Question on Foster Care Group Homes

stardustx said:

I've done a fair amount of research on foster care group homes, but I have one question: Can foster care group homes (for foster children, not adults) also be a regular foster home but simply with more children? What I mean is, must all group homes be for children who have special needs (such as medical conditions; physical, mental, or emotional handicaps)? Thank you.

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Yes, group homes can be for children without special needs. In fact, they are the most common and are for children who need the same level of care as a basic foster family certification, which covers both "basic" and "moderate."

If you are asking if an individual family wanted to turn their own private home into a group home rather than a regular foster home, they would need additional certifications. They would then be allowed to have more children. in Texas, for regular foster parents and basic/moderate care level kids, the limit is six children. That includes any children of their own who live in the home. So for example if "regular" foster parents have two kids of their own, they can only have four foster kids. I think it's only four total for a single parent. I'm not sure how many kids family run group homes can have, I just know that they can have more kids than regular foster homes. It probably depends on if they employ other adults to help. If they turned their house into a "group home," they would also get paid more per child than regular foster parents do. Regular foster parent rates are really just intended to pay for that child's needs, not as income for the foster parents.

Here's a link to the four different levels of care in Texas.

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Adoption_and_Foster_Care/About_Foster_Care/Care_Levels.asp