Foster Care

Foster Care is available for children in situations where their families can no longer care for or provide for them. We make every effort to connect families with resources to help them to provide a stable, safe environment for their children. In some circumstances, children need to be placed in Foster Care. Children in Foster Care are placed with Resource Families. Resource Families can be relatives of the child in foster care or community members who have completed the Resource Family Approval process. Foster Care cases must be recertified every 12 months.

Resource Family Approval

The Resource Family Approval Program (RFA) is a new family-friendly and child-centered caregiver approval process that combines elements of the current foster parent licensing, relative approval, and approvals for adoption and guardianship processes and replaces those processes.

RFA:

  • Is streamlined and eliminates the duplication of existing processes
  • Unifies approval standards for all caregivers, regardless of the child's case plan
  • Includes a comprehensive psychosocial assessment, home environment check, and training for all families, including relatives
  • Prepares families to better meet the needs of vulnerable children in the foster care system
  • Allows seamless transition to permanency

The RFA process improves the way caregivers (related and non-related) of children in foster care are approved and prepared to parent vulnerable children, whether temporarily or permanently. Here are the 6 steps to take on the pathway to becoming a Resource Family:

  1. Complete and sign the online Lake County Resource Family Application or call Lake County Child Welfare at 707-262-0235 and ask to speak to a RFA social worker and request an application packet
  2. Everyone in the home who is over the age of 18 must complete and pass criminal background check (criminal history does not preclude someone from becoming a resource parent)
  3. Complete a home and ground inspection
  4. Complete Resource Family Pre-Approval Training
  5. Complete CPR/First Aid Training
  6. Participate in 2 or more Family Evaluation interviews

Caregiver Chronicle

Check out the April 2022 Caregiver Chronicle (PDF) for RFA families!