How to Become a Foster Parent in Virginia

Thousands of children, from infants to teenagers, are currently in foster care in Virginia, and countless more enter the foster care system every year. If you have the room in your home and in your heart for a child or children, consider applying to become a foster parent.

Instructions

How to Become a Foster Parent in Virginia

1. Seriously consider if you are committed to becoming a foster parent. Most of the children in foster care have been placed there due to neglect or physical or sexual abuse.

2. Contact the Department of Social Services in your area of Virginia when you are ready to apply to become a foster parent.

3. Fulfill the requirements set forth by the state of Virginia. You will have to complete an application, allow a criminal background check and a child abuse and neglect check, and you’ll have to give the Department of Social Services references and your medical and employment histories,

4. You will be assigned a social worker who will visit your home to ensure that you have the ability to provide a foster child or children with a safe home and to talk about your role and responsibility as a foster parent.

5. You will have to go through orientation and training workshops specifically designed for foster parents.

6. Once you have fulfilled all of the state’s requirements, your application will be processed. Expect to wait anywhere between two and four months to be approved as a foster parent.

7. Once you have become a foster parent, you are required by law to have your foster parent status approved every two years.

Tips & Warnings

• More than half of the thousands of children in foster care in Virginia are teenagers, so consider opening your home to a teen or teens.

• To apply to become a foster parent in Virginia, you must be at least 18 years old. In addition, foster parents can be married or single and can work in a traditional job or can be self-employed.

• It is important to be committed to fostering, especially if you intend to foster an infant or a toddler. Having to be moved from foster home to foster home is detrimental to the child and could have a lifelong impact.

• In some instances, as a foster parent, you and the birth parents will work together with the end goal of your foster child going home.

• Fostering could lead to a permanent placement, especially if you are interested in adopting.

• According to the state of Virginia, the majority of infants and toddlers available for foster care have been neglected or physically or sexually abused. Infants under three months are often in foster care almost two and a half years longer than older children and generally have developmental and physical challenges of which you should be aware.

• You may not have the option of adopting your foster child, and she may be returned to her birth parents. Understand that having a foster child leave your care can be an emotional experience.

Resources

• Virginia Department of Social Services
• Foster Care and Adoption