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QUALIFICATIONS
- Are at least 21 years old
- Are single, married, divorced, or widowed
- Own or rent your home
- Have adequate financial resources to maintain the home
- Can provide for the child’s physical, mental, and character development
- Have parenting experience or none at all
- Already have children in your home or not
THE PROCESS
People just like you provide foster care or adopt children every day. If you work with Colorado’s public child welfare system, you'll find that becoming a foster or adoptive parent is a straightforward process. Once you successfully complete these steps, you may be certified to foster a child in order to adopt.
Step 1: Attend the foster care/adoption program orientationStep 2: Complete and submit an applicationStep 3: Attend parent training classes sponsored by the county departments, private child placement agency, or the State of ColoradoStep 4: Participate in a comprehensive family assessment
Step 1: Orientation
You will attend an orientation with the county department or private child placement agency where you choose to pursue the family certification. Along with other prospective foster and adoptive parents, you'll learn:
- What foster care and adoption means and your roles and responsibilities as a parent
- About the children who are placed in out-of-home care (their backgrounds and ages)
- What the certification process involves, such as the application form, the possible costs, the required training classes, and the family assessment
- How the child’s caseworker and the foster care resource caseworkers will work with and support you and your family
- The necessary legal procedures
- About assistance and resources available to foster and adoptive parents
- About permanency, concurrent planning, and situations where children may be placed in a foster home for temporary care and later become legally free for adoption
Step 2: The Application
The Colorado Department of Human Services Application to Care For Children doesn't take long and is free to complete. The county department or private child placement agency where you choose to pursue the family certification will provide you with an application. Every applicant will have a Colorado and national background check for prior criminal and child abuse records.
Step 3: Training Classes
Foster and adoptive parents are required to attend training classes as part of the certification process. The classes are taught by experienced child welfare professionals. In addition to helping to prepare you and your family, the training covers topics including legal processes and issues, child growth and development, discipline, parenting and family dynamics, the importance of the team approach, working with the birth family, individual differences, as well as the challenges and the rewards of fostering and adopting.
Step 4: Family Assessment
A family assessment – also called a "home study" – is the process that helps us find appropriate families for the children who are in out-of-home care. Information is gathered through individual and joint interviews with a caseworker or another professional who will visit your home.
Here are some of the areas covered in the family assessment:
- Social history, background, personal characteristics, and values
- Problem solving and communication skills
- Parenting skills and family preparation
- Children and other people living in the home
- Family relationships and family support network
- Physical and social environment
- Demographics and birth family
1 All information taken from www.ChangeALifeForever.org, a Web site of the Department of Human Services
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