Foster Care
DVHHS is always in need of loving adults to foster children. Please see below for more information or give either of our Human Services offices a call today!
Foster parents provide a temporary home for children when they cannot remain in their own home. Care is given until their own parents can resume this responsibility or until a permanent plan is made with relative or adoptive parents. Foster parents need to be caring and stable, as they will be helping children through a difficult time in their lives. Foster parents must be able to provide for their own family's financial needs, be good listeners, flexible, have a good sense of humor and work well with others in a team effort. Foster parents receive a financial reimbursement to care for the needs of children. Children placed in foster care also have health insurance coverage at no cost to the foster family.
Child Foster Care Licensing Requirements
The first, and most important, requirement is that you love kids. If you meet this requirement, review the checklist below to see whether you’d meet licensing requirements.
- live in Jackson or Cottonwood County
- be at least 21-years-old, financially stable and responsible
- have appropriate sleeping space. There must be enough bedrooms for everyone. Foster children can share a bedroom with a child of the same sex, if the room is large enough. They cannot share a bedroom with an adult or a child of the opposite sex.
- complete an application for foster care
- allow DVHHS to complete a criminal history background check on all household members who are 13-years-old or older
- live in a home or apartment that meets fire safety code
- abide by a “No Corporal Punishment” rule
- be available to transport children to visitations and medical appointments
- provide DVHHS with three personal references
- participate in a home study that includes interviews with all household members
- attend on-going training (12 hours annually for each adult in the household)
- be single or married
- rent or own your home
- You should be one year from a major life change such as a marriage, divorce, birth of a first child, or a significant loss, and two years from successfully completing chemical dependency treatment.
- Day care and foster care licensing should not be started at the same time.
- It is not necessary to have children of your own, but it is important to have experience with children.
- Foster parenting is not a job so you need to have enough income to meet your own household needs.
- You need to have reliable transportation because foster parents need to transport children to appointments several times a week.