We are so excited you’re thinking of becoming a resource parent, also known as a foster parent, for a child in need! It’s one of the most rewarding things you can do with your time, home, and love. But we also understand it’s a process to become one and you have questions about how long it takes to become a foster parent.

Timeline Overview

• Complete the general orientation
• Family Social Worker provides paperwork for fingerprinting
• Fingerprint clearance
• Set up access for and begin trainings
• Begin interview process and home study
• Submit paperwork

Typically, it takes 60 to 90 days to certify a family to become foster parents, but we’ve also been able to certify some within about a month. Keep in mind, each situation is unique and will have varying factors that will affect how long it takes to gain certification. The main parts include a home study and interviews, paperwork, finger printing, and trainings. All these pieces have their own components that can shorten or lengthen the process.

Fingerprinting

Fingerprinting is a part of the background check in the certification process and can take more or less time depending on the family. We don’t move forward with trainings and interviews until all fingerprinting is cleared because you can’t become a foster parent without that clearance.

Each adult that will be caring for the foster child, including backup caregivers, must be fingerprinted. The speed of approval will be affected by how quickly the adults can be fingerprinted and if there are any notifications from the Department of Justice (DOJ) or FBI databases on a set of fingerprints. An alert from either of these organizations is not an automatic disqualification in the process, but it will need to be addressed to move forward.

Criminal Background Checks

Sometimes a potential foster parent’s background check will raise a flag that the foster agency will need to investigate. An example of a situation that may cause a flag on a background check is driving without a license 20 years in the past. Typically, instances like these can be waived with a “self-exemption”. Usually, they take four to six weeks, sometimes longer, to process and the potential foster parent may need to communicate their case with the DOJ or FBI to get the approval needed. 

Paperwork

Some examples of the paperwork necessary to become a certified foster parent are, housing documents like homeowners’ insurance, or if renting, a letter from the landlord stating it’s okay for the family or resident to become a foster parent. Identity related documents like driver’s licenses and social security numbers are standard. Financial documentation is very important to show for proof that the foster parent can support themselves without the stipend provided from foster care. There is more paperwork, but these are a few of the main ones.

Your local foster agency will assign you a social worker to help you get through this process. If you believe any of these may be an issue for you, please talk with us as we’ve been able to provide resources that have helped people become foster parents when they previously thought they wouldn’t be able to.

Home Studies

The home study is the largest part of the process generally taking about 30 days to complete the interview portion. The interviews themselves can last anywhere from a couple to several hours depending on which one it is.

To help maximize the use of time, foster agencies may simultaneously try to have prospective foster parents involved in their pre-approval trainings while interviews and the home study are occurring. All the steps are interconnected and sometimes the home study results in changes needing to be made to the house. All changes will be communicated to the prospective foster parents and your social worker can help troubleshoot any problems and provide resources depending on what is needed.

Here is one example of having to update a home to be ready for foster care. This home had a power box in one of the bedrooms. For safety reasons, that box needed to be moved from the potential foster child’s room or the foster child would have to stay in a different room. The resource parent was an electrician and was able to move the electric box to another room.

The changes are not always this large. The length of time it takes to become certified as a foster parent will be dependent on how quickly any changes can be made, as well as how quickly fingerprinting is completed for us to be able to conduct interviews.

Trainings

Some of the required trainings are connected to the home study and some are done on the prospective foster parent’s own time. For example, the home environment assessment is the evaluation that their physical home meets all the requirements of the Interim Licensing Standards Regulations. However, this can’t happen until after the First Aid and CPR trainings have been completed.

At Victor, we are dedicated to supporting resource families as they navigate the challenges and unique experiences of the fostering journey. We're here to assist you in any way we can, ensuring that you have what you need to create a loving and stable home for children in your care.

We can’t promise it will be the easiest road, but it is a very rewarding one. To be able to see a child from where they start to where they grow to be, makes all the paperwork worth it. These kids need understanding. They need role modeling. They need love. They need people to be concerned about them. For more information on becoming a foster parent, contact a local foster agency to discover the resources and support they offer.

For more information about our programs and how we can help, visit our website or contact us today.