Sometimes children are abused or neglected and it is not safe for them to stay at home. When this happens, family courts transfer their custody to the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF).

Some children, but most often teens, come into DCF custody because they’ve either committed a delinquent act or they are without or beyond their parents’ control.

In all of these situations, the state needs to find safe, nurturing places for the children to live while they can’t be at home. This is called foster care. While it is not a magical cure-all, foster care is a time-proven way of helping children and families in need.

Note: Most children who come into DCF custody return home to their parents.

Providing Foster Care
Foster parents open their hearts and homes to children in need—for a few weeks, months, years, and sometimes a lifetime.

They also:

• Help children to heal.

• Accept and nurture the children that enter their homes—unconditionally.

• Support efforts to reunite children with their parents.

• Support the parents through a difficult time.

• Provide the parents with time to focus on themselves and the work they need to do to parent their children safely.

• Frequently provide children who cannot safely return home with permanent families. In fact, most children who become freed for adoption in Vermont are adopted by their foster parents.

In addition to regular foster care, there are also special types of foster care:

Emergency Foster Care
Emergency foster parents provide homes for children with little advance notice; they are often called after hours or on weekends. These placements are usually for a couple of days, but can sometimes be for longer periods.

Kinship Foster Care
Kinship foster parents provide foster care for relatives or for children with whom they share a family-like bond.

Legal-Risk Foster Care
Legal-risk foster parents agree up front to provide children with permanent homes if DCF determines that the children cannot safely return home.

Independent-Living Foster Care
Independent-living foster parents provide care for older teens. They are more like big sisters/big brothers than parents, guiding and supporting the teens as they move towards becoming independent and living on their own.

Specialized Foster Care
Specialized foster parents have advanced training and skills; they provide care for children who have special needs that require a higher level of supervision and more sophisticated intervention strategies.

Help children and families in your community.
Become a foster parent!