Prospective or current kinship caregivers can pursue foster home verification if they are interested in supporting a child in DFPS custody who is placed in their care, regardless of the child’s permanency plan. Becoming a verified foster home provides additional financial assistance while caring for a child. However, foster care placements are meant to be a temporary arrangement until the permanency plan can be achieved for the child. 

Kinship Foster Home Verification Requirements 

To become a kinship foster home, you must successfully complete the “verification” process. You must pass extensive criminal and child protective services background checks, as well as other minimum standards. 

Below are some things you should ask yourself to decide if foster home verification is the right path: 

• Are you at least 21 years old and a responsible, mature adult? 
• Do you have steady income? 
• Will you complete an application with the help of CPS staff? 
• Will you share information about your background and lifestyle through a home screening? 
• Will you provide references from relatives and friends? 
• If you are married or divorced, can you show proof? 
• If you are married, are you and your spouse both willing to become foster parents? 
• Do you have a high school diploma or a GED, or can you pass a test that includes basic reading, writing, and math? 
• Can you agree to a home screening that includes interviews with everyone who lives in your home? 
• Will you and all people in your house, age 14 and older, submit to a criminal history and a child abuse and neglect history check? 
• Will you submit fingerprints for FBI criminal history checks for all adults, 18 years and older, in your house? 
• Will you attend 25 to 35 hours of training to learn about abuse and neglect and how it affects children? 

Other things to consider: 

• Do you have enough sleeping space? 
• Will you agree not to use physical discipline?
• Will your home likely pass fire, health, and safety inspections? 
• Are your pets vaccinated or are you willing to get them vaccinated? 
• Will you learn CPR and first aid and become certified? 
• Will you and all other people in your house be screened for tuberculosis (TB)? 

If you answered yes to these questions, you may be eligible for foster home verification. If you have questions or concerns about the verification process, contact the child’s caseworker, your kinship development worker, DFPS Foster/Adoptive Home Development staff, or a private child placing agency.

 A list of Child Placing Agencies can be found here: https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/ Child_Care/Search_Texas_Child_Care/ ppFacilitySearchFoster.asp [sic, broken link].

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