What is foster care and adoption?
Foster parents play an essential role in providing temporary homes to children when their parents are unable to care for them. Some children who are unable to return to their birth families may become eligible for adoption. Families are needed to provide safe, nurturing and loving homes to children in our community.
Who can become a foster parent?
Foster and Adoptive parents can be male or female, married, single, or living with a partner. Applicants must be 21 years of age or older and US citizens or legal residents. They must have the ability to provide each child with his or her own bed and have sufficient income to meet their own family’s needs.
What is kinship foster care?
Kinship is when a relative or a family friend becomes a foster parent for a particular child. The process to become a kinship foster parent is the same as becoming a regular certified foster parent. Children who are in kinship foster care are in the legal custody of the Commissioner of the Department of Family Services.
Are there supports available?
In addition to training and support from our agency, foster parents will receive daily board rates, clothing allowance and Medicaid for each foster child.
How can I become a foster or adoptive parent?
Interested? Fill out the application here: https://family.binti.com/users/signup/sullivan-county-department-of-social-services-initial
Or, you can fill out the State's application here. (You don't have to fill out both.)
Candidates will attend a ten week MAPP (Model Approach to Partnership and Parenting) training and preparation. Before becoming certified, candidates will submit a completed child abuse clearance form, fingerprinting, current medical reports and personal references. A home study and inspection must also be completed.
Please contact the Sullivan County Department of Family Services:
(845) 292-0100 ext. 2389
michael.osepowicz@sullivanny.us
Michael J. Osepowicz, Senior Caseworker
