Programs

Foster Care and Adoption

All Church Home is a licensed foster care and adoption provider through the state of Texas.

Foster Care

ACH partners with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TDFPS) to provide temporary placements for children who are abused or neglected and unable to live with their parents or families. These children have often been victims of physical, sexual or psychological abuse or neglect. The ultimate goal of foster care is to provide the child with a safe and nurturing environment with the services that he/she needs and then to transition the child to a more permanent situation with either a return to their biological family or another family member or when that is not possible to an adoptive home.

All Church Home screens, assesses, trains and licenses foster parents to meet the physical, cultural, emotional and spiritual needs of the children in their care. ACH matches the needs of youth to the resources and strengths of the individual foster family to promote a positive foster care experience for both the child and the foster home.

Like parenting, foster parenting has challenges, but is also highly rewarding. Most rewarding is to help a child during a difficult time in his/her life and through your unconditional love bring them renewed trust and hope.

Earning Respect

As a foster parent with ACH, you will be treated as a professional caregiver and respected member of a team making important decisions about a child’s life. You will be assigned to a Foster Care Specialist who will help you secure needed services for the child placed in your home including but not limited to: medical/dental services, educational services, recreational services and therapeutic services. Your assigned specialist will provide you with the technical and clinical support that you need in order to help you be successful with the children placed in your home.

Serving Your Community

As a “community foster parent,” you will help care for your community’s most precious resource – its children.

Full- or Part-Time Foster Parenting

All Church Home recruits homes to provide either full-time foster parenting or part-time foster parenting, known as respite care. Respite care is crucial to retaining good foster parents and preventing foster parent burnout. Licensed foster parents can only utilize approved caregivers to watch the children when they need a break, deal with a family emergency or just to have a night to themselves every once in a while.

You can become a part of this effort by providing foster care as it meets your schedule. All licensing and qualification standards are the same as full-time foster parenting.

Qualifications

• Capacity to love and nurture children

• Can be married, single or divorced

• High School Diploma or GED

• 21 years old or older

• Legal US resident

• Texas driver’s license, proof of insurance and dependable vehicle

• Must have a working telephone

• In good or well-managed health

• Maintain financial self-sufficiency

• Have adequate sleeping space

• Stability – No major transitions within the last year

• Demonstrate an open and accepting attitude of persons from different cultures, family backgrounds and life experiences with openness to long-term and short-term care

• Recommend participation in a faith community

Licensing

For either full- or part-time foster parenting, licensing is required. Licensing can take two to four months and consists of the following:

• Application and orientation to the organization

• Criminal background, child abuse history and fingerprint checks

• Reference checks

• Good health statements, including a cleared drug and TB screen

• Vaccinate all pets annually

• Fire and health inspections of your home

• 30 hours of pre-service training

• 8 hours of observation with an experienced foster/adoptive parent or at a licensed residential facility

• Home study

• Maintain annual training requirements

Adoption

ACH is a licensed provider for adoption services with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

If you are a licensed foster parent in good standing, then you meet the majority of the requirements for adoption.

Foster parent adoptions are supported by ACH when the child is legally free for adoption and Child Protective Services has exhausted the search for viable family members to care for the child. ACH can verify your home as an adoptive home should you choose to adopt the child who you have been fostering and is now legally free for adoption.

ACH does not charge families to complete an adoption. However the family is responsible for the attorney and court fees associated with finalizing the adoption. If the child qualifies for an adoption subsidy through the state and/or federal government, the attorney and court fees can be reimbursed as part of the subsidy.

ACH will continue to provide services to your family until the time that your adoption is consummated. At that time post-adoption services are available to any family who has legally finalized the adoption of a child under 18 years of age who was in the custody of TDFPS.

For more information, email fostercare@allchurchhome.org or call 817.886.7140.

 

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