Foster Parenting  

Questions about Foster Children

Who are the foster children?

Children in foster care have histories of abuse, neglect, severe medical problems, and/or delinquency and are currently unable to live at home. The children, who range in age from infants to teenagers, are from a variety of ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.

Where do the foster children come from who are placed with CONCERN?

CONCERN’s Regional Offices serve the counties located within their area. CONCERN tries to place children within a reasonable distance of their birth families so that family visits can occur without traveling great distances.

How long do the children stay?

Ideally, foster care should not be for a long period. The overall goal of each placement should be to permanently place the child either back in his or her birth family or into an adoptive family.

In Pennsylvania, a Service Plan must be developed when a child is separated from his or her birth family. Within the Family Service Plan, goals must be set along with the expected times for accomplishing each goal. How long a child will need to remain away from his or her birth family depends upon a number of factors, including the child’s needs, as well as the needs of the family.

Each Service Plan is reviewed every six months. Some children stay a short time, others may need services for many years.

Who decides when the children may return home?

Children are court-ordered into the care of their counties, which then place the children with CONCERN. After carefully reviewing the child’s progress and the family’s progress, as well as recommendations of the county placing agency and CONCERN, a judge makes the decision to return the child to his or her birth family.

Questions about Foster Parenting

What is expected of a foster parent?

As members of their child’s treatment team, foster parents provide a stable, caring home environment while working closely with CONCERN staff members in following agency policies. An understanding and acceptance of the child’s birth family by the foster parents is very important, and is a key to helping the “whole child” while he or she is in placement with CONCERN.

How long does it take to become a foster parent?

At CONCERN, the foster home approval process involves at least two interviews in your home, completing an application and a foster parent profile, obtaining Act 33 (criminal and child abuse) and FBI Clearances, and 21 hours of pre-service training.
Most prospective foster parents are able to accomplish this process within 16 weeks. In Maryland, 24 hours of pre-service training are required and prospective foster parents can accomplish this in as little as 6 weeks.

How many children are placed with foster parents?

Foster parents can indicate how many children they would accept for placement. In accordance with Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare regulations, the total number of children under the age of 18 in the home (including biological children) may not be more than six. CONCERN, however, usually limits the number of foster children placed with a family to one or two.

May I adopt my foster child?

Most children who come into foster care at CONCERN are not available for adoption; foster care is a temporary treatment service and is not designed to take the place of child’s birth family. However, permanence for the child is the focus of treatment from both CONCERN’s and the placing agency’s viewpoint. For this reason, foster care-to-adoption is being considered a resource for a small percentage of children entering care. This percentage increases for children in care through CONCERN's Maryland office.

Do foster parents have to be married?

Although foster parents typically are married couples, there is a growing number of single foster parents. The ability to provide a stable, positive family environment for youngsters is more important than marital status.

Must foster parents own their home?

CONCERN has no restrictions regarding whether a foster home is owned or rented. However, the agency does recommend that foster parents who rent check with their landlord regarding restrictions in their lease and local occupancy ordinances.

Do foster parents earn money through foster care payments?

Yes! For many, foster care is considered a way of working at home. In the majority of CONCERN’s foster care programs, the daily rate paid by the agency to the foster parents is not only for the expense of providing room and board to the foster child, but is also a difficulty of care payment.

Who pays for the child’s clothing and medical expenses?

In Pennsylvania, foster parents are reimbursed for providing a certain amount of money each month for the child’s clothing, allowances, and activities.

In Maryland, foster parents are not reimbursed for their clothing expense or other items. These expenses are included in the per diem rates.

Medical expenses are paid for through either the Medical Assistance (Health Choices) program or the birth parent’s health insurance.

Questions about CONCERN

How does CONCERN provide support to foster parents?

CONCERN provides extensive support services to foster parents. Depending upon the foster care program, these services may include:

• a Caseworker for each child,
• a Family Worker for each Treatment home,
• a Social Work Supervisor to facilitate treatment team meetings,
• agency-paid respite care in some programs,
• ongoing training in parenting skills for foster parents,
• educational support services for dealing with school districts, and
• 24-hour/day, 7-day/week, on-call services.

How much training will I receive as a foster parent at CONCERN?

All foster parents in our Pennsylvania offices will receive 21 hours of Pre-Service Orientation training before a foster child may be placed in their home.

CONCERN utilizes a Tiered Training Model which is comprised of four unique and equally important levels: Foundational, Specialized, Advanced and Enrichment. Each level of training builds upon skills learned during the previous level. This system was designed to help foster parents understand the special needs of foster children and to learn methods of working with those needs in a professional, therapeutic manner. Parenting someone else’s child is very different from parenting your own children.

Note: In Maryland, each foster parent is required to complete 25 hours of Pre-Service Orientation training and 25 hours of training each year using the Tiered Training Model.

Click here for a printable Answers to Questions about Foster Care brochure

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