Saturday, January 23, 2010

How difficult is it to become a foster parent?

I am thinking about becoming a foster parent in about 5 or 10 years when I'm comfortable in my life and career. What are some requirements? Does the state provide foster parents with a certain amount of money for each child's needs? Can you request a particular age group? Will they give you children that have special needs, if you don't have any training or experience in that area?How difficult is it to become a foster parent?
It normally isn't very dificult. All you need to do is get fingerprinted to make sure the children aren't living with someone who has had convictions. Whomever is in your household would also need to be finger printed. A social worker needs to visit your home to ensure that the child would be in a safe enviornment and that you can provide a good clean place for them to live in. Some people are under the impression that you need to be well off to be a foster parent, but that's not the case. They usually look for people who will be able to give the child care and be attentive to their needs. You can request a certain age group, and I believe also nationalities as well. I'm not sure that they would allow a child with special needs to live with someone if that person did not have a little bit of training. By that I mean taking a few classes, which that government might be able to provide free of charge or at a low cost to you. And yes, there is an allowance that they give you every month for their living expenses. Every few months or so you also get a clothing allowance for the child. The allowance varies dependign on their age.





Kudos to you for thinking about opening your home to foster children. Not many people are as givign and caring as needed to take care of someone besides themselves.How difficult is it to become a foster parent?
www.fosterkids.com
your local social services has foster care courses. and you can pick and choose what you can handle. you can select what ages you want, what sex you want, special needs or not. you have to have a clean record, no criminal past. and also adequate space in your home. they pay per kid, and also they give each kid a clothing allowance every 3 months. Its only enough to live on if you take in 4 at a time. less then that and you are going to need to work full time elsewhere to support yourself.
I have a friend which her father is a foster parent. He has 7 foster kids, which is a lot. And each child he get's paid $400 a month, at least here in California I suppose. That's $2800 a month for all of them. And that's just part of it. You have to give each of them an allowance about $50 a month so they can buy clothes or whatever. You need tons of food if you want to take care of that many kids. And the rules are, if the kid does something wrong for I beleive 6 times, which is 6 strikes, they move on to another foster care. And you don't necessarily need training or experience, as long as you have a decent job, a decent home, a bed for each individual child, then your good.





And that's all I know so far from my friend. She also told me some of her recent foster siblings get pregnant or impregnate others, some come home at a very late time and some even use drugs. And the house is always busy, but she still thinks it's fun.
Every county is different!But all counties do a criminal back ground check,you have to be certified ind first aid and CPR,have a home check,of course have rooms for the children,smoke alarms,some make you see a shrink to make sure you're not crazy!Oh and yes you can tell them what kind of children you can or will take in!Yes that means age too!
it is not diffucult at all. Just treat your foster child just like your own. They will feel good and love you.

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