Visit the Department of Child Safety

What does this process look like?

 

Step 1: Review our Basic Requirements

You must meet the basic Arizona State requirements to begin the process. 

 

Step 2: Attend an Orientation

At an Onward Hope Foster Care & Adoption Orientation, we will discuss this licensing process in detail, the unique needs of children in care, how you can meet those needs, and supports offered to each family from Onward Hope. Please see our calendar for the upcoming orientation dates. 

 

Step 3: Training

After we mutually choose to partner, Onward Hope as your agency, will place you in the training course that best fits your schedule and location. During this time, you will be assigned to a dedicated Family Support Specialists, who will visit you in your home and work with you to complete the basic requirements and paperwork. 

 

Foster Parent College Pre-Service Blended Training Program is a 5-week training course that combines both in-person and online classroom sessions. 

 

Step 4: Home Safety Inspection

Our staff will guide you through preparing your home for the inspection. Then you’ll be ready for licensing or certification!

 

Throughout your journey our specialists will be available to help you prepare your home for your final home inspection. For a foster family, when they are ready, the Office of Licensing and Regulation (OLR) will conduct the home inspection. For adoptive families, your specialist will conduct a home inspection to ensure everything is in compliance with state standards.

 

Step 5: Family Home Study

Your specialist will interview family members, guide you through the required paperwork, and help you complete a detailed home study. 

 

Once the training has been completed, specialists will schedule interviews with all adult members of the household. These are 2-3 hour individual interviews to explore your family, your childhood, your education and job experience, your relationships and significant life events and how they have affected you. 

 

After completing the Foster Parent College Pre-Service Blended Training Program and finishing any outstanding paperwork, specialists return to your home for another visit. At this visit, which can last several hours, specialists finalize the information they need to complete your home study. This may also be the time that children in the home will be interviewed.

 

During the 30 to 60 days after a family completes the Foster Parent College Pre-Service Blended Training Program, a specialist writes your in-depth home study. This is a report about all of the information gathered about the family, background, training, experiences, how the family operates and any other relevant information. For foster families, the home study is submitted to the Office of Licensure and Regulation for licensing and for adoptive families the home study is submitted to the court for certification. Both entities take several weeks to review the studies, on occasion they will have additional questions for the specialist. Once an adoptive family is certified they are placed on the Department of Child Safety adoption registry. When a foster parent is licensed they are added to Onward Hope’s placement list. Once placed on the placement list or the adoption registry, many factors can affect how long it will take to be matched with a child. Your specialist will help you manage realistic expectations regarding placement of children.