How to Run a Pre-Adoption Care Foster Home

A pre-adoption care foster home gives temporary lodging to one or more children while they wait for the adoption process to finish. You can run your own pre-adoption facility out of your house, but you must go through extensive training and background checks.

Instructions

1. Prepare yourself and your family members for background checks. In some states, anyone over 14 years old must have both a criminal background check and a motor vehicle safety examination. The child abuse and negligence records of residents over 10 years old must be examined as well.

2. Call your State Department of Social Services to pick up your application to run a pre-adoption foster care home. Ask where you can take the required CPR and first-aid training classes. Schedule an appointment to have your home inspected after you submit the application.

3. Inform local adoption agencies and state departments of your certification and approval to run a pre-adoption care foster home. Depending on demand, you may have a child placed in your home in one week or one month.

4. Supply the pre-adoption children with an encouraging and caring household while they wait to be adopted. Remember that some children placed with you may only be there for a few weeks, while others could be there for months. Define clear rules and guidelines for acceptable behavior in your home so that conflicts are minimized between the children and your family.

5. Receive potential foster parents in your home and speak with them about each child. Be honest and upfront about discussing any potential problems or special needs of the child. Find out whether your state has a law that requires visiting families to be accompanied by someone from the adoption agency or state department.

Tips & Warnings

• When running a pre-adoption care foster home, you should be prepared to host children from all kinds of backgrounds and with mental and physical disabilities.

• It can take several months to prepare yourself and your family to host pre-adoption foster children. Volunteer at local adoption agencies to get a taste of what it's like to work with these kids.

• Certain safety requirements, like fences around your pool and training for any large animals, must be met before you can host a foster child.

• If a child doesn't fit in with your family and you want her removed for safety concerns, then you must follow state procedures for dismissal or face losing your foster care certification.