Interested in fostering a child? Get the FAQs!
Over the years, our foster care specialists have met a lot of prospective foster parents and there are certain questions that seem to come up time and time again. We've compiled a list of the most frequently asked questions we get about foster care and had our specialists answer them in our latest blog series: The FAQs About Foster Care. Read part 1 of our series for information on fostering while single, expectations of foster parents, negotiating contact with your foster placement's biological parents and more!
There are many reasons a child would be removed from their parents and placed in a foster home. Often when a child is placed in foster care, it is because their home is unsafe, they have experienced abuse or neglect, or because the family is experiencing an extreme crisis (ex. the death of the child’s primary caregiver(s)).
Yes! Child Crisis Arizona has worked successfully with many single foster parents.
Foster parents typically do what parents do for their children with a few additional duties. Responsibilities of a foster parent include:
Yes, possibly. It is helpful to the child(ren) to see the adults in their lives working cooperatively. There is usually a requirement for all foster parents to have some form of communication with birth parents. Every foster child is supported by a team of agency professionals who work together to determine what is in the best interests of the child and to ensure that the child’s needs are being met. For the majority of foster children, the case plan goal is to reunite the foster child with their parents as soon as it is safe to do so. As a foster parent, you are an integral part of that team, which may include working with the child’s parents by supporting their efforts toward a safe, stable reunification.
The length of a foster child’s stay in a foster home varies depending on the situation of the foster child. While some foster placements last a short time, for example until a suitable relative is located, other placements could last months or even years. Each child’s case is unique.
Marcia Reck is the Director of Emergency Children’s Services (which includes the Emergency Children’s Shelter, Foster Care & Adoption programs) at Child Crisis Arizona. She started with the agency 15 years ago and has been the Program Director for the last 13 years. During her tenure, Child Crisis Arizona's foster care program has tripled in size! Marcia's favorite thing about her job is being able to provide training and support to foster and adoptive families as they make a difference in the lives of the children in their homes.
