Do You Get Paid to Foster a Child in Texas?

As an LGBTQ adoption attorney will tell you, fostering children can be a rewarding experience. It’s the chance to make a real difference in a young person’s life while filling your home as well. The struggle is that many people feel that they can’t financially take the burden of another child or multiple children. It’s something to worry about, but will you need to pay for everything? While foster parents often look past the financial aspect, it’s very fair to question whether you get get paid to foster or not.

You Do not Get Paid to Foster, But You Do Get Financial Help

Unfortunately, both parenting and fostering are on the shortlist of jobs that don’t come with any monetary payment. Parents do not get paid to foster or receive payment in any form. What is available is a stipend, more on this in a moment.

The payment issue is to prevent people from making money on housing children. The long history of the United States foster care system has had numerous people attempting to profit off of the orphaned, abused, or abandoned children that needed homes.

Now, laws stand in place to prevent abuse or monetary gain for fostering or adopting children that require shelter, food, and nurturing.

What is a Stipend?

The stipend available for foster parents is typically around $675 for each child, and that check is available monthly this check is meant to cover the expenses associated with the additional person such as for food, school supplies, clothes, toiletry needs, and other basic necessities. It’ is not meant for the adult to profit off of supporting the child.

If you choose to accept permanent care of the child, the stipend will typically change to $545 per child until they reach adulthood. There are other stipends available for specific situations. For example, some families may be eligible to receive a $2,000 stipend to cover legal fees in the event of accepting permanent custody.

What About Other Necessities Such As Health Care?

All children within the foster care system will receive healthcare benefits through the state, and those benefits extend through to the age of 25 when they are in a permanent care situation. They also have access to a college tuition waiver, training, and further education.

Healthcare isn’t something that the state expects you to provide for a foster child. They also want to ensure that there’s no lapse in healthcare coverage and that healthcare remains consistent. To accomplish that, they provide healthcare and ensure that these children have access to other opportunities in life that won’t burden their foster families.

Do You Need a TX Adoption Attorney to Foster a Child?

Depending on you and your family’s situation, you may need legal guidance to go through the process of filing a foster application. Fostering children often happens through agencies similar to adoption, and that means that these agencies can somewhat set their own rules.

For example, if you’re a single parent, there may be a substantial hesitancy to allow you to foster children. Another common example that calls for legal assistance is members of the LGBT+ community. Although there have been major changes in Texas over recent years, some agencies still refuse or attempt to avoid fostering children to LGBT homes. In these instances, the process could go from having weeks in the application process to months.

During that process, all families must go through trauma-informed training and participate in a home study. A home study allows the agency or a government official to review your home life and assess the living environment. They then determine if there are specific characteristics or attitudes which may influence the family’s ability to care for another child. That home study, however, can also serve to help the foster agency assign a child with the right needs and within a reasonable age group for the family.

Rely On Your TX LGBT+ Adoption Attorney

Eddington & Worley stands with a strong legal team to help all variety of couples enter into foster or adoption arrangements through Texas agencies. As a Texas based LGBTQ family law firm, we know that helping good couples take in children can have a profound impact on our community.

Meet up with an attorney now and see what options you have. If it feels like there’s nothing but closed doors, a lawyer might be the push you need to get through age-old barriers that are still present in this industry. Explore our practice areas and contact us soon to take the next step forward for your family.