What is a Foster Home?

What do Coco Chanel, Marilyn Monroe, Eddie Murphy, Cher, and Simone Biles have in common? All grew up as children in foster care.

Many foster kids live happy, fulfilling lives and successfully pursue their dreams. At times, entering foster care is a child's first chance to find a solid path forward. Children and youth in foster care need a dependable adult who will care for them as they would a family member. Family social services are working to find those adults who are interested in foster care and adoption.

You can become a foster parent in your state and give a foster child a caring home. Social services agencies train and license prospective foster parents as quickly as the process allows. However, the United States has more kids foster children in care than available families to care for them.

How does foster home care safeguard the interests of the child? How can you help foster kids become future comedians, actors, or Olympic athletes? Here are definitions of the kinds of foster care and additional information aspiring foster parents need to know.

What is a Foster Home?

A foster home is a temporary place to live for children in the child welfare system. Because of unsafe living conditions, these children are unable to stay with their birth families or primary caregivers.

Foster kids usually need short-term homes until they can safely return to their biological parents. However, sometimes foster youth need long-term foster or adoptive homes, depending on the situation.

Foster families must go through a state-level process to get a license to care for children and teens in their homes. These include background checks for prospective foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers.

Foster Homes are the Best Option for Kids in Care

The foster home's primary responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of foster children. Foster parents must support and watch over foster kids 24/7. This is especially important while birth parents are working on a court-ordered plan to reunite with their children.

Foster parents have completed training on how to provide trauma-informed care to foster children. All kids in care have experienced trauma, some of them abuse or neglect.

Renters and homeowners with stable incomes can foster a child in their homes. A foster home can be almost any residence as long as there is enough room. Foster kids can share a room if they have their own bed and enough space for personal belongings.

Because of a shortage of foster homes, foster agencies seek other options for children in the foster care system. Group homes are among the options to offer a haven for foster kids when no family home is available. Outcomes are significantly better for foster youth in foster home care rather than institutional settings.

Becoming a Foster Parent

An ideal foster home is a place where kids can not only reside but thrive. These FAQs will help adults new to the foster system prepare to start their fostering journey.

How Do I Start Fostering a Child?

Becoming a foster parent starts with an initial inquiry to your state's foster and adoption agency. A foster parent advocate will explain how to become a foster parent and what to expect during the process. They will learn your goals for fostering or adoption, answer your questions, and review requirements for foster parents. For example, adults who are 18 years of age or older and have a valid driver's license may be eligible.

After the initial meeting, the next step is to attend a foster parent orientation meeting. Here, aspiring foster parents discover more about how the foster process works. You will learn the particular foster or adoptive agency's methods and unique requirements. Attendees receive informative materials and a foster parent application to begin the next phase of licensing approval.

After completing the application, foster parents begin pre-service training. In addition, applicants must agree to a criminal background check and check the boxes on other requirements. These include proof of financial stability and good health so they can adequately care for a child.

Every state also requires foster parents to complete a Home Study. This study includes home inspections and interviews that ensure the family is ready and fit to foster a child. Learn more about Home Study requirements for prospective parents in domestic adoption or foster care.

The process to get your foster parent license can take a few months or longer. The average time is 3-6 months. Learn more about foster qualifications by state.

Can I Meet the Needs of a Foster Child?

Fostering is a significant commitment that most foster providers find rewarding. Being prepared and understanding the rules and restrictions for foster parents helps. Foster parent orientation will cover this topic in depth. You can also self-assess your readiness to foster or adopt a child.

Foster parents are not legal guardians. They provide foster children with temporary homes until foster youth can return to their birth families. The needs of individual foster children vary and often change during care. Children may need physical or mental health care services to cope with trauma.

The goal in most foster cases is to keep rejoin kids with their birth families. At times, reunification isn't possible. In these cases, the foster system must find another long-term care solution or foster-to-adoption.

Flexibility and loving support are universal needs among foster children. If you can meet those needs, the next step is to create a safe and healthy environment for them. Welcome them into your home and provide space they can call their own.

Create a positive, nurturing environment where foster kids feel seen and understood. Provide encouragement and guidance to keep them healthy and engaged.

Meet physical needs by providing healthy meals and exercise. Establish structure so foster kids get ample sleep for their ages and treat their medical needs as high priorities.

If your foster children show interest in a sport or hobby, encourage them to try it and help pave the way. Applaud and assist them in pursuing passions and expressing their creativity.

How Can I Build Trust?

Foster children are in difficult situations. They are often far from familiar homes, families, and friends. They are living in new, strange environments. Constant changes and loss of control feel scary, no matter how old the foster kid is.

Building trust is the key to helping foster children feel at ease.

It takes time to build trust, but you can start by exercising patience. Take an open and honest approach to conversations and in answering questions.

Above all, be consistent and reliable. These are traits that have been absent from the lives of many kids in foster care.

Model good behavior and lead by example. Kids are quick to notice and lose trust when adults say one thing and do another. Make only the commitments you can keep, then follow through on every one of them.

Admit when you are wrong, even though it can be hard to do. It builds trust and respect when adults learn to apologize to kids.

When someone says, "I'm sorry," it shows a desire to re-open lines of communication and repair a relationship. We all make mistakes; what matters is how we handle the situation.

What Makes an Awesome Foster Parent?

No requirement exists to be a perfect foster parent. Rather, we have many models for being an excellent foster parent.

Kids often claim that unwavering care and support from their foster parents are what they love most. Encouraging children and supporting them to do their best is one of the best ways to help them thrive. Attentive foster parents help foster children stay connected with their birth family and cultural traditions.

Kids growing up are going to make mistakes as they try new ways to express themselves. Great foster parents cheer for them and stay by their side during the best and worst times.

When caregivers consistently do these simple things, it lets kids know they have someone to rely on. Though their time in foster is usually temporary, what you teach them about love and life can be truly life-altering.

See more Q&A's in these Top Questions from Aspiring Foster Parents.

We Support the Foster Process

Fostering brings rewards and benefits to adults who commit to being a role model and caring for kids. When kids feel safe and welcome to express their true selves, they can grow to achieve whatever they want. Who knows, they might be the next Olympic athlete, award-winner, or groundbreaking scientist.

In every event, they will know how to pay it forward to the next generation of children growing up.

U.S. kids need foster families today. With the knowledge and tools to create a foster home where children can thrive, take the next step. Learn more about fostering in your state.

Message us at FosterUSKids or contact a local foster or adoption agency to help.