Foster Parents are Needed in Washington, DC

Foster Care Should Be Temporary

Every child deserves a permanent home.

Be a REUNITING Foster Parent

All children entering foster care are positioned to return to their birth families if possible. Foster parents are a temporary safe haven for children, as permanent placement such as adoption or returning home is worked out. Children should not spend their entire adolescence moving from one foster home to another, and with your help, they won’t have to. As a reuniting foster parent, you will provide a temporary home while supporting the child’s reunification with birth parents, kin family, or an adoptive family if necessary. If you decide to adopt the child when there is an opportunity, that is great, too! What matters is that the child is safe and able to be placed in a permanent home. With your help, children can grow up with their families or find a permanent placement with an adoptive family.

Are you ready
for the next step?

5 Steps to Success!

  1. Take the readiness quiz

  2. Schedule a meeting with our recruiter

  3. Become a licensed foster parent in DC

  4. Open your heart and home to a child in foster care, understanding your temporary role

  5. Communicate often with social workers, birth parents, kin family, or adoptive prospects to assist in permanent transition for the child

Why Reunification?

Research shows that a consistent, supportive birth home can contribute positively to a child's emotional well-being and overall development, while the instability of the foster care system greatly impacts the well-being of the child. Birth parents who lose their children to the foster care system are given the necessary steps to gain their children back but often lack the encouragement and emotional support to achieve those steps. As a reuniting foster parent, you can help by maintaining open communication with the birth parents and child welfare system in hopes of encouraging reunification. If reunification is not possible, kin family is the next option, and if that is not possible, then adoption by you or another family. You can help stabilize youth until they enter their permanent home.