What Are Foster Homes?

Types of Foster Care

• There are various types and levels of foster care. According to Adoption.com, traditional care involves children removed from their homes because of neglect or abuse. Emergency care covers orphans or those children in a dangerous situation requiring their immediate removal from a current home. In long-term care settings, children remain in their foster homes for extended lengths of time because of events beyond their control. Pre-adoptive care refers mainly to ̶0;cradle care̶1; for infants preparing to be adopted, also known as "transitional foster care." Respite care gives foster parents of challenging children a break and can range from a few hours to a more than a week.

Statistics

• The majority of children in foster care live in a non-relative family home and their median age is about 10-years-old. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2008 roughly 463,000 children lived in foster care settings across the nation. Nearly 50 percent were in non-relative homes, with a quarter residing with a family member, 16 percent in group homes, and the remainder with families planning to adopt. Very few were in supervised independent living situations.

  In 2009, 70,000 of the 424,000 in foster care saw their biological parents lose their parental rights. Most biological parents or primary caregivers of children in foster care are working to be able to reunite with their children and to have their children move back in with them. The remainder of children aim to become adopted or live permanently with another relative. While the length of time children remain in foster care varies, in 2008, one-third of the 285,000 children who left foster care had been in foster care for 11 months or less.

Impact on Children

• The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) calls the process of removing a child from his home and placing him in foster care ̶0;difficult and stressful.̶1; However, while some 30 percent of children in foster care have emotional, physical, behavioral and developmental problems, AACAP claims that most also ̶0;show remarkable resiliency and determination to go on with their lives.̶1; The challenges children in foster care tend to face are long term, according to the AACAP, include blaming themselves for their removal from their primary home, feeling unwanted, developing mixed emotions about their growing attachments to foster parents, and having insecurity about the future.

Becoming a Foster Parent

• There are more children in need of temporary homes than parents available to help, according to National Foster Care Month, a partnership of various child advocate organizations that work together to continue encouraging the nation to see May as national foster care month. If you̵7;re interested, check with your state̵7;s Department of Social Services. The rules for becoming a foster parent vary from state to state.

  In general, states look for people with a strong desire to help children who can devote the time and space needed to bring a child into their home. When working to become a foster parent, expect that a social worker will ask you to provide detailed answers to questions about your home and family, as this information is needed to determine if foster parenting is right for you. If you are approved to care for foster children, you will receive a reimbursement from the state to cover the daily living needs of the child.