Foster Care Program

We believe in the Virginia Children's Transformation, which means that we work with families to prevent out of home placement, offering services that will assist the family to safely maintain the child in their own home. By Federal and State laws we make reasonable efforts to prevent out of home placements for children. Should a family be unable or unwilling to cooperate and provide services to their child, we will request that the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court require that the families participate a minimum of six months to prevent out of home placement. We will refer families to the Chesapeake Interagency Consortium for review by the FAPT Teams to determine other community services that may be able to provide assistance to the family. We also will identify relatives, family friends, and others who may be a potential support to the family and child, who may provide respite for the family.

How does a child become involved in the Foster Care System?

A child becomes involved with the foster care system through an abuse/neglect petition filed by the Chesapeake Child Protective Service Unit in which the child is found by the Chesapeake Juvenile Court to be at imminent risk of harm. Delinquent children are sometimes placed in foster care, as well as children whose legal guardians have been relieved of custody by the Juvenile Court.

Can I bring my child to the Chesapeake Social Services and place my child in foster care?

No, every effort must be made to prevent foster care placement. Foster Care placement takes place through the Juvenile Court. If you are having problems with your child, the Department will assess the needs of the family and refer the family for services.

Foster/Resource Parents

Foster/resource parents provide a safe, caring, and family home for a child ranging in age from birth to 18 who has been temporarily separated from his/her own family for various reasons. The child is in the custody of the Chesapeake Department of Human Services.

Resource parents are foster parents who meet the criteria to adopt if the foster child in their home was freed for adoption. Chesapeake's foster/resource parents are dually certified so that if they wanted to adopt a child they were fostering, the process is easier.

Foster parents play a critical role for the children whose lives have been turned upside down and need a stable, loving home to heal in.

Many of these children are filled with fear, anger, confusion, or a sense of powerlessness at having been removed from the only home they have ever known. Foster/resource parents provide a safe and stable home for the child until the parents can get the child back, the child is placed with relatives, the child is freed for adoption, or another permanent arrangement is made for the child.

Chesapeake Department of Human Services values its foster parents.

Support - financial, emotional, and educational - is offered to help foster parents cope with the unique challenges they may experience. Foster parents are viewed as a critical part of a child’s treatment team, and their opinions and perspectives are respected.

Are you interested in joining our team?

We look forward to speaking to you! Our Home Finding unit can be reached at 757-382-2249 or 757-382-2246.

Take our quick quiz: Are you Ready to be a Foster Resource Parent?

You don't have to become a foster parent to support foster care!

Protecting children and strengthening families is the responsibility of every member of the community. Fostering and adopting a child may not be an option for you. However, there are many ways to help a child or family in need in your community. You can contact Karen Jackson at 757-382-2249 or email kjackson@cityofchesapeake.net if you would like to discuss ways you can help.

Examples of how you can help:

• Offer free services based on your business: construction, home furnishings, family dinners at restaurants, mechanic services, haircuts, etc.
• Ask an organization you are a part of to offer scholarships or free lessons for summer camp, sports teams, dance, art or music.
• Offer employment opportunities to older foster youth
• Host an event for foster families (picnics, parties, bowling, etc.)

Types of Foster/Resource Parenting

Regular Maintenance Foster/Resource Parenting:

How do I become a foster/resource parent?

Chesapeake Human Services appreciates its foster/resource parents and welcomes the opportunity to include more dedicated families in its foster/resource parent pool. The first step to becoming a foster/resource parent is to talk with a family services specialist in the Foster Care Home Finding Unit. The family services specialist will ask you some basic questions and answer any questions that you may have. This can be done on the telephone or in person. You may call the Foster Care Home Finding unit at 757-382-2249 or 757-382-2246.

The next step is to attend the PRIDE pre-service foster/resource parent training. The Foster Care family services specialist will send you a letter informing you of when and where the training will be held. The training classes total 27 hours, broken up over a number of weeks. If there are two parents in the home, both are required to attend. This training is a commitment-free opportunity to learn about foster parenting. While you attend the classes, you will be given the necessary paperwork to become a foster/resource parent. Once you complete the classes and paperwork, the Home Finding unit will conduct a home study to make sure you meet the requirements to be a foster/resource parent.

Information Required to Become a Foster Resource Parent

Foster Parent Road Map to Certificate

What is Regular Maintenance Foster Care?

Regular Maintenance Foster Care is the lowest level intensity foster home care a child could be placed in. The characteristics of foster youth in Regular Maintenance Foster Care are children who have mild to moderate emotional and behavioral needs. The children have no major medical issues or disabilities. Children may be ages newborn to 21 years old.

Basic requirements to be a foster parent:

• 21 years of age or older
• Married or single (no co-habitation/living together)
• Physically and mentally healthy
• Income to meet your own needs
• Safe, loving and stable home
• Space for a child in your home (bed and clothing space)
• Working telephone
• Reliable transportation

Responsibilities of the foster parent:

• Provide a loving, safe, and healthy family for the child
• Accept that the child may have different ideas, beliefs, and ways
• Flexible and understanding
• Work with schools, doctors, therapists and others to meet the child's needs
• Help the child grow and mature
• Willingness to work as a team with the family services specialist, birth parent, and the child
• Help the child to maintain attachment to his family by assisting with visits
• Prepare the child to return home, or if they cannot go home to be adopted, or to live independently
• Participation in family partnership meetings

Support for foster/resource parents:

• Training classes prior to becoming a foster/resource parent
• Monthly foster parent support and education group with simultaneous group for foster youth ages 10 and older
• Ongoing training classes on issues that are of concern or interest
• family services specialist support and guidance
• Monthly monetary payment for room and board, clothing, personal care, allowance, and other expenses
• Possible additional monthly money payment for supervision, support, and additional services to a child with an emotional, behavioral, or medical/personal need
• Yearly clothing allowance
• Holiday gifts provided by the community
• Medical coverage for the child
• WIC for foster youth ages 0-5

What Characteristics of Foster Parents are Chesapeake DSS most in need of?

We welcome all interested foster parents to contact Chesapeake Division of Social Services; however, the following foster parent characteristics are what we are most in need of:

• Willingness to take sibling groups of 3 or more children
• Willingness to work with youth ages 12 to 21
• African Americans willing to take children ages 0-5
• Caucasians willing to work with any age groups
• One parent who does not work outside of the home

Profile of Regular Maintenance Foster/Resource Parents

Mr. and Mrs. Johnson* have been foster parents with Chesapeake Department of Human Services for several years. They also have their own biological children who are now teenagers. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson initially became interested in foster care after talking with a church member. The Johnson’s decided together as a family that they wanted to open their home to children in need of a safe and loving home. They have experienced several placements, including sibling groups and respite care (short term). The Johnson family have participated in agency meetings, appeared in court, supported children with visitations, met with the school system, and taken children to doctor’s appointments, including therapy. The Johnson’s have also opened their home to services like in-home counseling, which has helped support the family unit whenever they have a child placed with them. A strength the Johnson family has is staying active in the community. They enjoy going to the park, the beach, and local sporting events together. They feel comfortable accommodating sibling groups and have the physical space in their home and flexible work schedules to do so. Once a child is placed in their home, they make sure there is a balance of personal space and family time while everyone is adjusting to the new changes. Anyone placed with them is included in family decisions like what they will be having for dinner. Eventually, the family will introduce chores and other age-appropriate tasks that are shared among the members of the household. The Johnson family has experienced different challenges with placements including child bed wetting, educational developmental delays, and hygiene concerns. They have overcome each of these challenges by reaching out to the child's foster care family services specialist, communicating with the child, and continuing their foster parent education through ongoing training offered by the agency and in the community. They take the time to document the child's journey with them through pictures and mementos stored in a "life book". No matter the length of time a child has stayed with them, they feel honored to be a part of their lives and cherish memories that are created together.

*Names have been changed

Chesapeake Connections Specialized Foster Parenting:

Chesapeake Connections is a specialized foster care program that serves youth in foster care who have significant emotional and behavioral issues. We welcome prospective foster parents to join our team who have previous therapeutic foster parenting or regular maintenance foster parenting experience.

Most children who enter the child welfare system have been exposed to a wide range of painful and stressful experiences. Children in specialized foster care may have had more trauma exposures than a child in regular foster care. Therefore, services are delivered by staff and foster parents who are given in-depth and ongoing education about how trauma affects an individual's brain, physical, emotional, and social development.

Understanding the effects of Child Trauma

Specialized foster care providers are central to the professional treatment team, and key to the success of children in foster care. They work the closest with foster youth to implement strategies specified in a child's treatment plan. They facilitate the healing of a child in a family setting.

Chesapeake Connections Brochure

How does "Specialized" Foster Care differ from Regular Maintenance Foster Care?

“Specialized” foster care is a higher level of intensity of care in a foster family setting. Specialized foster care is a category for youth in care who have one or more of the following characteristics:

• Moderate to severe behavior management problems.
• Multiple system involvements (e.g., Mental Health/CIBH, Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, etc.).
• Multiple disrupted placements with either relative or in the foster care system.
• Major medical concerns, handicaps and/or developmental disabilities.

Because the needs of children in specialized foster care are more advanced than those in regular maintenance foster care, specialized foster parents often receive an enhanced payment above the foster payment reimbursement rate to compensate for the foster parent’s time and extra services provided. This payment is based on the emotional, behavioral, and medical needs of each child.

It is the agency’s responsibility to facilitate the safest and stable placements possible for our children in foster care. To ensure the foster parents receive what they need to support children with emotional, behavioral, or medical issues, the agency invests resources in providing mandatory ongoing support and education to specialized foster parents.

How do I become a Chesapeake Connections specialized foster parent?

People with foster parenting experience who have completed PRIDE training (or its approved equivalent) are eligible to be considered for the program.

The first step to becoming a specialized foster parent is to attend Chesapeake Connections' unique ten (10) hour trauma-informed, specialized skills training, usually split between two Saturdays or three weeknights. Training is offered up to four times per year.

Upon completion of the training, prospective parents undergo an interview. If the interview panel believes the prospective parents are a match for the program, the family begins the Division of Social Services foster home approval process. Once the home is approved, Connections will begin placing children. For more details, please contact the Chesapeake Connections Coordinator, Karen Jackson, at 757-382-2249 or email kjackson@cityofchesapeake.net.

Basic requirements to be a specialized foster parent:

Specialized foster homes are approved in the same manner as regular maintenance homes according to Virginia state requirements, therefore the basic requirements are the same. The major difference is the need to have prior foster care experience.

• 21 years of age or older
• Married or single (no co-habitation/living together)
• Physically and mentally healthy
• Income to meet your own needs
• Safe, loving and stable home
• Space for a child in your home (bed and clothing space)
• Working telephone
• Reliable transportation

Responsibilities of the specialized foster parent:

Chesapeake Connections foster parents understand the importance of healthy relationships at home, school, and with the community. By providing stability, nurturing, trust, enrichment, and a sense of permanency, foster parents can help a child to see the world in a more positive light and develop the skills necessary to become a healthy and productive adult.

Chesapeake Connections foster parents will be most successful if they:

• Enjoy working with children and teens
• Put treatment plans into action
• Follow the program's treatment philosophy
• Participate in treatment team meetings
• Attend the monthly foster parent support group
• Work cooperatively with the family of origin
• Develop a relationship with the child's school and remain involved in school activities
• Actively maintain their foster youth's health with regular medical and dental care
• Provide a well-rounded family life and participate in the larger community

Support for specialized foster parents:

• 24/7 Crisis Support
• 24 days of Respite Care per year
• Monthly Support and Education Group
• Social Recreation Events with other Chesapeake Connections families
• Weekly visitation and contact and coordinated care from a Family Support Worker with a small caseload
• Ongoing training classes on issues that are of concern or interest
• family services specialist support and guidance
• Monthly monetary payment for room and board, clothing, personal care, allowance, and other expenses
• Additional monthly money payment for supervision, support, and additional services to a child with an emotional, behavioral, or medical/personal need
• Yearly clothing allowance
• Medical coverage for the child
• Child day care assistance for working foster parents
• Holiday gifts provided by the community
• WIC for foster youth ages 0-5

Profile of Specialized Foster Parents

Mr. and Mrs. Smith* have worked alongside Chesapeake Connections as specialized foster parents for two years. Throughout her adult life, Mrs. Smith helped families with their children by providing an in-home day care, and by giving extra assistance to military families with a parent on deployment. Mr. Smith experienced the loss of a parent as a young child and moved around between many family members’ homes before he settled with someone who nurtured him and gave him a permanent home. Having raised and adopted children and worked with private therapeutic agencies previously, they came to Chesapeake Connections to reach out to give Chesapeake’s children a stable, happy home to live in.

Their expertise is connecting with adolescents and knowing how to look beyond negative behaviors to understand the child in front of them who needs love and nurturing. The children who come into their home are welcomed, and treated with dignity and respect. Mr. and Mrs. Smith discover the child’s strengths and how they can use those to integrate them into their family unit, be it cooking, shopping, or giving cheering on others. Mr. and Mrs. Smith operate as a team and provide positive, loving role models to the youth in their care.

They have experienced challenges with children who act out or do not achieve in school, youth with substance abuse histories, and youth with significant amounts of anger. To cope with the stress in their home, they attend the agency’s monthly concurrent foster parent and foster youth support groups, meet weekly with their Family Support Worker, and reach out to their DSS family services specialists to identify the appropriate community resources for the children in their care.

*Names have been changed

Contact Us!

We welcome you to call to learn more about our programs and ask further questions. Please contact Karen Jackson at 757-382-2249.