Texas · foster care
How to become a foster parent in Texas
Texas verifies foster homes through child-placing agencies: most families partner with a private agency or their region's Community-Based Care network, while HHSC Child Care Regulation writes the minimum standards (26 TAC Chapter 749) and DFPS oversees foster care. You'll attend a free information meeting, choose your agency, and submit an application; fingerprint and abuse-registry checks then run for every household member 14 or older. Pre-service training is set by your agency — DFPS regions use the 19-hour NTDC curriculum — alongside pediatric CPR and first aid, a multi-interview home screening, and fire and health inspections. When everything is in, your agency verifies your home and placements can begin. Several of those run at the same time — your community can walk with you through each one.
16 steps, checked against Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)’s own pages as of 2026-08-23. Read the source.
The process
16 steps, in 9 stages
Steps with no “after” note below don’t wait on each other — the Texas process names only the orderings that are actually real; everything else can run at the same time.
Exploring foster care
Learn how fostering works in Texas
In Texas, DFPS oversees foster care, but homes are screened and verified by child-placing agencies that HHSC licenses under 26 TAC Chapter 749. Placement services are moving to Community-Based Care, where a single regional contractor builds the network of foster homes in your area, so where you live shapes which agencies you will work with.
Confirm you meet the basic requirements
You must be at least 21, financially stable, and a responsible, mature adult — single or married. Expect to share information about your background and lifestyle, provide relative and non-relative references, show proof of marriage or divorce if applicable, and agree to a home study and background checks on everyone 14 or older in your household.
Fill out the foster/adopt interest formOptional
Texas residents can fill out DFPS's foster care and adoption interest form to be connected with upcoming information meetings and recruiters in their area. It is a low-pressure way to start the conversation before you commit to anything.
Cost: Free
Learning the requirements
Research agencies serving your area
Use HHSC's Search Texas Child Care tool to find licensed child-placing agencies near you and review their inspection history. Ask each agency about its training curriculum and hours, the children it serves, and the support it offers families after placement.
Informational meeting
Attend a foster/adopt information meeting
Attend a local information meeting hosted by DFPS or a private agency to hear what fostering really involves and ask questions. Meetings are free; check the schedule for your area to see whether your region meets in person or online and whether it asks you to register.
Cost: Free
Choose your child-placing agency
Pick the agency you will be verified through — a private child-placing agency or, in Community-Based Care areas, one in your regional network. You work with one agency at a time: a home cannot be verified for foster care by more than one agency simultaneously (26 TAC 749.2407).
After Attend a foster/adopt information meeting, Research agencies serving your area
Application
Gather your application documents
Collect what your agency's packet asks for: proof of marriage or divorce if applicable, income information, names of relative and non-relative references, and rabies vaccination records for your dogs and cats (required by 26 TAC 749.2917). Some agencies still ask for TB screening even though the statewide testing mandate was removed in 2025 — your agency will tell you.
After Choose your child-placing agency
Submit your foster care application
Complete your agency's formal application. This opens your file and releases the background checks, home screening, training, and inspections that follow — many of which run at the same time.
After Choose your child-placing agency, Gather your application documents
Background checks
Complete fingerprint background checks
You and every household member 14 or older complete FBI fingerprint-based checks plus a Texas DPS criminal history check before your home can be verified. FBI rules bar cross-use, so fingerprints taken for other purposes cannot be reused — foster and adoptive checks require their own submission.
After Submit your foster care application
Texas HHSC - Background Check FAQs: Foster and Adoptive Homes
Clear abuse and neglect registry checks
DFPS runs its abuse and neglect central registry check on each applicant and every household member 14 or older. Applicants and any other adult in the home who lived outside Texas at any time in the previous five years also need that state's abuse and neglect registry checked.
After Submit your foster care application
Texas DFPS - Foster and Adoptive Home Background Checks Resource Guide
Home study
Complete your foster home screening
An agency screener interviews each prospective foster parent individually, each child three or older and every other person living in the home, plus a joint couple interview and a family group interview. The screening also reaches outside your walls: your own children 12 or older who live elsewhere (minor or adult), at least one family member outside the household, and at least two community references such as neighbors, school personnel, or clergy. It includes at least one home visit with every household member present (26 TAC 749.2449).
After Submit your foster care application
26 TAC 749.2449 - Whom must I interview when conducting a foster home screening?
Pass fire and health inspections
Your home needs a fire safety inspection — by a certified inspector or local fire authority (current for two years) or an annual evaluation using the State Fire Marshal's foster home checklist (HHSC Form 3004) — plus a health and sanitation evaluation (26 TAC 749.2905). Before inspection day, have pets' rabies vaccinations documented and expect your agency to record a floor plan and photos of outdoor areas.
After Submit your foster care application
26 TAC 749.2905 - How often must fire and health inspections be conducted at a foster home?
Training
Complete pre-service training
If you train with DFPS you will complete the 19-hour National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC), covering trauma, attachment, grief and loss, and behavior. Private agencies choose their own curriculum that meets HHSC minimum standards, so hours vary by agency — ask yours what to expect.
After Submit your foster care application
Takes about About 19 hours (NTDC) through DFPS; private agency hours vary
Get certified in pediatric first aid and CPR
HHSC minimum standards require foster parents to hold current certification in pediatric first aid and pediatric CPR (26 TAC 749.911-915). You can take a qualifying class any time — just confirm with your agency which providers it accepts and keep the certificate current.
Licensing / approval
Receive your foster home verification
Your agency's child placement management staff review the completed screening, interviews, background checks, training, floor plan, and inspections, then approve and issue your foster home verification (26 TAC 749.2470). The verification comes from your child-placing agency under HHSC oversight; a full verification is non-expiring (provisional and time-limited verifications run up to six months) and stays in effect while your agency's ongoing compliance evaluations find you meeting the standards.
After Complete fingerprint background checks, Get certified in pediatric first aid and CPR, Complete pre-service training, Complete your foster home screening, Pass fire and health inspections, Clear abuse and neglect registry checks
26 TAC 749.2470 - What must I do to verify a foster family home?
First placement readiness
Prepare for your first placement
Set up bedrooms and sleeping space to your agency's standards, settle your placement preferences (ages, siblings, needs you are equipped for), and plan the annual training hours your agency requires to keep your verification current. In Community-Based Care areas, placement calls come through your agency's regional network — talk through how and when they will reach you.
After Receive your foster home verification
HHSC Minimum Standards for Child-Placing Agencies (26 TAC Chapter 749)
You don’t have to do this alone
aVillage is how a church wraps practical care around a family going through this exact process — meals, rides, respite, and a team that actually shows up.
Common questions
Is this the official Texas process?
This is a plain-language summary, not the regulation itself. Every step above links to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)’s own page or the binding rule — read those for the authoritative version, and confirm anything time-sensitive directly with your agency.
Does aVillage run background checks or issue licenses?
No. Your state agency (or the private agency it works with) does the licensing and the checks. aVillage tracks your own progress through the process and helps your church support you along the way.