Foster Parent in Montgomery County

[Anonymous]

I'm thinking about becoming a foster parent.

Has anyone gone through this process? Any tips or advice to share?

[Anonymous]

Yes, in MoCo, four years ago. Its a guided process, with 24 hours of classroom instruction in Rockville (8 sessions of 3 hours from 6:30 to 9:30pm on Mondays and Wednesdays for 4 weeks). You will need to have a home study for foster parenting, and there are different types of foster care depending on the needs of the child(ren) and their circumstances. We were foster parents for two years before adopting the toddler we were raising. MoCo offers a lot of support, including from other foster parents in the county. We loved the social worker assigned to us, and remain good friends to this day. I remember that an educational session is offered for anyone living in the county who wants to become a foster parent. In 2013, when we took the training, there were 270 kids in foster care in MoCo. Across this country there are a lot of kids - more than 400,000 - in foster care.

[Anonymous]

Reviving this thread to see if anyone else has information to share. I am not the OP but also considering foster parenting in MoCo and curious to hear more about the experience. Particularly from people who have young children (Elem school age bio-kid) in their home and who work outside of the home (both mother and father).

[Anonymous]

didn't foster in MoCo but elsewhere. The conventional wisdom is to maintain birth order, so only foster kids younger than your bio kid. I would make sure you have separate bedrooms for bio and foster kids.

Work--my spouse and I both worked FT while fostering and it was HARD. School registration, doctor's appointments, evaluations, therapy, phone calls to and visits from caseworker, court visits, visitations with bio family, IEP meetings, dealing with Medicaid, etc. Whether it works for you depends a lot on how flexible your jobs are, what other support systems you have, how you tolerate stress, and what kid you get (which you won't know in advance--the workers either don't know or won't say a whole lot; their goal is to get the kids placed asap). I am a pretty anxious person and if we foster again, it will be with one parent SAH with the potential to look for work again after a kid is adopted or very settled in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:didn't foster in MoCo but elsewhere. The conventional wisdom is to maintain birth order, so only foster kids younger than your bio kid. I would make sure you have separate bedrooms for bio and foster kids.

Work--my spouse and I both worked FT while fostering and it was HARD. School registration, doctor's appointments, evaluations, therapy, phone calls to and visits from caseworker, court visits, visitations with bio family, IEP meetings, dealing with Medicaid, etc. Whether it works for you depends a lot on how flexible your jobs are, what other support systems you have, how you tolerate stress, and what kid you get (which you won't know in advance--the workers either don't know or won't say a whole lot; their goal is to get the kids placed asap). I am a pretty anxious person and if we foster again, it will be with one parent SAH with the potential to look for work again after a kid is adopted or very settled in.

This is very good advice. They forgot therapy appointments as well.