Dept. of Children and Family Services look to recruit additional foster families

Baton Rouge, LA — The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) announced that it’s seeking suitable families and individuals to serve as foster parents for the more than 4,300 children in Louisiana’s foster care system.

Currently, there are only 2,000 certified foster homes available in the state.

The agency’s ramped up push to recruit new families is in recognition of Foster Care Month, which takes place every May.

“To celebrate Foster Care Month, each May we make an extra push to recruit foster families,” said DCFS Secretary Suzy Sonnier. “Children do best in families. By having foster homes in all areas of the state, children in foster care can stay close to home and in the same school.”

Foster care is a protective service intended to provide temporary, short-term care for children who must live apart from their parents for any number of reasons including child abuse, neglect or special family circumstances requiring the need for out-of-home care.

DCFS recruits year-round for foster families who can provide loving homes and care for one or multiple children. According to DCFS, children in need of foster homes range in age from infants to teenagers, and vary in race and religion. DCFS also says that some “may have an emotional or physical illness, been neglected, abused or abandoned, or have experienced a breakdown in the family, or the death of a parent.”

While the primary goal is to reunite a child with his or her biological family, adoption is sometimes the outcome of foster care.

“DCFS is always looking for foster parents and there is especially a need for foster families that are willing and able to take larger sibling groups or children with special needs,” said Sonnier.

Applicants who are interested in becoming a foster parent must be at least 21 years old, have sufficient income to meet their own basic needs and be in good physical, emotional and mental health. A foster parent can be single, married, divorced or widowed.

Those interested in becoming a foster parent must first attend an orientation where information on the qualifications, the certification process and an overview of the agency is provided. Monthly orientations are held across the state.

To find out more about becoming a foster parent, visit www.dcfs.­la.gov/foster, and for the full 2015 orientation schedule, visit www.dcfs.la.gov/Orientation.

This article originally published in the May 18, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.