There are over 25,000 children in the PA foster care system, every year at any given time.
Every child deserves to be loved and grow up in a safe and healthy environment. Foster care is temporary care for children who are unable to remain in their own homes. Most children enter foster care as a result of abuse or neglect.
If you are interested in becoming a foster parent, we have the information and resources to help you get started and our information sessions are a no commitment way to learn about foster care and adoption.
Upcoming Foster Parent Information Sessions:
Virtual:
May 14 from 4 pm - 6 pm
June 11 from 4 pm - 6 pm
1010 Centre Avenue, Reading:
May 23 between 10 am - 4 pm
June 20 between 10 am - 4 pm
2450 Brodhead Road, Bethlehem:
More dates and times to come!
Register: Call Jen at (610) 655-5555
Most foster children are in the process of reunifying with their families. Due to a shortage of foster families many kids get placed in other counties, separating them from relatives and friends.
Our goal is to provide a treatment-oriented program in a family setting, in order to build kid’s lives.
Our families serve children from birth to 21 years of age, providing a nurturing and caring environment within a family setting to children from Berks and surrounding counties. Resource families work closely with an agency case manager and have access to 24-hour emergency on-call services.
Foster children need ALL types of families.
If you are a couple, single, empty nester, retired, LGBT, simply a person who wants to make a positive difference.
Children and youth in foster care are in need of loving, supportive families to care for them as they wait to reunify with their birth parents.
They want to be heard, loved, and understood.
Sibling groups, teens, and adolescents are looking to be part of a family.
Children want to experience what a “normal family does.” Things like eating dinner together, going to a baseball game, watching a movie, and having someone to talk to.
Learn how you can foster a child.
Information sessions and pieces of training can now be accessed virtually from the convenience of your own home.
Ongoing training opportunities are available to build your skills and network with other resource families.
Connecting Loving Families For Over 135 Years
We understand the application process to foster a child may seem over whelming and it’s hard to know where to start.
Since 1884, we’ve been placing children into new homes and partnering with our foster families to provide them with the support, resources and training they need to care for children in foster care.
Foster Care is a nationwide crisis, with 25,000 children in foster care just in Pennsylvania.
CHOR is honored to have the Mayor of Reading City Eddie Moran proclaim November 2020, as the National Adoption Month. Just in 2019, the number of children waiting to be adopted was 121,216. Out of which, 11% were between the ages of 15-17.
Our Foster Care Program is working relentlessly to mitigate the shortage of foster families and its impacts on children’s overall wellbeing.
How to Become A Foster Parent
Contact A Foster Specialist
We help guide you through the application and certification process and provide you the training you need to be a successful foster parent or resource parent.
Meet Your Foster Child
Once your training is complete and you are approved, your foster child will join your home.
Receive Continued Support
The Children’s Home of Reading provides access to supportive services such as clinicians, consulting psychiatrist, and a 24-hour emergency on-call support service to help you every step of the way.
Great Outcomes for Children
Children live and thrive in a safe, loving environment until they’re reunited with their family or adoption occurs.
Here’s what some of our foster parents have to say…
The Children’s Home of Reading ensures that all of our foster parents and foster families are equipped with the training and support they need to have a successful relationship with their foster child.
Listen to some of the stories of foster parents that have come through our system to hear how we helped.
Myths and Facts About Foster Care
Learn more about some of the common misconceptions people have about foster care and becoming a foster parent.
What Are The Requirements To Foster A Child?
What is a Resource Parent?
Resource Parent or Resource Family is a collective term that refers to anyone who provides a safe, stable, loving home for a child when the child’s birth parents are unable to provide one. The term captures all the possibilities of how families can help children in out-of-home care.
Requirements:
• At least 21 years old in good physical and emotional health, verified by a medical examination
• Reliable, regular income that is sufficient to meet your current expenses before a child is in the home
• Complete background clearances/certifications (Required for all household members age 18 and older): Child Abuse*, PA Criminal, FBI
• References – three references from non-relatives that can attest to your character and ability to care for children
• Complete pre-service training
Begin Your Foster Care Journey
Sign up or call to learn more about becoming a foster parent today.
Call : 610-655-5555
Email: chorsfc@choreading.org
*We will never share your information with third parties.
Program Options
Specialized Foster Care
This program provides temporary out-of-home care for children ages birth-21, who are unable to remain at home with their birth parents. The foster care program includes Foster Care, Foster-to-Adopt (legal risk), and kinship placements. Children are provided with a structured, supportive, and safe environment in a caring foster home. Pennsylvania practices concurrent planning, which is an approach that seeks to eliminate delays in identifying permanent families for children and youth in foster care. It involves working towards a child’s primary permanency goal (usually reunification with birth family) while working on a secondary goal (such as guardianship or adoption) at the same time. Children are often adopted by their specialized foster care parents when reunification with birth parents or other family members is not possible. This practice can reduce the amount of time children and youth are in foster care.
Specialized Foster Care V-Lehigh Valley Only
This program provides an alternative to institutional, residential, and group home care for youth ages 12-21 who exhibit sexually acting out/reactive/abusing behaviors and are considered appropriate to stay within a community setting. This is accomplished through the utilization of a treatment home model that limits the number of clients in the resource home to one, provides increased training, supervision, and support to the treatment parents while simultaneously providing services to birth family.
Adoption
This program matches families with waiting children across PA who are in the custody of county children and youth agencies. Generally, these children are unable to be reunified with their birth families for any number of reasons, and have been in foster care for a longer period of time without having a permanent resource identified. Waiting children are often older than the age of 10, members of sibling groups who need to be kept together, or have more significant behavioral, medical, or emotional needs. Visit our adoption page.
FAQS
Do I have to own a home to be a foster parent?
You do not have to own your home to be a foster parent. You do, however, need to have room for a child in your home, which includes a bed for the child and a dresser for his/her belongings.
Do children and youth have medical insurance coverage?
Yes. All children/youth in foster care will have medical assistance insurance coverage.
Will I have help enrolling a foster child in school?
CHOR’s case managers will assist you in enrolling a child in school if your home is outside of the child’s home school district.
Can foster children share a bedroom with my biological child?
In most instances, a foster child can share a bedroom with another child. However, a child (foster/adoptive and biological) over the age of five cannot share a bedroom with a child of the opposite gender. There may be times, for safety reasons, that a foster child/youth cannot share a room with another child. It is important to note that foster children should not be in a walk-through bedroom. A walk-through bedroom is one in which you walk through to get to another bedroom. The foster child would have to be in the last bedroom.
Will I have contact with a child’s birth parents?
Yes, and the amount of contact will vary from case to case. Most often you’ll see the child’s birth parents before and after visits and at court hearings.
Am I present during a child’s visits with their birth parents?
No. Visitation is between a child and their birth parents. This is the birth parents’ time with their child, and you are not required or expected to be present, but you are expected to transport the child to/from visits.
What are my transportation responsibilities for a foster child?
Resource parents are expected to transport a child to/from visits, court hearings, medical/dental appointments, therapy appointments, and extracurricular activities. On occasion, CHOR staff may be able to assist with transportation to appointments, but this assistance should not be expected on a regular, ongoing basis.
What is the legal risk in concurrent planning?
Legal risk means a child may leave your home to be reunified with their birth parents or to live with a kinship caregiver.
Is the reimbursement I receive for providing foster care taxable?
The reimbursement you receive for caring for a foster child is not considered income. It is reimbursement and as such is not taxable.
How will I cope if a child returns to their birth parents?
It can be emotionally difficult to say goodbye to a child who has shared your home and family. This is part of the commitment you make to be meaningful to a child’s lifetime, and commitment is not always easy or convenient. Helping a child or youth build trusting relationships is a gift, and it is the foundation for future relationships between the child/youth and others.
Do I have the option of saying no to referral calls?
Yes. As part of the approval process, we will talk with you about your preferences for age, race, gender and number of children that you can care for in your home. We will call you with referrals that match your preferences or referrals that may be slightly outside of your preferences to allow you to make a decision about whether you can commit to caring for the child.
Can I request a child’s removal from my home?
Yes. We require written notice from you to request a child’s removal. We call this a 30-day notice and unless there is an imminent safety risk for your family or the child, we expect to take the full 30 days to identify a resource home that is a better fit for the child. We strive to minimize the number of moves a child has to make whenever possible.
I said yes to a referral but the child wasn’t placed in my home. What happened?
The county agency making the referral sometimes chooses a resource home that is closer geographically to the child’s birth parents, making reunification efforts such as visitation easier to coordinate. At other times, the county agency is seeking resource homes in the event that a judge writes an order placing a child in foster care during an upcoming court hearing. This is preferable to seeking an emergency foster home placement following a court hearing. On occasion, a judge is not in agreement with the county agency’s plan for the child.
Ways Children Become Available to Foster
When the Children's Home receives a referral for possible placement of a child into one of our resource homes, we contact our families and share all of the information we have about the child with you. The resource family is asked to make a decision, sometimes in a very short period of time, about whether they can care for the child being referred to our agency.
What is an Emergency Referral?
The term describes this type of referral accurately. In these types of referrals, a child or sibling group needs a resource home placement as soon as possible. County agencies often contact several provider agencies like CHOR at the same time. Often, the first agency to respond with a family that can care for the children is where the child/children are placed. In these emergency situations, we may not have much information to share with you beyond the child's name and age. You will be asked to make a decision with very limited information.
Planned Placements
We sometimes receive referrals from county agencies in advance of court hearings where they believe a child or sibling group may be placed in foster care. These referrals may also be for children who are being moved from their current foster home. Saying yes to a planned placement referral does not mean the child or sibling group will be placed in your home. County agencies may choose another home that is geographically closer to the child's birth parents, or the child may not be placed in foster care following the court hearing.
What are Client Rights?
It is the policy of The Children’s Home of Reading to respect and inform each client and their families about client rights while receiving services through the agency’s programs. Clients/families will be informed of these rights in a manner that they can understand.