Foster Care

• Steps to Become a Foster/Adoptive Parent
• Service Levels for Foster Care
• Forms for Foster Parents
• Foster Parent Training
• Medical Consent Training for Non-DFPS Employees
• Requirements for Foster/Adopt Families
• Rights of Children and Youth in Foster Care
• Foster Care Reimbursements (also called 24-hour Residential Child-Care Reimbursements)
• Best Practice Guidelines for Psychotropic Medication
• Regional Statistical Information About Children in DFPS Care
• Regional Foster Care Billing Coordinators
• NEW: Fostering Connections

What is Foster Care

When children have to be placed outside their home, and there is not an appropriate non-custodial parent or relative willing and able to care for them and there are not any close family friends that the court can give temporary legal possession, the court will ask CPS to place the child temporarily in a foster care setting:

• a foster family home or group home that has been either
  • trained and verified by CPS,
  • licensed by DFPS' Office of Residential Child-Care Licensing (RCCL), or
  • verified by an RCCL-licensed child-placing agency
• a residential group care facility that has been licensed by RCCL; or
• a facility under the authority of another state agency.

Foster care is meant to be a temporary situation for a child until a permanent living arrangement can be obtained.

The foster care placement may become the permanent placement for the child, either as an adoptive home, as a home that has taken managing conservatorship of the child, or, if there are no other preferable options available, as a long term foster care placement.

Though CPS strives to ensure quality services for children placed in foster care, such children may experience various placement changes over time due to lack of permanency commitments, licensing standards violations, court rulings, or changes in the foster home/facility. CPS has a variety of initiatives designed to increase placement options in order to have a diverse range of choices to match to individual child needs.

Best Practice Guidelines for Psychotropic Medications

The Texas Department of State Health Services has created best practice guidelines for the use of psychotropic medications. Psychotropic Medication Utilization Parameters for Foster Children was developed by a panel of child and adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, guideline development specialists, and other mental health experts. For more information, visit the Texas Department of State Health Services web site at:
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/mhprograms/psychotropicMedicationFosterChildren.shtm

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