Foster families are needed now more than ever to support family reunification and provide children who enter foster care with opportunities to remain connected to their families and home communities. In order to connect prospective foster parents with their local departments of social services, Virginia has established the Faster Families Highway. By creating an account, you'll be put on the fastest pathway to becoming a foster parent and beginning your journey of supporting children and families in your local community.
Foster care is intended to be a temporary rather than a long-term solution for children who have been removed from their birth family homes for reasons of neglect, abuse, abandonment, or other issues endangering their health and/or safety. Every effort is made to help the child remain with his or her family, however, when a child comes into foster care they are most often placed in a foster home. The foster family works as a team with the local department of social services, the biological family, the child (when applicable) and any additional community partners.
The temporary and complex nature of foster care places special demands on foster parents. They are asked to take someone else's child into their home, care for the child and treat the child as a member of their family. It is essential that foster parents understand and are willing to meet the physical and emotional needs of children within the context of their culture. The foster care program provides the necessary support and training to enable foster parents to provide daily care and supervision for the child in care.
VDSS also works in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and federally-contracted agencies to administer the Virginia's Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) program. The URM program encourages reunification of children with their parents or other appropriate adult relatives whenever possible, and provides culturally sensitive, therapeutic foster care and placement services to unaccompanied refugee minors and other special populations of unaccompanied youth in the United States.
It is essential that foster parents understand and are willing to meet the physical and emotional needs of children within the context of their culture. Individuals and families seeking information specific to foster care for unaccompanied refugee minors should contact 2-1-1 Virginia.
Foster parents are asked to provide a safe, stable, temporary and caring atmosphere for a child placed in their home. Foster parents become part of a team effort to support the child and implement the plans made for the child. This involves working with biological parents, courts, local departments of social services and other involved agencies.
Reunification is the process of children and parents reuniting after a placement in foster care. Research shows that children do best when with their family, so reunification is always the primary goal of placements in care. It takes a supportive team of child welfare professionals and foster parents to help children and their families achieve a successful reunification.
Foster parents and kinship foster parents support reunification by keeping children safe and connected with their birth families while the birth parents overcome challenges and make strides towards providing a safe home for their children to ultimately return to. Social workers, attorneys and judges work to make sure things are safe and fair. These relationships are critical to success.
Sometimes reuniting families isn't successful, but it happens for about a third of the children who leave foster care each year. The other children get adopted if their parents' rights are terminated, live with relatives or become independent when they grow up.
Annually in June, Virginia celebrates Family Reunification Month and all the hard work parents, foster parents, kinship foster parents, child welfare professionals, attorneys, judges and treatment teams do to bring families back together.
Click 'The Real Stories of Foster & Adoptive Families', to read a collection of powerful stories from families all over Virginia who were started, reunited and strengthened through foster care and adoption.
When children are placed in foster care, it is imperative to find safe, permanent homes for them as quickly as possible. Permanency can have different meanings depending on the child, family, and case circumstances. Permanency can be achieved through 1) reunification, 2) placement with or custody transfer to a relative, or 3) adoption. Permanency helps youth establish and nurture a family connection that can provide a lifetime of support, commitment and a sense of belonging beyond temporary placement, even as they transition into adulthood. In many circumstances, children can be reunited with their families. However, there are some cases that require children to find permanent homes with relatives or adoptive families.
When a child comes to the attention of the child welfare system, the initial focus is on supporting and stabilizing a family to prevent an initial placement. If children must be removed from their families to ensure their safety, permanency planning efforts focus on returning them home as soon as is safely possible. If reunification is not an option, other permanent families may include relatives or adoptive families who obtain legal custody.
You must be at least 18 years of age or older to be approved as a foster parent. Individuals and/or couples must have the time and energy to give to a child and must meet all the approval requirements.
Join the Faster Families Highway to start your foster parent journey and get connected with your local department of social services.
Foster Care FAQs
The children in foster care come from many different types of families and range in age from birth to 17 years of age. There are approximately 5,000 children currently in foster care in Virginia.
Yes. Foster parents can be single, married, divorced or widowed. The Commonwealth of Virginia does not preclude a person from being a foster parent based solely on their culture, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, affectional orientation, or marital/civil union or domestic partnership status. The important thing is their willingness and ability to parent.
Yes, foster parents are able to be employed outside the home. In fact, your local department of social services may provide funding for child care for your foster children while you are at work.
This is determined for each family during the licensing process. Capacity of the home is based on multiple factors. However, the number of children in the provider's home shall not exceed eight (8) children.
Foster care is considered temporary and short term. Every situation is unique and a foster child’s time in foster care depends on the family’s circumstances.
Yes, we encourage foster parents to work collaboratively with birth parents.
A foster child's return home is usually the ultimate goal. The foster parent will have the opportunity to participate in the planning and to say goodbye to the foster child. This can be a difficult time, but the child's return home represents a success. Returning home is the goal for most children in foster care.
For some children, their parents are not able to regain custody and, if relative placement is not an option, the child may become available for adoption.
For some children, their parents are not able to regain custody and, if relative placement is not an option, the child may become available for adoption.
Foster children are covered by Medicaid, which covers all necessary care and treatment.
A worker will be assigned to support you throughout the child's stay in your home. As you foster, there will be opportunities to attend ongoing training sessions throughout the year. Child care, services and funding for other activities for children may be available. Joining a foster parent support group, such as FACES or the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA), is a good way to get advice and assistance from experienced foster parents.
It depends on the nature, severity of the offense and length of time that has passed since the conviction. Applicants with barrier crimes cannot be approved as a foster parent.
If you are applying for adoption through a Licensed Child Placing Agency you can be approved to adopt without becoming a foster parent first. However, in Virginia, over 60% of our foster care youth are adopted by their foster parent.
Foster Care Myth BustersFact: Even if a foster child is only with you for a short time, you may be the one person that can make a positive change in that child’s life forever. By building relationships with biological families, you could continue to have contact with a child even after they successfully reunite with their parents.
Fact: Most foster parents work outside of the home. Discuss child care options available with your local department of social services.
Fact: There are no income requirements. Foster parents must have sufficient income to meet the needs of the family.
Fact:You can be single, married, divorced or widowed.
Fact: You can own or rent a home, trailer or apartment.
Fact: There are no educational requirements to become a foster parent.
Fact: Foster children may share a room. Children of the opposite sex over the age of three (3) shall not sleep in the same room.
Fact: Children of same-sex parents adjust well and grow up in the same positive environment as those of heterosexual families.
Fact: Most children in foster care are eligible for Medicaid. Foster parents are NOT required to carry foster children on their medical insurance.
The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) Permanency Matters newsletters are published periodically to highlight permanency topics such as reunification, adoption, kinship care and other key components. The goal of this resource is to provide information on best practices, exemplar work being done at our local departments of social services (LDSS), current events and training opportunities, and shared experiences from the families with whom we work. We welcome contributions from youth and families, LDSS, private providers, and other partners who have stories and practice examples to share. Please let us know what your agency is doing to promote permanency!
Kinship Care is the full time care, nurturing and protection of children by a relative (Code of Virginia §63.2-100). The Virginia Department of Social Services supports placing children with relatives when children cannot live with their parents. In Virginia kinship care families are eligible for assistance based on either an informal or formal arrangement.
