Understanding the Different Types of Foster Care Placements
What is foster care?
At the most basic level, it is a temporary arrangement for the care of a child when they are not able to live with their biological parents or other natural caregivers. Child welfare professionals and the court system intervene if it is determined a child is in need of care (CINC) if they are not receiving adequate parental care, control, or the necessary resources for their physical, mental, or emotional health. A child may also be classified as a CINC if they have been physically, mentally, or emotionally abused or neglected.
During this time, child welfare professionals work to find the best possible relative, foster family or other placement option for that child until they can safely return home or a permanency plan is identified. When many people think of foster care, they picture a single, generalized type of care arrangement. In reality, the foster care system offers several different types of placements designed to meet the varied needs of children in care. Understanding these options can help prospective foster parents identify where they might best help and prepare appropriately.
It is also important to understand that the large majority of children in foster care will have a case plan goal of returning to their biological parents as soon as it is safely possible.
Police Protect Custody - Emergency Placements
What They Are
Emergency placements occur when children need immediate removal from their homes due to safety concerns. Police Protect Custody (PPC) is a temporary placement of a child by law enforcement when they reasonably believe the child is in imminent danger, is a missing person, or is a victim of a crime. This placement cannot last more than 72 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, during which time the child is not yet in the custody of the Department of children and families.
Key Characteristics
Very short notice
Limited information about the child's history or needs
Placement is up to 72 hours, excluding weekends and holidays
High level of uncertainty for all involved
Child may be experiencing acute trauma and shock
A hearing must be held within this 72-hour period to determine the child's placement and if they will transition to DCF custody and placed into foster care.
What's Needed
Families who accept emergency placements need:
Flexibility and adaptability
Pre-prepared spaces for various age groups
Ability to manage uncertainty
Skills for addressing immediate trauma responses
Availability for quick-turnaround court dates
Emergency care providers play a critical role in creating safety during a child's most vulnerable transition time for safety assessments for police and child welfare professionals. Organizations like Joy Meadows support these families with immediate resources through programs like the Clothing Closet, providing essential items for children who often arrive with little to nothing.
Respite Care
What It Is
There are situations where planned short-term care is needed for children. Like any parenting situation, foster parents also need time to recharge from providing ongoing daily care to a child. Or there may also be times of personal need for travel that require foster families to go out of state without children placed in their care, or where there are health needs requiring a few days without children in their home.
Respite care provides short-term relief for primary foster parents, kinship and adoptive families. This is typically for a weekend or a few days. This type of care helps prevent burnout and placement disruptions by giving foster families and caregivers of those adopted from foster care needed breaks.
Key Characteristics
Planned, short-term placements
More information available about the child's needs and routines
Opportunity to support other foster or adoptive families
Lower long-term commitment but still significant impact
Can be a good starting point for those exploring fostering
Typically a few days up to two weeks maximum
What's Needed
Respite providers need:
Commitment to maintaining the child's routines and expectations
Good communication with the primary foster family
Flexibility for occasional emergency respite situations
Willingness to support the child's relationship with their primary foster family
Respite care providers are essential. In the best case scenario, respite homes can establish a consistent relationship with a particular child or family for recurring respite opportunities. This is the ideal situation so that children do not experience additional trauma by going to multiple strange homes in order for the caregiver to get respite. It helps them to help them feel safe and secure through predictable respite homes. It adds one more supportive, healthy adult relationship for a child on their path toward healing and permanency while allowing foster or adoptive parents to give children their best through taking needed breaks.
Traditional Foster Care
What It Is
Traditional foster care involves providing a home for a child while their parent(s) work toward reunification for an undetermined amount of time. These placements can last anywhere from a few months to a few years. The primary goal of foster care is almost always reunification with birth parents so foster parents should be committed to working in partnership with birth family members and child welfare professionals. This is bringing a child in to be part of your family in every way possible for the time they need it, while also helping to provide additional support and resources for the best outcome possible.
Key Characteristics
Focus on supporting reunification in most cases
Regular court hearings and case plan reviews
Ongoing contact with biological family through visits
Engagement with various services (therapy, educational support)
Integration of the child into family and community life while maintaining connections to their birth family
What's Needed
Traditional foster parents need:
Commitment to supporting the case plan, including reunification efforts
Ability to work as part of a team with caseworkers and other professionals
Skills for managing attachment and loss
Capacity to support the child's relationship with biological family
Patience with system requirements and timelines
“The more healthy relationships a child has, the more likely he will be to recover from trauma and thrive. Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love. People, not programmes, change people” Dr. Bruce Perry. A long-term foster home can provide these healing, stable relationships for a child. Joy Meadows offers comprehensive support for traditional foster families through multiple programs, including the Therapy Center, Animal Programs, and community events like Second Saturday gatherings, which provide essential peer support and respite.
Kinship Care
What It Is
Relatives such as grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins are the first desirable option to provide a safe and caring environment for children. This helps a child maintain important family connections while being in a safe environment. A kinship placement is not required to become fully licensed as a foster parent, but they may choose to do so in order to receive the highest level of support and financial stipend so they can best care for the relative children in their care.
Key Characteristics
Maintains family connections and cultural identity
Often initiated with little preparation time
May include complex family dynamics
Sometimes receives fewer services and support than non-relative foster care if they do not become fully licensed
Can lead to permanent guardianship or adoption within the family
What's Needed
Kinship caregivers need:
Navigation support for child welfare and court systems
Resources to meet unexpected needs (beds, clothing, school supplies)
Guidance on boundary-setting with family members
Support for their own emotional adjustment
Connection with others in similar situations
Joy Meadows recognizes the unique challenges facing kinship caregivers and extends all of its services to support these families as well, providing resources like the Clothing Closet, Animal Sessions, Therapy Center and free monthly supporting events to all families caring for children impacted by foster care.
Non-related kin (NRKIN) Care
What It Is
Removing a child from his or her home is sometimes necessary to keep a child safe, it is a traumatic experience because it involves separation and uncertainty. Placing a child with a familiar caregiver helps ease the trauma involved in this transition. A “non-related kin” refers to a person such as a neighbor, teacher, coach, church member, family friend or other acquaintance who is familiar with the children or his/her family and is willing to provide a safe home for the child until they can return home or another permanency option is established. In most states, a non-related kinship caregiver can receive a temporary license so they can immediately begin caring for the child while they are working on obtaining their foster parent license.
Key Characteristics
Is known to the child
Maintains predictability and stability for the child
May include complex family dynamics
Can receive temporary custody while working on foster parent licensing requirements
Works with case managers and biological parents on case goals as a typical foster home would be expected to do
Therapeutic Foster Care
What It Is
Therapeutic foster care (sometimes called treatment foster care) serves children with significant emotional, behavioral, or medical needs that require specialized care beyond what traditional foster homes provide. This helps youth with a more structured environment than general foster care, receiving more training, support and resources than those who provide traditional foster care. Each state requirement may be different, but in general, the number of children in your home may be limited and reimbursement rates are higher due to the additional training and time needed for care for children. An example in the State of Kansas can be found here. DCF Therapeutic Foster Homes Final.pdf
Key Characteristics
Children with intense needs due to trauma, mental health diagnoses, or medical conditions
Higher level of training and certification for caregivers
More frequent professional support and in-home services
Typically higher daily reimbursement rates to account for increased care needs
Often smaller caregiver-to-child ratios (fewer children per home)
What's Needed
Therapeutic foster parents need:
Advanced training in trauma-informed care and specific interventions
Strong collaboration skills with mental health professionals
Robust personal support system
Excellent self-care practices
Ability to document behaviors and interventions
The Joy Meadows Therapy Center provides specialized support for children in therapeutic foster care, with therapists experienced in addressing complex trauma and attachment needs. Their nature-based programs, including Animal Programs, offer complementary therapeutic experiences that support traditional therapy.
Choosing Your Path
As you consider which type of foster care might be right for your family, reflect on:
Your family's strengths, experiences, and limitations
The age groups you feel most equipped to serve
Your capacity for managing uncertainty and change
Your ability to support various reunification scenarios
The support systems available to you
These are just points of reflection but also know that there will never be a perfect time, space, or set of circumstances in which you will be fully equipped! If you are interested in becoming a foster home then take the next step. Take a class, go to an info seminar, or ask questions!
Remember also that many foster parents start with one type of placement and later discover they're called to serve in different ways. The flexibility to adapt as you gain experience is valuable.
Conclusion
Whatever type of foster care you feel called toward, remember that every role in the system matters. From the consistent respite provider who offers a weekend of support to kinship family to the long-term foster parent, each contribution creates the stability and healing that children in foster care desperately need.
“Relationships are the agents of change and the most powerful therapy is human love.”― Bruce D. Perry
At Joy Meadows, we believe that "supporting caregivers is the best way to support the children in their care." Through our comprehensive programs—including therapy services, clothing resources, animal sessions, peer connections, community events, and support networks—we walk alongside foster families of all types, helping create the stability, healing, and joy that every child deserves.
Personal Perspective
As a new foster home, being asked about what types of placements we would be taking seemed a little crazy to me. I had never been a foster parent before. I didn't understand the numerous acronyms that seemed to be at every turn. I didn’t even know what we were capable of as parents let alone as foster parents! Everyone I knew seemed to already be telling us we were crazy to be a young couple with 3 children ages 5 and under, to even consider becoming licensed foster parents. It felt overwhelming.
Here is what I wish I would have known - if you are entering the foster care journey voluntarily as a planned step of action (i.e., not as a kinship placement), it is okay to take it slow. There are definitely a rising number of children who have more challenging situations that need homes, and it seems there are never enough homes that are available and equipped for this type of situation. However, that does not mean that every foster family should step up and take that type of placement. It is more important that you are a stable placement to meet the long-term needs of a child that is healthy for everyone involved. It’s okay to start with being a respite provider for a foster family that you already know. Or, become a respite provider for your agency in general. This is a great way to help meet a critical need, while also seeing what works best for your personal family situation.
And in direct contrast to that advice - sometimes you just have to dive in. Looking back, it is the unplanned placement decisions we made that were transformational for my family. I remember having four biological children ages 12 and under and we had placement of two young girls ages 2 and 4 months old in foster care. Our house was a little chaotic to say the least when we also got the call for an emergency placement “just for the weekend” of a 1 year old sitting in an office. It was that “yes” that years later led to the connection of my now adopted daughter’s family. It made no sense, I wasn’t equipped, and yet I felt God was asking us to say “yes.”
Just as with anything in life, we can make all of the plans and weigh all of the pro’s and con’s and the outcome is never certain. I can have lists upon lists upon list and if often doesn’t matter. I can choose to keep my life predictable, organized and wait for “the right moment” and it will never come. There will always be situations and circumstances that are unpredictable. We’ve experienced brain disease, stroke, hearing impairment, cancer, kidney disease, and mental health diagnosis with our biological family over the last fifteen years of our fostering journey. God helped us through each of those things and used each situation to help us trust in Him and joyfully walk through the uncertainty of life. This helped us have a heightened awareness that even in all the planned things, we can never know the outcomes. We would have experienced those challenges regardless of whether we also had added the challenges of foster care in our lives. I am saddened to think of all we would have missed out on if we would have waited for the “right time” to begin the blessing of being foster parents. God can use what we see as the “wrong times” too - the midnight calls, the times when your house is full, the ages that weren’t in your list, extra siblings that appear, and when you think you are done.
Sometimes it seems all mixed up and backwards like God describes in Isaiah 58, where the worship and actions he is asking of us is to first, “remove the chains that bind people, share food with the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from those who need your help” (Isaiah 58:6-8). And from those moments of loving and serving others, that all of His overwhelming promises to meet your needs can also happen simultaneously:
Your wounds will quickly heal (v.8)
When you call the Lord will quickly answer, Yes, I am here. (v. 9)
The darkness around you will be bright as noon (v. 10)
The Lord will guide you continually (v. 11)
Giving you water and restoring your strength (v. 11)
You will be like a well-watered garden, an ever-flowing spring (v. 11)
A rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes (v.12)
So whatever means you step forward and decide to take your first placement and begin foster care, know that you are making a difference. You don’t have to know everything, just that God has asked you to do this. When we act to help those who God directs us to help, give shelter, give food, and help those in trouble – He is there for you in every way.
Sarah Oberndorfer
This blog post is part of our Foster Care 101 series, designed to provide guidance and encouragement for those considering or beginning their foster care journey. For more information about how Joy Meadows can support your specific fostering path, visit joymeadows.org..
