How to Become a Foster Parent in Pennsylvania

You’ve been thinking about opening your home to a child who needs one. Maybe you’ve mentioned it to a partner, or looked it up late at night, or just held the idea quietly for a while. Whatever brought you here, the fact that you’re reading this matters. Pennsylvania needs people like you.

Foster care in Pennsylvania exists, at its core, to do one thing: give children a safe family while the people who love them work toward being able to care for them again. Pennsylvania’s foster parent manual puts it plainly: foster care is temporary, time-limited care provided when a child’s family is unable or unwilling to provide a home. Children come into care for reasons that include physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, serious neglect, lack of housing, and severe family crisis. They range in age from newborns to eighteen, and in some cases they can remain in care until age twenty-one. They come from every background, every county, every corner of this state.

The families who care for them come from every background too. That same manual is direct about this: foster parents are of all races, nationalities, and economic situations. There’s no single profile of who does this well. What the program asks for is a stable home, a willingness to work alongside agency staff and, often, a child’s birth family, and a commitment to being meaningful to a child during a hard stretch of their life.

The rules that govern foster care in Pennsylvania are real and specific. The state’s primary framework is 55 Pa. Code Chapter 3700, which sets the minimum requirements for every foster family care agency in the state and for every home those agencies approve. In practice, your path to licensure will run through a licensed foster family care agency, either your county children and youth agency or a private agency working under state oversight. They’ll guide the process. The regulation sets the floor.

There are forms, clearances, training hours, a home study, and inspections. This guide walks you through each piece so you know what’s coming and why it’s there.

Who can be a foster parent in Pennsylvania?

Most people assume there’s a very specific kind of person Pennsylvania is looking for, and that they’re probably not it. The reality is broader than you might think. You can be single or married. You can rent your home. You don’t need to be wealthy. Pennsylvania’s foster care regulations are focused on what you can offer a child, not on whether your life looks a certain way on paper.

Age and marital status

55 Pa. Code § 3700.62 sets out the baseline requirements for foster parents. You must be at least 21 years old. Beyond that, the regulations don’t require you to be married. Single adults, married couples, and other household configurations can all be approved. What matters is your ability to care for a child, not your relationship status.

Income and financial stability

You don’t need a high income to become a foster parent, but you do need to be financially stable enough to support your existing household without depending on the foster care stipend to get by. As Pennsylvania’s foster parent manual notes, foster parents come from all walks of life and all economic situations. The stipend you receive is meant to cover the costs of caring for a foster child, not to serve as household income.

Requirements vary by county — check with your agency for specifics.

Physical and mental health

You’ll need to show that your health, physical and mental, doesn’t prevent you from caring for a child. That doesn’t mean you have to be perfectly healthy or have no history of mental health treatment. It means your agency will assess whether your health supports your ability to provide stable, consistent care. Under 55 Pa. Code § 3700.64, agencies are required to assess foster parent capability, which includes physical and emotional readiness to parent a child in placement.

Who else lives in your home

Everyone in your household matters, not just you. All household members age 14 and older must submit child abuse and criminal history background checks as part of the initial approval process, and adult household members age 18 and older are also required to complete FBI fingerprint-based checks. The specific requirements are covered in detail in the background check requirements section below.

Your home itself

You can rent or own. Your home just needs to meet basic safety and space requirements. According to Pennsylvania’s foster family residence regulations, the home must be the foster parent’s primary residence, whether owned, rented, or provided by the agency. The specific space and safety requirements are covered in detail in the home study and inspection process.

The bottom line is this: Pennsylvania is looking for stable, caring adults who can make room in their lives for a child who needs one. The rules exist to protect children, not to create an impossibly narrow profile of who gets to help them.

Background check requirements in Pennsylvania

Before a child ever spends a night in your home, Pennsylvania wants to know who lives there. That’s not a bureaucratic formality. It’s the state making sure every adult in your household has been screened, and it applies to you, your partner, and anyone else over a certain age living under your roof.

Who has to get cleared

The clearance requirements don’t stop with the foster parent applicants. According to the Pennsylvania KeepKidsSafe foster and adoptive parent FAQ, every adult age 18 or older who lives in the home for at least 30 days in a calendar year must complete clearances before the household is approved. The OCYF bulletin on background check requirements adds that household members age 14 and older must complete the Pennsylvania child abuse and criminal history checks at the time of initial approval. FBI fingerprint checks, however, are only required for those 18 and older.

Foster children placed in your home aren’t counted as household members for clearance purposes until they turn 18 and have been living in your home for at least 30 days a year.

The three required checks

Every prospective foster parent and adult household member must complete all three of the following:

• PA Child Abuse History Certification from DHS
• Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) Criminal History Record Check
• DHS fingerprint-based FBI Criminal History Background Check

If you’ve lived outside of Pennsylvania at any point in the past five years, you’ll also need a child abuse clearance, or its equivalent, from each state where you lived during that period. The DHS out-of-state clearances page explains how to request those.

Make sure your clearances are designated for foster care use, not employment or volunteering. Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics.

What it costs

You’re responsible for paying the clearance fees yourself, though some agencies choose to cover costs by setting up business accounts. As of the most recent update from the KeepKidsSafe FAQ, the costs break down like this:

• PA Child Abuse History Certification: $13.00
• Pennsylvania State Police check: $22.00
• DHS FBI fingerprint check: $24.95

The FBI background check application page confirms the $24.95 figure for foster and adoptive parents, which reflects a decrease that took effect January 1, 2025.

How often you renew

Clearances don’t last forever. The DHS child abuse clearances page states that clearances must be renewed every 60 months, meaning every five years. Your agency may require them sooner depending on licensing terms, so don’t assume the five-year mark is the only deadline you’ll ever face.

What can get you disqualified

If you’re arrested, convicted of a disqualifying offense, or named as a perpetrator in a founded or indicated child abuse report, you must notify your foster family care agency in writing within 72 hours. The KeepKidsSafe FAQ is direct about what happens next: if a county agency determines a household member has been found to be the equivalent of a perpetrator of a founded report within the previous five-year period, and that person doesn’t leave the home immediately, the county agency must seek court authorization to remove any foster children from the home.

You’re also required to report any change in household composition within 30 days. If someone new moves in, the clock starts immediately on getting their clearances completed.

What to expect from the home study

You’ve done the paperwork, you’ve started your clearances, and now someone is going to come to your house and talk with you. For a lot of people, that’s the part that feels most nerve-wracking. Here’s what actually helps: the caseworker conducting your home study isn’t there to catch you doing something wrong. They’re there to get to know you.

Who conducts it and what they’re looking for

Your home study is conducted by a caseworker from the foster family care agency working with you, whether that’s your county children and youth agency or a private agency. Pennsylvania regulations on assessing foster parent capability require the agency to evaluate whether you can meet the needs of children in foster care. The caseworker will also walk through your home. State residence requirements specify what your home needs to have, and the walkthrough is the agency’s chance to confirm it.

What you’ll talk about

Think of the home study interview as a structured conversation about your life. Based on Pennsylvania’s foster parent manual, the process is meant to prepare you and help the agency understand your household. You’ll likely discuss:

• Your family background and personal history
• Your reasons for wanting to foster
• How you handle discipline and conflict
• Your support system, including extended family and friends
• Your experience with children, including any children already in your home
• What kinds of children or situations you feel equipped to handle

There are no trick questions. The caseworker wants honest answers, because honest answers help them make a good match between a child and your home. If you’ve had hard experiences in your past, that’s not automatically disqualifying. What matters is context and how you’ve handled things.

The home walkthrough

During the same visit or a separate one, the caseworker will move through your home. Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics on what they’ll be looking at. In general, they’ll be checking that there’s adequate space for a child, that the home is clean and functional, and that basic safety conditions are met.

County application materials also note that the home visit is often when the agency completes orientation with you, going over policies and answering your questions. That means it’s a two-way conversation. Come with questions.

How long the process takes

The home study doesn’t happen in a single afternoon. References need to come back, clearances need to be processed, and the caseworker needs time to complete their written assessment. The full timeline from application to approval depends on how quickly all the pieces come together, including your documents, your references, and the agency’s own caseload. What you can control is your responsiveness.

Pre-service training requirements

Before a child ever steps through your door, you’ll need to complete training. This isn’t just paperwork — it’s the state’s way of making sure you’re not walking into placement blind, and most foster parents say it’s genuinely useful.

What the state requires

55 Pa. Code § 3700.65 requires foster parents to complete training before a child is placed in their home. The regulation covers both pre-service training and ongoing annual training after you’re approved. The state sets the floor, a minimum that every licensed foster family care agency in Pennsylvania must meet. Your agency may require more.

What topics are covered

The specific topics you’ll work through are designed to prepare you for the reality of caring for children who’ve experienced trauma, loss, and instability. Based on what agencies across Pennsylvania use, pre-service training typically covers:

• Understanding behavior in foster children
• Trauma-informed parenting
• Working with birth parents, including visitation
• Supporting normalcy for children in care
• The child welfare team and how it works
• Mandated reporting responsibilities
• Prudent parenting standards

CPR and first aid are also required before certification, as is mandated reporter training.

How training is completed

Some of your pre-service training happens online. The Lawrence County foster parent application packet describes a platform called Foster Parent College, where applicants complete specific online courses before certification. Those courses include topics like trauma-informed parenting, working with birth families, and supporting normalcy. Your caseworker sets up your account once your application is received.

Other required training, including orientation and prudent parenting, may be completed in person during a home visit with your agency worker. CPR and first aid are typically done through a separate certified course.

If both adults live in the home, both need to complete the required trainings. The Monroe County foster care FAQ is direct about this: both adults are viewed as equally responsible for parenting and must attend all required trainings together.

Orientation from your agency

Separate from the topic-based training, § 3700.38 of the state regulations requires agencies to provide orientation and information to foster families. This is where you’ll learn the agency’s specific policies, your rights and responsibilities as a foster parent, and how the placement process works in practice.

Requirements vary by county — check with your agency for specifics on how many hours of pre-service training are required, which platform you’ll use, and whether any in-person sessions are mandatory before your first placement.

License types and renewal in Pennsylvania

You’ve probably heard the term “foster parent license” and assumed it works like a driver’s license, one document that covers everything. In Pennsylvania, it’s a little different. The state doesn’t issue a single universal license to foster parents. Instead, your foster family care agency approves you, and that approval is governed by 55 Pa. Code Chapter 3700, which sets the minimum standards every agency must apply when approving and supervising foster families.

What approval actually means

Your approval is tied to the agency that approves you, not to the state directly. The agency, called a foster family care agency (FFCA), is responsible for recruiting you, evaluating your home, approving your family, and supervising placements. That relationship matters because if you ever switch agencies, you’ll go through a new approval process with the new one.

Temporary and provisional approvals

Not everyone starts with full approval, and that’s normal. The regulations explicitly include a section on temporary and provisional approvals of foster families (§ 3700.70), which means agencies have a defined, lawful way to approve families on a more limited basis while certain steps are still being completed. A temporary or provisional approval can allow a child to be placed in your home before every piece of paperwork is fully resolved. This is particularly relevant if a relative or kinship placement needs to happen quickly. Your agency will walk you through what’s still needed and what the timeline looks like.

Annual renewal

Pennsylvania regulations at § 3700.69 require an annual reevaluation of every approved foster family. That means every year, your agency will review your household to confirm you still meet all the requirements. Your agency visits, reviews your file, confirms your training hours are up to date, and reauthorizes your approval. It’s also a good opportunity to talk through how things are going and whether you want to adjust the types of placements you accept.

The annual reevaluation also triggers updates to background clearances for household members. According to an OCYF bulletin on background check requirements, re-submission of clearances for household members is part of the ongoing approval cycle, not just a one-time requirement at the start.

Requirements vary by county. Check with your agency for specifics on how your annual reevaluation is structured and what documentation you’ll need to provide each year.

Staying licensed: what’s required after approval

Getting licensed isn’t a one-time event. Once you’re approved, your agency stays involved, and the state’s expectations don’t stop at the front door. Here’s what ongoing licensure actually looks like in practice.

Continuing training

55 Pa. Code § 3700.65 requires foster parents to complete continuing education each year. The training keeps your skills current and covers topics relevant to the children you’re caring for. Your agency will track your hours and help you find approved training opportunities.

Annual reevaluations

Every year, your agency will conduct a formal review of your approval. 55 Pa. Code § 3700.69 requires this annual reevaluation, which looks at whether you continue to meet the requirements for approval.

Home inspections

Your home will continue to be reviewed to make sure it still meets safety and residence standards. State foster family residence regulations set the baseline for what your home needs to provide, and your agency has the authority to inspect for compliance with those requirements.

Reporting obligations

When something significant happens involving a child in your home, you’re required to report it. Pennsylvania’s resource parent manual outlines foster parent responsibilities to the agency, which include keeping the agency informed about events affecting the child’s safety and wellbeing. Your agency will be specific about what triggers a required report and how quickly you need to make it.

Household changes

If something changes in your household, your agency needs to know. That includes new people moving in, changes in your living situation, or anything that affects the conditions under which you were originally approved. Foster parent requirements under § 3700.62 establish ongoing obligations that apply throughout your approval, not just at the point of application. A new adult in the home, for example, will typically trigger additional clearance requirements.

Requirements vary by county. Check with your agency for specifics on timelines, notification procedures, and anything beyond the state minimums.