child’s caseworker and supporting the child for continued contact with his family, including parents, siblings, and other members, whenever it is deemed safe and beneficial to the child.

Where to find help

Lifebook pages provide an opportunity to get to know a child and prepare them for adoption. The IFAPA has created a library of 70 free lifebook pages for parents and caregivers to use.

Family connections booklet (3.5 MB PDF), in which birth parents can share information about a child’s medical history, bedtime routines, favorite foods, and other important details.

Pre-placement questionnaire (93 KB PDF), a tool for determining whether a child will be a good fit for your family.

Supporting reunification

As primary caregivers, foster parents play a significant role in working with birth parents and in carrying out the tasks in a child’s permanency plan.

Most children placed in your home will have regular, court-ordered visits with their biological parents, other adults whose care they were removed from, and their siblings if they weren’t placed together. It’s important for you to work with their caseworker to decide the location and time of the visits. The court decides whether the visits will be supervised.

Except in cases of extreme abuse, nearly all children who enter foster care have a primary case plan of returning home. The foster parent plays an important role in helping achieve reunification.

Find tips for preparing for reunification on our blog.

Where to find help

Child Welfare Information Gateway has compiled a list of resources on reunifying families, including a tip sheet offering advice from foster families (243 KB PDF).

When reunification is not an option

If, after a period of time, reunification is not possible, the state will file for legal termination of parental rights or the parents may elect to surrender legal rights to their child in lieu of going through a lengthy termination trial. Either way, a child is not legally freed for adoption until the rights of all legal and biological parents have been legally severed.

Most children who are freed for adoption are adopted either by relatives or non-relative foster parents. The best interest of the child is always taken into account, including attachment and continuity of care. When a child’s relatives or foster parents are unable to adopt a child, the agency with custody of the child searches for other adoptive parents, often through local, state, regional, and national adoption exchanges, including AdoptUSKids.

If you want to adopt a child you’re fostering whose parental rights have been terminated or are in the process of being terminated, find out how to adopt.

Making time for yourself to prevent burnout

Whether you’re a parent or foster parent, it can be hard to juggle the needs of your children with those of your own. Make sure to take time for yourself. Preventing burnout before it happens makes you a better parent all around. “Maintaining a Strong Relationship When Fostering” on our blog offers tips from experienced foster parents about supporting your partner when fostering.

As a rule, children in foster care can be left with a babysitter who is at least 18 years old, although your state may have specific rules and limitations about what requirements the babysitter must meet. Respite care might also be available to you. Respite care is short-term care of a child in order to give the regular caregiver a break. Each state or county has its own procedures for foster parents to get respite care.

Where to find help

For more information about respite care available to you, check with your child’s caseworker. You can find a list of respite care resources on the Child Welfare Information Gateway or search for respite providers on the ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center website.

Professionals and parent-support organizations can find information about developing respite services in our publications Creating and Sustaining Effective Respite Services: Lessons from the Field (1 MB PDF)/en español (1 MB PDF) and Taking a Break: Creating Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Respite In your Community (2 MB PDF)/en español (1.4 MB PDF).

Accessing training and understanding your rights

Even though you have taken the required training to become a foster parent, there is always the opportunity to learn more.

Where to find help

Things to do next:

  • Talk with one of our foster care and adoption resource specialists. Call 888-200-4005.
  • Read stories of families who adopted from foster care on our blog.
  • Subscribe to receive our monthly newsletter providing information and resources to foster and adoptive families.