The Virginia Department of Social Services Foster Care Program provides homes and compassionate foster parents for children who are removed from their homes due to abuse or neglect, or other family circumstances that prevent children from remaining in their homes.
All children grow and thrive best when they are with a family. You could be that family. Open your heart and home by becoming a foster, adoptive or resource parent.
The Rewards of Foster Parenting (MP3)
How You Can Make a Difference
If you have room in your heart and home, you can make a difference in the life of a child in need by becoming a foster parent. Although foster care services offered by the Commonwealth of Virginia make every effort to keep families together, it isn't always possible. An array of services become available when a child enters foster care. These services are designed to promote child safety and well-being within a nurturing, family environment and are tailored to each child's unique needs.
For more information on becoming a foster, adoptive, resource or kinship parent, please contact your local department of social services or call 1-888-VDSS-2DA (1-888-837-7232).
The Role of a Foster Parent
As a foster parent, you play an important role in a child's life and have the opportunity to provide much-needed love and care. You are responsible for the temporary care and nurturing of a child who has been placed outside his or her own home. During a time of disruption and change, you are giving a child a home, love and a family. At the same time, your role includes working with the caseworker and the child's family so that the child can return home safely, when appropriate. In many instances, a child is placed outside of his or her home for a short period of time while the birth parents or family receive the support and services needed to make it possible for the child to be reunited with them. Other children may need an alternative plan to aid them in finding a safe, loving, permanent home. In those instances many foster parents choose to become that permanent home through adoption. In Virginia, more than 90% of children in care are adopted by their foster families.
The role of the foster parent is to:
Provide temporary care for children, giving them a safe, stable, loving and nurturing environment
Cooperate with the caseworker and the child's parents in carrying out a permanency plan, including participating in developing the plan
Understand the need for, and goals of, family visits and assist with those visits
Help the child cope with the separation from his or her home
Provide guidance, discipline, a good example, and as many positive experiences as possible
Encourage and supervise school attendance, participate in teacher conferences, and keep the child's caseworker informed about any special educational needs
Work with the agency in arranging for the child's regular and/or special medical and dental care
Work with the child on creating a "Life Book," which is a combination of a story, diary, and scrapbook that can help children understand their past experiences so they can feel better about themselves and be better prepared for the future
Inform the caseworker promptly about any problems or concerns so that the child's needs can be met through available services
Permanency Plans
As a foster parent, you are a continuing presence in the child's life. You are familiar with the child's personality and emotional and intellectual development since you care for him or her 24 hours a day.
Therefore, you can contribute valuable information about the child as you work closely with the caseworker/agency, participate in meetings about the child, and communicate with the parents. Foster parents are often the main source of information about how a child is adjusting to the separation from home, interacting with other children and performing in school.
As you continue to nurture the child day after day, you are helping to plan for his or her placement in a permanent family.
Foster parents can help plan for permanency through parent-child visits, contacts with the caseworker, service plan reviews, court hearings and discharge activities.
Support Available to Foster Parents
As a foster parent, you are part of a "team" working together for the sake of permanency for your children. Each child's team is as unique to that child as his or her permanency plan and the individuals involved in the child's life. Generally, the team consists of the foster parents, the birth parents, the child, the caseworker, and the attorneys who represent the child. It may also include service providers, school personnel, health care providers and other family members. This means that you are not alone in caring for the child. You have support. It also means that you may meet with the child's family in visits and case conferences, and you keep the caseworker up to date on how the child is progressing.
Working as a team member makes sense. If you don't meet the child's parents, you may have an unrealistic image of them in your mind. They may feel uncertainty and anxiety about your ability to care for their child if they don't get to know you. All of this could have a negative effect on the child. Children will feel better about themselves and about living in your home if they know that their parents and foster parents are working together to provide a permanent home for them.
The monthly board rate, which is set according to the child's age, is intended to provide funds for the foster parents to use for the care of the child. The monthly board rate includes funding for room and board, clothing, personal care, recreation, and for older children, a monthly allowance. An annual clothing allowance is also provided for each child in foster care and is also based on age.
FACES (Family Advocacy, Collaboration, Empowerment, and Support) of Virginia Families is a non-profit association that offers information, support and resources for foster, adoptive and kinship families to help you meet the special needs of your children. It also offers a support system by networking with others who share your passion to serve and by celebrating the differences we can make in the lives of children. Visit http://facesofvirginia.org/ to find out more.
Kinship Care
About Kinship Care
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.
Informal Kinship Care
Under this arrangement, a child is not in the custody of a local department of social services. Assistance may include:
Formal Kinship Care
When the Child is In the custody of a local department of social services and living with a relative who is an approved foster parent, assistance includes the following:
Annual training to develop knowledge and improve skills regarding meeting the needs of the child
A monthly stipend for the child's basic care requirements
Assistance in the management of the child's behavior
Ideally, at-risk children should remain with their actual families whenever possible. Although foster care services offered by the state of Virginia make every effort to keep them together, it isn't always possible. Once it is determimed that a child must leave the family unit and go into foster care, a host of other services becomes available to them, which are designed to
promote child safety and well-being within a nurturing, family environment.
Placement Services
This involves placing a child with a foster family, group home, residential children's facility or an independent living arrangement.
Teaching Independent Living Skills
Services are designed to help foster kids ages 14-21 to develop the skills necessary to transition from foster care to self-sufficiency. Personal development skills such as self-esteem, communication skills, decision-making, conflict resolution and anger management are emphasized.
Role modeling such as Big Brother/Big Sister programs
Tutoring
Opportunity for a Permanent Living Situation
This involves fostering relationships between children and relatives or previous caregivers. For older youth leaving care this might include helping find an apartment or a roommate.
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