The length of time depends on the agency through which you choose to become licensed. Each agency has different training schedules and requirements. This is a question to ask the agencies you are considering.

Foster youth may share space with biological youth but their are age and space restrictions around this.

Yes, the requirements are as follows:

§749.3021. How much space must bedrooms used by foster children have?

Subchapter O, Foster Homes: Health and Safety Requirements, Environment, Space and Equipment Division 4, Space and Equipment January 2007

• Medium (a) A bedroom must have at least 40 square feet of space for each occupant and no ore than four occupants per bedroom are permitted, even if the square footage of the room would accommodate more than four occupants. The four occupants restriction does not apply to children receiving treatment services for primary medical needs.
• Medium (b) Single occupant bedrooms must have at least 80 square feet of floor space.
• Medium-Low (c) The floor =space requirement must not include closets or other alcoves.
• Medium (d) Floor space must be space that children can use for daily activities.
• No Weight (e) If a foster home was verified before January 2007, then a foster home is exempt from the maximum bedroom occupancy requirements until: (1) The foster family moves to a new home; (2) The foster home is structurally altered by adding a new room; or (3) The foster home's verification is not longer valid.

Absolutely! Your foster children should be treated as a member of your family while they are in your home. Vacations do need approval from the child's permanency specialist, but we certainly hope to promote normalcy for your foster youth while they live in your home.

Visitation with biological parents is scheduled through the child's permanency specialist.

This depends on the move. How far was the move? Do you still have the same community/supports?

Yes, a newborn is a major life change. Your baby should be at least one year old before you consider becoming licensed to foster.

Relatives and other people with whom the child or family have a significant relationship often can provide stability when children can't live with their birth parents. Kinship placement can serve as a temporary foster placement or a long-term adoption, based on the status of the case.

The primary way we support and care for foster families is through the formation of wraparound teams that meet the tangible needs of each of our foster families. Wrap teams usually consist of 10-12 adults who each commit to consistently provide a specific form of support to a specific family.

Wrap teams meet tangible needs of the family to gift the foster parents with more time to care for their kids. When a child enters a family through the foster care system, that child brings with them complicated behaviors and emotions resulting from the trauma of being removed from their home and being placed with an unfamiliar family. The burden on families to appropriately care for these kids can be daunting. There are extra medical appointments, therapy appointments, court appearances, meetings with DCS, birth family visitations and a myriad of other demands on top of everyday parenting responsibilities.

You can wrap around a family in the following ways:

• Provide laundry support twice a week, with another team member (2 volunteers once a week each).
• Volunteer to pick up and deliver groceries (pre-ordered and paid for by the foster family) or run errands (usually once a week).
• Join a meal team of 4 people who take turns providing a meal for the family once a week (each member provides a meal a month).
• Provide relief care, consisting of watching all the children in the household one night a month to allow the foster parents to have a "date night" for the health of their marriage. Relief care teams always consist of 2 volunteers every time children are watched. 

All potential volunteers will need to attend a brief training session, fill out a volunteer application, provide personal/professional references, and will need to go through ministrysafe training and pass a background check.  They will also have an interview with an ABC ministry leader.

While there is no specific length of time a volunteer needs to commit to, this is a relational ministry, and the hope is that each volunteer would feel a longer term commitment to serve their family.