Deciding to open your heart and home to foster children is a life-changing decision. Once the decision is made, you’ll need to navigate some paperwork and screening steps. One of these is completing a foster care home study. Its primary goal is assessing your home to ensure that you have a safe and supportive space for a foster child.
The more prepared you are, the more at ease you will be. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your home is prepared for the home study.
Enough Space?
Most states do not have a specific square footage per person guideline, though it is generally accepted that a home should be large enough to provide a foster child with adequate room for living, eating, study and play safely.
Safety First
The first concern, once you are certain you have the space for a foster child, is to make sure the home is safe for foster children. Foster homes must comply with all state and local zoning, building and fire safety codes. So, if you know something needs fixing, now is the time before your foster home inspection. In addition to codes and housing regulations, here are some items to consider:
· Ensure all your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, and fire extinguishers are functioning properly and are up to code.
· If you have stairs, make sure there are gates to protect small children from falling.
· Make sure firearms and medications are properly locked up and well out of reach.
· Confirm your home is free of lead paint.
· Place knives and hazardous/poisonous items out of the reach of children.
· Child proof your home as if you were preparing for an infant or toddler—with proper electrical covers, corner protectors and cabinet/drawer safety latches.
Bedroom Prep
Inspection of bedroom space is a key component of a home inspection to ensure that there is an adequate, safe bedroom available for a foster child. To demonstrate you are ready for a foster child:
· Set up the bedrooms you plan to use so that they are not just empty rooms.
· Set up an appropriately sized bed.
· If you are open to a wide age range for foster care, demonstrate that you can set up an appropriately sized bed. This might look like having a twin bed in the room but having a pack-n-play or crib ready to assemble should a younger child be placed in your home.
· Have a plan and space for storing clothing in the bedrooms.
Declutter
Your home does not have to be immaculately neat and clean for an approved home study. You should, however, make sure your home is free of excessive clutter. Decluttering your home will make the space feel warm and inviting to a child in a new place.
Make sure your home is in the condition you prefer when company comes for a visit—clean enough that you feel comfortable and guests won’t be distracted by it during a visit.
Phone Available
Foster children must have access to a phone for emergencies and contact calls with family unless arrangements are made with the case worker. A foster home is required to have a phone that is accessible to foster children. Many agencies require this phone to be a landline phone; others allow a house cell phone instead.
Web Protection
Make sure your home Internet access is set up in such a way that adult sites, adult videos, and other offensive content inaccessible to children. This may require purchasing screen accountability software or some other service.
Fire Safe
Prepare a written fire evacuation plan, a drawn-out map of your house (pictures are better for foster children who are non-readers), that labels all exit routes from every room of the home. This plan should be posted in an obvious and visible place in the home and reviewed regularly with everyone in the home.
Place fire extinguishers on every level of your home and be sure that one is readily accessible in your kitchen area.
Pet Patrol
You can have pets in an approved foster home, but it’s important to remember that pets can trigger control issues and harmful behaviors for some foster children. Be sure pets are contained in a safe space and plan to separate your pets from your foster children if necessary.
Since some foster children have pet allergies, so understand that these children will not be placed with pet owners.
