Kinship Placements

We know that children do better in foster care when connections to their siblings, their extended families and their communities are protected.  

Family to Family works alongside CPS to support family members and kin in caring for children in the foster care system. If you have been asked by CPS to provide care to a child you know whose parents are struggling, we are here for you! 

Some important information about kinship care:

• The first few weeks of placement can often be the easiest, as children settle into your home. With time, children begin to process their hurt - often through behaviors that are difficult to manage or potentially harmful. Let us help you prepare for what’s ahead!
• Visits with siblings or parents often create stress in our kinship homes. You care about the welfare and success of both your foster child and his or her parents. You want to support contact, but many times foster children react to these visits with difficult behaviors. We are here to help.
• Your foster child may be involved with systems that you are not familiar with. We have expertise in helping you navigate public assistance, special education, mental health, family court and juvenile justice systems.   
• Self-care is a must!  We understand how tiring it may be to care for children with trauma. We are here to help you develop self-care practices that give you energy for caregiving.
• You will need to become a licensed foster home in order to receive a foster care stipend for the child/children in your home. With a foster home license, you will be able to maintain the stipend in situations where you become the permanent, legal guardian or adoptive parent to your foster child.

Traditional Foster Care

We believe foster care can be a positive force for children when placements are stable and address underlying trauma. If you have a heart for service and want to open your home to children in need, Family to Family commits to doing all that we can to make this happen.  

As a foster home with Family to Family, you will be asked to consider a variety of placements. Sometimes, we need a foster home to care for a child just for a day or two until another long-standing placement is available. Sometimes, we need a foster home to accept a child directly into care without much knowledge of the child’s needs. Many times, we need a foster home to commit to a foster child whose future return to a biological parent or family member is uncertain. In these instances, you will be asked to provide care and love for many months while also working with CPS to support an eventual return to family. 

As you can see, foster care can be challenging! In all these situations, Family to Family commits to supporting your family and communicating transparently about case goals. Our professional staff includes experts who have previously

• provided foster care to children in their own homes. We have literally been in your shoes. We don’t just “talk the talk” -  we have walked the walk! We know what it takes to provide a nurturing home environment to children with trauma and are happy to share our experiences with you.
• worked for CPS, family courts and other systems you will interact with. We know how to navigate these systems to ensure positive outcomes for our families.
• adopted children with trauma from foster care and raised them successfully. We approach the children and families we serve with this end in mind: what does this child need now in order to eventually become a healthy adult? 

Foster-to-Adopt

At Family to Family, our many years of experience working in foster care help us identify those cases that may become “legal risk” placements. This means that the infant or child in care is equally or more likely to become available for adoption than to return to parents or other members of his or her biological family.

It is important for you to understand that legal risk placements are designed to benefit the foster child by having a placement that could provide permanency while CPS continues to work with family members on reunification. Many times, CPS will attempt reunification with family members prior to seeking termination of parental rights. 

If you want to adopt from the foster care system and are willing to care for foster children who are identified as “legal risk” placements, Family to Family promises to represent your intentions clearly to CPS and communicate transparently with you about case developments.

Respite Providers

Want to get your feet wet as a foster parent? Have extra time to commit to a child in need but are hesitant to assume full-time caregiving? Want to be part of solving foster care’s chronic shortage of foster homes?

A large, unmet need in our foster care system is families willing to provide a few days to a few weeks of respite to licensed foster families. There are many times that foster families just need a break from the challenges of foster care to attend to other family or personal needs. Sometimes a short-term placement outside the foster home allows families to re-group and maintain the stability of a foster care placement. 

Respite foster care directly benefits foster children by providing them with opportunities to connect with caring adults, engage in enrichment activities, and maintain stable placements. Successful respite homes are flexible about timing, quick to adapt to children’s needs, and responsive to reading children’s cues.

We encourage you to consider becoming a respite provider. You can determine how frequently you provide respite, what age range you can accommodate, whether you are able to provide regularly-scheduled respite care to the same child or respond to ad hoc requests from our agency, and how you spend your time with a foster child during respite care.

Legally free adoption from foster care

When children in foster care become available for adoption, CPS first considers if their current foster family is interested in adoption. When that is not the case, CPS notifies Texas agencies of the need for adoptive placement and requests submission of home studies to consider.

If you have an adoption home study on file with us and the child in question meets your placement preferences, we will contact you to discuss possible placement.  When families desire to be considered for placement, Family to Family will advocate for you, representing you to CPS and advocating for your ability to provide a permanent, loving home to the identified child.  We will work with your family to secure placement, offer post-placement monitoring and support before finalization and continue our relationship through our post-adoption, after care program.  

In order to adopt a legally free child from foster care in Texas, you must first have an adoption home study that demonstrates your ability to provide trauma-informed care. We can work with you on developing this home study through our Adoption Program or we can accept a home study written by another agency, as long as it meets the State of Texas criteria for home study evaluations. Using our many decades of experience working with CPS in Texas, Family to Family can help you fulfill your goal of adopting from foster care with a placement that is right for your family.

For more information about initiating an adoption home study with our agency, please see our ADOPTIVE FAMILY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA. If you already have an adoptive home study and would like more information about adopting a legally free child from Texas foster care, please contact us at 281-342-4042 to learn more about the process.