What is Foster Care?
Foster care is the provision of substitute care and rehabilitative services for children who have been temporarily separated from their families. Foster care can be provided for a limited period of time until a child is returned to his or her family or relatives, or moves into living independently. Throughout the period of foster care, children maintain contact with their birth parents through regular planned visitation.
Fairfax County Department of Family Services places children in a variety of settings, including foster homes, group homes, hospitals, and residential treatment centers.
Who Are the Children?
Children are placed in the legal custody of the Department by the Juvenile Court. They enter foster care for different reasons. Most have experienced abuse or neglect or have had serious family problems. Often, problems such as homelessness, unemployment, hospitalization, or substance abuse prevent parents from providing their children the care they need. Some of the children have special needs, such as developmental, emotional, or physical disabilities.
Children in foster care range in age from infancy to 20 years old and come from a variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. All want to live as normal a life as possible while they are temporarily separated from their birth families.
Who Can Be a Foster Parent?
Foster parents are trained and approved by the Department of Family Services. Each applicant is considered on an individual basis. He or she:
- must be at least 21 and free from health problems that would impact the ability to parent
- may be single or married
- may work in or outside of the home
- must be able to provide a child with a safe, structured, caring home.
The Department of Family Services provides prospective foster parents with comprehensive training in foster parenting. In addition, each applicant must participate in a home study process, including visits to the home and contacts with references, before being approved as a foster parent.
Resources & Supports for Foster Parents
The Department of Family Services provides basic room and board payments and specific allowances for a child's clothing and personal needs to offset the cost of the child’s care. Medicaid covers medical and dental costs for children in foster care. Ongoing support and education are provided for all our foster parents, including a monthly support group, a quarterly newsletter, a foster parent "buddy system," workshops, and socials events.
Legal Responsibility
When a child must enter foster care, the Department assumes legal custody of the child through the Juvenile Court. As the child's legal custodian, DFS makes major decisions on his or her behalf, such as placement decisions, rehabilitative services to be provided, and contact with birth family members.
The foster parents’ input and assistance in making these decisions are important.
Types of Foster Homes
Foster parents provide support and care for children through the following categories of foster homes:
- Regular Foster Home — foster parents care for the child until the child can return home or be placed in some other permanent living arrangement.
- Special Foster Home — foster parents have special skills, learned through training or experience, that meet a child's special need for extraordinary emotional, physical, or educational support. Special foster parents work closely with therapists, educators, and medical personnel at hospitals, clinics, schools, and other agencies.
- Child Specific Foster Home —foster parents are relatives or close friends of the child prior to foster care involvement. Approval is given for the care of this child only.
- Mentor Home — foster parents function as mentors, rather than parents, for young adults ages 16–21 who will not be returning home. Mentors provide a temporary home and prepare teens for independent living by offering help and support in housing, vocational/career planning, and life skills.
- Resource Homes — foster parents are willing to commit to both fostering and adopting.
- Host Families — foster parents care for a child over weekends and work with Kidsave Fairfax to find the child an adoptive family.
Foster Parents Say...
"It has made my life fuller and richer....My foster daughters have broadened my views, my perspectives; they've introduced me to new interests — to new activities."
"Foster children are children ....They have so much to give to you and you have so much to give to them!"
Children in Foster Care Say...
"You learn to work with people and you learn from them....I realize now what I learned. Overall, it was one of the best experiences I could have ever had...."
"Just being able to be around a family made me feel good....Having people there to talk to and to care...I liked that a lot."
For more information on becoming a foster parent,
call
Department of Family Services Foster Care
Program
703-324-7639 TTY 703-222-9452
This document is available in an alternative format upon request.
Please call 703-324-5870.
Allow two weeks for preparation of the material.