Foster Care
Please see the Department of Human Services page:
Department of Human Services website for more information.
The job of a foster caregiver is to provide
temporary care for a child whose family of origin is
experiencing problems and cannot adequately care for a child. The
goal of foster care is to reunite the child with his or her birth family
as quickly and as safely as possible. In Minnesota, the statutory
time limit for reunification is 12 months.
Foster care providers receive a monthly stipend to help provide for the
child in their temporary care. The stipend varies and is determined
by the child's needs. Being a temporary resource for a child can
also include providing respite foster care, shelter foster care, treatment
foster care and emancipation home foster care. The process and
requirements for becoming a foster care provider varies depending on the
county of residence. For more detailed information about foster care
contact your county social services agency.
 Minnesota youth may stay in foster care until they are 21 years old if they comply with certain educational and employment qualifications or are incapable to complying due to a medical condition. http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/groups/publications/documents/pub/dhs16_173921.pdf
Kinship Care
Kinship care is similar in many ways to foster care except that a
relative (kin) cares for the child. The goal of kinship care is to
provide care for the child and support to the family within the context of
an extended family relationship. For more information about kinship
contact your county social services agency.
Concurrent Planning Foster Care
Please see the
Department of Human Services website for more information.Concurrent planning, also called permanency planning
foster care, provides foster care for a
child and is willing to work closely with the child's birth family toward
reunification. However, should the child's reunification with the birth parents become
impossible, the permanency planning family is willing to become the
permanent legal family for the child. Most of the children who have
this option as part of their case plans are under the age of eight years
old.
Permanency planning resource families must be able to support a child
with a "dual track" case plan. This may be a good alternative
for families interested in adoption a young child or infant.
updated January 2013 |