What is a Child-Placing Agency, and Why Do I Need One?
Almost 400,000 children in foster care rely on child-placing agencies for safe, stable, and nurturing foster homes. When a child enters the foster care system, state agencies are able to place close to 50% in Kinship Care with birth family members. Hundreds of thousands of children remain in urgent need of foster parents.
When relatives cannot provide home care, agencies search their network of foster or adoptive parents. Focused on the best interests of the child, they match prospective foster parents who can care for each foster child or sibling group.
Children who enter the foster system have case goals for foster care or adoption. The needs of each foster child and their biological family situation are unique. Agency representatives work with foster providers who can offer short-term care or a permanency option.
To become a foster or adoptive parent, you must select a licensed child-placing agency (CPA) to help you. Whether you pick a public or private agency, they will help you and your child with adoption or foster care services. States have their differences, but most follow a similar process for licensing and placement.
Why Would I Want to Foster or Adopt a Child?
When authorities bring children into foster care, they remove them from unsafe or unlivable living situations. Children whose biological parents lose custody of them face tough times in their young lives. A stable and nurturing home means the world to a child navigating such trauma and uncertainty. Dedicating your energy and care to a foster child in need is a lifelong gift.
Foster care is short-term care, and family reunification is usually the primary goal for foster kids. When rejoining their birth family is not an option, agency representatives seek adoptive parents to care for children. Children lose parents for many reasons. These include child abuse or neglect, death, jail, substance abuse, and mental illness.
Whatever the reason, children who can't return home grieve the loss of their parents. They also feel a range of emotions based on the trauma they experienced at home and the uncertainty they face in their future.
Opening your home to care for a child can offer a solid foundation of support and a brighter tomorrow. You can give a foster child a caring and nurturing family they may otherwise never know.
Aging Out of the Foster Care System
Not every eligible foster child finds an adoptive family. If kids in the foster care system age out of foster care without family support, they are at high risk for a troubling outcome.
Around 20,000 teenagers and young adults age out of the foster system every year. Within two years, 20% of kids who age out become homeless. Nearly a quarter of them will spend time in jail or detention. Permanency planning is lacking, but it is a critical need in foster care programs.
Children enter foster care without fault or responsibility. Foster and adoptive parents can guide and support foster teens entering young adulthood without a family.
What is a Child-Placing Agency?
A child-placing agency is exactly what it sounds like – a foster or adoption agency that places children into care. This could take the form of foster in-home care, foster care special services, group homes, or adoptive homes. Private agencies are licensed to work with state Departments of Social Services.
Child-placing agencies prioritize the well-being of foster children. They ensure that foster homes are fit and ready to care for children.
How Do Agencies Support Foster Families?
States have similar but unique foster parent training requirements. Child-placing agencies provide additional education and support resources for foster families. These include:
Case Managers
Each foster child enters care with a case manager. This manager actively supports prospective foster and adoptive parents. They also make sure to meet the individual needs of foster children.
Case managers are in regular touch with foster families via email, phone, or in person. They provide guidance, training, and often regular foster family support groups.
Training
When you care for a foster child, you are caring for a family in crisis. Agencies train and educate parents to support the unique needs of foster children and their birth families. They teach trauma-informed care for foster and adoptive families.
Care Team
You are never alone as a foster parent. Your care team includes your child-placing agency, the Department of Social Services, and other care professionals. Each person acts in the interests of your foster child. Your team supports you through foster reunification, adoption, and post-adoption services, as needed.
Support Groups
While fostering, you'll experience the everyday joys and challenges of raising a child. Your agency provides support to you and your child. They often offer or can connect you with foster parent support groups.
Many agencies also offer 24-hour support for foster families.
Respite Care
Respite care is free support to give foster parents a break as needed for self-care or unforeseen needs.
Three Categories of Foster Care
Agencies define three primary levels of foster children's care needs.
1) Non-Treatment Care
Foster children in non-treatment foster care are developmentally on track. They can participate without restrictions in community events and behave in age-appropriate ways.
2) Assessment Level Treatment Care
Foster professionals still need to assess children at this level to determine what kind of care they need. It also applies to those who have just come into child-placing agency care.
3) Treatment-Level Foster Care
Children assessed at this level of foster care must have treatment for ongoing issues. They may be social, emotional, or behavioral.
Agencies break the category into three treatment levels. Level one is for low, two moderate, and three significant treatment needs.
How Do Children Reunite with Their Birth Families?
The goal of most foster children's cases is reunification with their birth families. Before this can occur, biological parents must achieve the milestones or goals set out by the courts.
The reunification process typically starts with supervised family visits between the foster child and birth parents. As the courts allow, weekend and then overnight visits follow.
About 50% of foster children reunite with their biological families. Social workers at their foster or adoption agency provide continuing support. They ensure a smooth transition for both birth parents and foster children.
Contact a Child-Placing Agency Today
For additional information about becoming a foster parent, a local child-placing agency is the best place to start. A representative will answer any questions and guide you through every step of your fostering journey.
Even if only for a short time, the impact you can make as a foster parent can last a lifetime.
Understand more about the responsibilities of being a foster parent. If you believe fostering might be the right path, contact a child-placing agency in your state to learn more.