Ben there on both sides. Fostered for 3.5 years, sometimes the foster parent has no choice in times that others have access to kids but other times they do.

I have also had foster kids in care and sometimes the telephone affect does not work well and you need to talk directly to the DCS when they pick up.

Start off by confirming with DCS what time to expect them. Make them sign the child out and back in. Inspect the child for injuries when they return in front of DCS. Have them Text you when they arrive (use that as sign in and out if you want to, have them Text drop off/ pick up with child's name -- you could do a group text with Dcm),. Make sure you have their number and text them if the are running late. (I had a dcs get lost on her way back)

As for hours, I limit the number of hours to 9.5 for all clients unless they can show that commuting will take longer. Since she is home you could cut her back to 8 with a new policy that states Families on FMLA are limited to 8 hours per day, all the rest is 9 hours unless more time is needed for commute. This means that you will not have a dedicated stop and start time but each family my have there own.

Also when I was a foster parent, never did I ever have the ad litem or anyone else ever need to visit the day care. They all came to my house to visit the kids.

Remember, each family is going to be different and another foster family could be in it for the kids and not the money. You may end up with a foster Dcm like I had last year. The kids were here for 8.5 hours while she worked. The only time she wasn't working was because she had some things to do concerning them like going to court.


One last thing, be prepared to start talking about DCB leaving at the beginning of May, at least 30 before you expect him to leave. So Dcm knows that the spot is filled, just in case going home is delayed, there is a good chance that they will be delayed but Dcm may also have him moved too.

Reply