Foster care falls into three main categories:

Traditional Foster Care

Traditional foster care refers to individuals who meet state training requirements and volunteer to provide care for children in state custody. These placements are typically temporary, intending to provide a safe, stable environment while plans are made for the child’s long-term care.

Ideally, children in traditional foster care will:

• Reunite with their birth family
• Be adopted by a permanent family
• Enter kinship care with a relative or close family friend

Kinship Care

A wide body of research supports the notion that children do best with kin and that family connections are vital to healthy child development, a sense of belonging, and the preservation of a child’s cultural identity and relationship to their community.

Kinship Care is defined as the full-time care, nurturing, and protection of a child by relatives, members of their tribe or clan, or godparents, stepparents, or other adults who have a family relationship with a child (often referred to as fictive kin).

Kinship Treatment Foster Care serves children and youth with treatment needs who are placed in out-of-home care with family members or fictive kin. To promote safety, stability, and permanency, families are provided access to the full training, services, and support available through treatment foster care.

Therapeutic & Treatment Foster Care

When a child or teen first enters foster care, their emotional and behavioral needs may not yet be fully understood. If they appear to need only basic care, structure, and encouragement, they are placed in foster care with the county they reside in.

However, if further assessment shows the child has emotional, behavioral, or medical needs that require more specialized care, they may be placed in a therapeutic foster care home. Foster parents in these homes receive additional training and support to help meet those needs.

For example, Shineforth’ Treatment Foster Care Program serves teens and sibling groups who benefit from more structured care and consistent emotional support.

Within Shineforth’ treatment foster care program, expert staff work closely with foster parents to care for older children and siblings with particular behavioral, physical, and emotional needs. Typically, these children have:

• Been in the foster care system for many years
• Already experienced multiple placements
• Experienced separation from their natural support systems

To meet these needs and provide adequate care, foster parents in the program are provided with both initial and ongoing education, with specific training focusing on:

• Trauma-informed care
• The Whole-Brain Child
• Collaborative problem-solving
• High Fidelity Wrap-Around Services

Parents are also offered 24/7 support, continuing mentorship, group support, and access to respite periods during foster placements.

Is Foster Care Right for You?

Foster families are greatly needed, both in Virginia and across the country. At its core, becoming a foster parent is providing a safe and supportive haven for a child who needs stability and security. While being a foster parent might test your physical and emotional resources, you will also have the incredible reward of significantly impacting a young person’s life.

The positive effect you make will boomerang back to you in ways you might not even realize for a while. Many foster parents say it’s one of the most rewarding challenges they’ve ever experienced.

How Do I Become a Foster Parent?

Providing a safe and secure home for a child or a sibling group in need can be a rewarding experience—but it can also be very challenging. To become a foster parent, it’s crucial that you not only can house a child or children and support them financially but also have the time and emotional space to support their needs.

To be considered for approval as a foster parent or family, there are specific training requirements that applicants complete. For easy reference, here’s a snapshot of the foster parent eligibility requirements: