How to Become a Foster Family (Step By Step)

I am excited to announce that our home study was approve by the state and that we are officially a licensed foster family!

In honor of finally becoming a legally recognized foster home, I'd like to share what the process looks like. The process will vary greatly from state to state, county to county, and even agency to agency, so your experience may be completely different. But I hope that by sharing the step by step process, I can give you a glimpse into what becoming a foster family looks like. I will also include dates so you can get an idea of the length of time that licensure can take.

1) Contact an agency
July 26, 2018
It all starts with a phone call or email. I was given an email address from a friend to contact a worker at the agency who recruits and leads orientation for prospective foster parents. After a few emails back and forth, we set a date for a personal orientation in our home.

2) Attend Orientation
August 16, 2018
The worker came to our home. She gave an overview of the agency, foster care, and answered any questions that we had. She did not pressure us at all! She was very careful in use language such as "if you were to become foster parents" or "if you would decide to go with our agency." Half way through orientation I actually stopped her and said that I appreciated how low pressure she was, but that we were positive that God was calling us to become foster parents and to go forward with their agency. At the end of the meeting, we received a pile of paperwork and a feeling of confidence that this was the agency that we were meant to work with. We confirmed that we wanted to move forward with the process.

3) Training
August 23, 2018-October 6, 2018
Every state requires foster parents to complete training hours before they are licensed, and to continue to attend trainings while they are licensed. In our county, we are required to complete the Presley Ridge curriculum. This included 12 units, each taking about 2.5-3 hours. We had to attend each of these trainings in person. So for about a month and a half, one to two days a week we had to go to the agency for training. It was a lot of information packed into a fairly short amount of time. We learned regulations, how to parent children who have experiences trauma, what is required of us, and got to hear some current foster parents share their experiences.

4) Paperwork 
August-November 2018 
Becoming foster parents involved piles of paperwork to be completed. We had to have our fingerprints scanned, backgrounds checked, financial statements and all of our bills copied, proof of dog vaccines, insurances copied, medical forms signed off by our doctors, lists of our prescriptions, etc. It was overwhelming to look at the long list of required documents, but our licensing worker helped us every step of the way to make it more manageable.

5) Egress Window
October, 2018
This is not a step that every family will need to take, but it was an unexpected and costly requirement for us. Due to use having a finished basement, if we planned on using it as any kind of living space more than storage or laundry, we needed to install an egress window. Even though we do not have anyone sleeping in the basement, our state requires this.

6) Home Visit and Interview
November 13, 2018
Our licenser came to our home to inspect it and interview us. She had to take photos, verify we had smoke detectors, a carbon monoxide detector, tap water that wasn't too hot, beds/cribs, medicine locked away, cleaning supplies out of reach of children, and overall assess that our home was safe. She also interviewed Brad and I about our marriage, childhoods, family, religion, parenting styles, and everything else in between. She had to get as much information as possible so that she can complete a written home study all about our family. At the end of our visit, she confirmed that she would be recommending us to the state to become licensed.

7) Home Study Sent to the State
November 27, 2018
After our licenser wrote our home study and received all paperwork, she sent her packet on us to the state. This was a little delayed due to an issue with our clearances (we recently moved to a new state, so our they had to be rerun and a new hard copy had to be sent to the agency before our packet could be sent to the state. It was tedious and I was getting impatient, but I tried to remind myself that God's timing is perfect and will set us up to receive the placement that he has meant for us.

8) Approval
December 17, 2018
We received notice that we are an officially licensed foster family! The state approved us, and as of now, we could get a placement at any moment.

Becoming a foster family is a lengthy and involved process (as it should be). I can't say that it was without tears, stress, or financial strain. But I can say that I felt God's hand moving us through each and every step. And now, we sit and wait to see what He has in store for the next piece of our journey.

If you have any questions about foster care, becoming foster parents, or how to help anyone involved in the system, please don't hesitate to reach out!

Love and Blessings,

Annmarie