The Goal of Foster Care, Kinship Care, & Adoption
is to provide a safe and nurturing home and environment for as long as is necessary. Whether the goal is to return home safely, live with kin, find a foster family, move into a permanent family through adoption, or make the transition into independent living, Foster Texas is licensed to facilitate.
Foster Parenting
Foster Texas is licensed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to verify foster or adoptive homes in order to place children who have been removed from their families by the Department of Family & Protective Services because of abuse and/or neglect. The fostering time frame can be as short as a few days to one year (or perhaps more), depending on the progress toward the permanent outcome.
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Kinship Foster Care
Helping children stay within their extended family kin or fictive kin (someone with a close relationship to the child) rather than living with strangers is a very viable option for children who have been removed from their biological home until they can return..
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Adoption
Foster to Adopt
Not all children can return home or be placed with extended family. When children in foster care need adoption, most often their foster parents are given the first opportunity to be their adoptive family.
Matched Adoption
When children in foster care cannot return home or be placed with extended family, and are not adopted by their foster care providers, they need a new adoptive family. Couples and single adults can be approved for adoption. Texas Adoption Resource Exchange (TARE) is a website that helps children legally available for adoption in Texas locate their new adoptive family. Our adoption team has years of experience helping families locate children to adopt on the TARE website.
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Legal Risk
A hybrid of foster care and matched adoption can be a solution when a child needs a new family that is open to considering adoption if the child becomes legally available for adoption. The placement is made in foster care with the long-term plan being adoption by the same family.
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Kinship Adoption
When children cannot return home, their extended family can apply to adopt them.
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Permanent Foster Care
& Transition to Independent Living
Sometimes, because of special needs, age of the child, and/or other mitigating factors, finding a permanent family for a child may not be realized. In this event a foster family may commit to help the child develop skills and relationships to transition into adulthood with the responsibilities that accompany that outcome. Fortunately, if the young adult is gainfully employed and/or is actively enrolled in continuing education, Foster Texas can continue to provide support to the foster family that has made the commitment until the 22nd birthday of the young adult.
Community-Based Care & Services
Appropriate supports, selected from a vast number of community services, are desperately needed for helping children and families in crisis, including but certainly not limited to the following: drug and alcohol rehab, counseling, psychiatric, psychological, residential, hospital, crisis hotlines, employment, educational, etc. These support services may be provided directly by Foster Texas or subcontracted through community provisions.
Additional Foster Texas Programs
​RESPITE FOSTER CARE
short term foster care lasting up to 2 weeks for support of foster families and children in care
EMERGENCY FOSTER CARE
temporary care lasting up to 30 days for children in crisis