How to Become a Foster Parent in Virginia

According to Foster Virginia, the state’s foster care program is run through the Virginia Department of Social Services, with local departments across the Commonwealth working to place children who can’t safely stay with their families.

The path to becoming a licensed foster parent involves an application, background checks, a home study, and required training. The sections below walk you through each step so you know what’s coming and what to do next.

Who can be a foster parent in Virginia?

The requirements to become a foster parent in Virginia are probably broader than you think. You don’t have to own your home. You don’t have to be married. You don’t have to be wealthy. What the state is looking for is a stable, safe household where a child can be cared for, and that description fits a lot of different kinds of people and families.

Here’s what the standards actually require.

Age and marital status

Virginia doesn’t require you to be married or partnered. Single adults can and do become licensed foster parents. According to Foster Virginia’s overview of the process, you need to be at least 18 years old, but there’s no upper age limit specified in state standards. What matters is whether you’re physically and emotionally able to meet a child’s needs.

Income and financial stability

You don’t need a high income, but you do need to show that your household can cover its own expenses without relying on foster care payments to get by. The Foster Virginia FAQ is clear that foster care payments are meant to cover the cost of caring for the foster child, not to serve as household income. If your finances are stable enough that adding a child’s expenses won’t put you under, you’re likely in good shape.

Physical and mental health

You’ll need to show that your health, both physical and mental, doesn’t prevent you from caring for a child. This typically means a health screening as part of the home study process. The standard isn’t perfection. It’s whether your health allows you to meet a child’s daily needs and respond in an emergency.

Who lives in your home

Everyone in your household matters, not just you. Virginia’s background check regulations for child welfare agencies require criminal history checks and a child abuse and neglect central registry check for household members. If anyone in your home has a conviction for what the regulations call a “barrier crime,” that will disqualify the household. A prior criminal record that doesn’t involve barrier crimes isn’t an automatic no, but it will be reviewed.

The home study process will look at your whole household, including other children already living with you. Having biological or adopted children at home doesn’t disqualify you. Agencies consider the needs and dynamics of everyone who’ll be under that roof.

Your home itself

You don’t need to own your home or meet a specific square footage requirement, but your living space does need to be safe, clean, and able to accommodate an additional child. A home study will include a walkthrough of your physical space. Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics on things like sleeping arrangements and fire safety.

The bottom line

Foster Virginia puts it plainly: what children in foster care need most is a caring, committed adult. The eligibility requirements exist to protect children, not to screen out everyone except a narrow ideal.

Background check requirements in Virginia

Before a child ever sets foot in your home, Virginia wants to know who lives there. Understanding what’s involved makes it much less intimidating.

What the checks actually are

“Background checks” in Virginia means three things, not one. According to Virginia’s background check regulations for child welfare agencies, the full background check consists of:

• A sworn statement or affirmation disclosing any criminal convictions, pending charges, or founded complaints of child abuse or neglect, whether inside or outside Virginia
• A criminal history record check through Virginia’s Central Criminal Records Exchange, which covers convictions in the Commonwealth
• A national fingerprint-based check forwarded through the Central Criminal Records Exchange to the FBI, which covers criminal history across all states
• A search of Virginia’s child abuse and neglect central registry
• A search of the child abuse and neglect registry of any other state where a prospective parent or adult household member has lived in the past five years

That last item matters if you’ve moved around. Even if you’ve only been in Virginia for two years, the state will check registries wherever you lived before.

Who has to complete them

It’s not just you. Virginia Code section 63.2-901.1 requires background checks on every adult household member residing in the home where a child would be placed. If your spouse, a grown child, or any other adult lives with you, they go through the same process.

What it costs

Here’s something that surprises a lot of people: the state criminal records check and central registry search are free to you. The cost of the national fingerprint check is different. According to Virginia’s foster care code, the local board or licensed child-placing agency is responsible for the national fingerprint check, but they may require you to pay the cost of fingerprinting, the FBI check fee, or both. Ask your agency upfront what you’ll owe, because this varies.

Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics.

What can disqualify you

Virginia law defines certain convictions as “barrier crimes,” and a conviction for any of them is an automatic disqualification. The State Board of Social Services background check regulations list these offenses in full. They include:

• Murder or manslaughter
• Abduction
• Sexual assault offenses
• Felony drug possession or distribution
• Child abuse or neglect
• Possession of child pornography
• Robbery, arson, or burglary
• A range of other violent felonies

A founded complaint of child abuse or neglect, even if it no longer appears on the central registry because the record was purged, also counts as a disqualifying background. There’s an important exception, though. If you requested an administrative hearing and the finding was overturned, you’re not considered to have a disqualifying background. The process gives people the ability to challenge findings, and those challenges matter.

Not every criminal history is an automatic bar. The barrier crime list is specific. If you have something in your past that isn’t on that list, be honest with your agency and let them walk you through how it’s evaluated. Many people with imperfect histories have become licensed foster parents.

What to expect from the home study

You’ve done the paperwork, you’ve started your training, and now someone is going to come to your house. Here’s what’s actually happening during a home study, and why it’s less like an inspection and more like a long conversation.

What the home study actually is

Before any child can be placed with you, Virginia law requires that a home study be completed. According to the Code of Virginia, Title 63.2, Chapter 9, home studies must follow the Mutual Family Assessment template developed by the state Department of Social Services. That template matters because it means the process is structured around getting to know your family, not hunting for reasons to disqualify you.

The caseworker conducting your study is typically from your local department of social services or a licensed child-placing agency. Their job is to understand who you are, how your household functions, and what kind of child you’re best equipped to support.

What the caseworker is looking for

The conversation will cover a lot of ground. Expect to talk about your background, your family history, your relationships, your parenting approach, and your reasons for wanting to foster. They’ll want to understand how you handle stress, how you discipline children, and what your support system looks like. They’ll also walk through your home, which is a normal part of confirming that your physical space is safe and appropriate for a child.

The Foster and Adoptive Home Approval Standards define what providers are expected to offer: 24-hour substitute family care, room and board, and services for children entrusted to a child-placing agency. The home study is how the caseworker verifies that you can actually deliver on that. They’re looking for stability, honesty, and genuine readiness, not perfection.

One thing worth knowing: your home study, once completed, is transferable between localities and agencies within Virginia. That means if you move or change agencies, you won’t necessarily have to start from scratch.

Who else in your household is involved

The study isn’t just about the adults applying. The caseworker will likely want to speak with everyone in your home, including children already living there. This isn’t meant to be intrusive. It’s a way of understanding the full picture of your household and making sure everyone is on board with what fostering actually involves.

How long it takes

The honest answer is that timelines vary. The home study itself involves multiple visits and interviews, and how quickly it moves depends on your agency’s caseload, how promptly you can gather required documents, and how the conversations unfold. Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics on what to expect in your area.

What you can control is your own responsiveness. Agencies want to approve families. The caseworker is not your adversary.

Pre-service training requirements

Before a child ever sets foot in your home, you’ll complete what Virginia calls preservice training. This isn’t a formality. It’s the state’s way of making sure you understand what these kids have been through and what they need from you.

What the state requires

Virginia’s foster care training regulations require local departments to ensure every foster and adoptive provider completes preservice training before placement. The regulation lays out 23 core competencies that the training must address. That list covers a lot of ground, and it’s worth knowing what you’re signing up to learn:

• Why abuse and neglect happen, and how they affect children’s development
• How trauma, early experiences, and multiple placements affect a child’s ability to attach and grow
• Normal stages of child development, so you can recognize when a child is struggling
• How the foster care system works, including the legal relationships between courts, local departments, and families
• Reunification as the primary goal, and how to support a child’s relationship with their birth family
• Discipline techniques that are effective and don’t involve physical punishment
• How to support a child’s cultural identity, sense of history, and connection to their roots
• Your rights and responsibilities as a foster parent
• Mandated reporter obligations, meaning you’re legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect
• Normalcy for youth in foster care, which is about letting kids in care have ordinary childhood experiences

That last point matters more than it might sound. Virginia law specifically requires training on “normalcy,” which means understanding that foster kids should be able to join sports teams, go to sleepovers, and do the things other kids do.

If you work with a licensed child-placing agency

If you’re licensed through a private child-placing agency rather than directly through a local department, the training requirements are parallel but come from a different section of the administrative code. Standards for licensed child-placing agencies require agencies to provide preservice training covering the same core competencies, and your completion of that training must be documented in your provider file. The training has to be consistent with your agency’s program statement, and additional training is required annually after you’re licensed.

How training is completed

The regulations allow training to be delivered through multiple modalities, so you’re not necessarily sitting in a classroom for weeks. Online courses, seminars, and conferences all count. Your local department or agency will tell you exactly how their program is structured. What doesn’t change is the requirement: you complete the training before a child is placed with you, and you keep completing annual in-service training every year after that as a condition of renewal.

Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics on how many hours are expected, whether in-person sessions are required, and what training program your local department uses.

License types and renewal in Virginia

You’ve probably heard the word “approval” used more than “license” when people talk about becoming a foster parent in Virginia. That’s not an accident. The two pathways through the system work differently, and which one applies to you depends on who is approving your home.

The two approval pathways

Virginia uses two separate regulatory frameworks for foster home approval, and they govern different types of homes.

If you’re working with your local department of social services, your home will be approved under Virginia’s foster and adoptive home approval standards for local departments, which is Chapter 211 of the Virginia Administrative Code. This covers resource, foster, and adoptive families who go through their county or city agency.

If you’re working with a licensed private child-placing agency, the standards come from a different chapter entirely. Under Virginia’s background check regulations for child welfare agencies, approved foster and adoptive parents through child-placing agencies include resource, foster, adoptive, treatment foster, and short-term foster parents. Each of those categories describes a different kind of care you’re prepared to provide, from short-term emergency placements to longer-term treatment foster care for children with higher support needs.

Requirements vary by county. Check with your agency for specifics about which categories they use and what each one involves for your household.

What each category covers

The category you’re approved under shapes what kinds of placements your agency can make with you:

• Resource or foster care covers the broadest range of children, including those in temporary placements while their families work toward reunification.
• Treatment foster care is for children with more complex medical, behavioral, or emotional needs. It typically requires additional training.
• Short-term foster care covers placements that are expected to be brief, such as emergency or respite situations.
• Adoptive home approval applies when a family is approved specifically to adopt, though many families carry both foster and adoptive approval at the same time.

Provisional and temporary approvals

Not every approval is full and permanent from the start, and that’s normal. Virginia allows for provisional and temporary approvals in certain circumstances, which means a family can begin receiving placements before every element of their full approval is finalized. This is most common when there’s an urgent placement need or when a family is still completing a specific requirement.

A temporary approval is typically time-limited. It exists so that a child who needs a home right now doesn’t have to wait while paperwork catches up. Your worker will tell you exactly what conditions are attached to your temporary status and what you need to do to move to full approval.

Annual renewal

Your approval doesn’t last forever, and that’s by design. Foster Virginia describes the approval as something that requires ongoing maintenance, which in practice means your agency will check in with you regularly and your full approval comes up for renewal on an annual basis.

Renewal typically involves confirming that your household circumstances haven’t changed in ways that would affect your approval, that your training hours are current, and that any required background checks are up to date.

If something significant changes in your household between renewals, such as a new adult moving in or a change in your home, you’re generally required to notify your agency right away rather than waiting for the annual cycle.

Staying licensed: what’s required after approval

Getting licensed isn’t a one-time event. Your approval needs to be renewed, and the expectations on you as a foster parent continue throughout the time you’re caring for children.

Annual in-service training

One of the most consistent requirements you’ll face after approval is annual training. Virginia’s foster and adoptive home approval standards require every provider to complete in-service training each year, and completing that training is a condition of reapproval. The regulation is clear: no training, no renewed approval.

The training itself doesn’t have to follow a rigid format. It can include online courses, seminars, or conferences, and your local department is responsible for making opportunities available. The content is meant to be relevant to the actual needs of the children and families you’re working with.

Reapproval and home reevaluations

Your approval doesn’t run indefinitely on its own. The annual in-service training requirement is explicitly tied to reapproval, meaning your agency will be looking for confirmation that you’ve completed it before renewing your status. Your agency will also continue to be involved in your home during placements, which means the kind of home environment review you went through during initial approval doesn’t simply disappear once you’re licensed.

Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency for specifics on how reevaluations are structured and how frequently formal reviews occur in your jurisdiction.

Confidentiality obligations

Once children are placed in your home, you take on a legal obligation to protect their privacy. Virginia’s foster and adoptive home approval standards require foster parents to keep confidential all information about the child, their family, and the circumstances that brought the child into care. Your agency is required to explain these obligations to you, but the responsibility rests with you. This applies to conversations with neighbors, posts on social media, and anything else that could identify the child or their situation.

Mandated reporter responsibilities

As a licensed foster parent, you’re a mandated reporter of child abuse and neglect. That status doesn’t come and go with placements. It means you’re legally required to report reasonable suspicions of abuse or neglect. Virginia’s foster and adoptive home approval standards list mandated reporter laws and responsibilities as a required topic in foster parent training, which signals how seriously Virginia treats this obligation.

Notifying your agency about household changes

Your approval is based on your household as it existed at the time of your study. If something significant changes, you’re expected to tell your agency. New adults moving into the home, changes in your employment or financial situation, or other shifts in household composition can all affect your approval status. Background check requirements apply to household members, so a new adult in your home will likely need to complete clearances before a child can remain placed there. Requirements vary by county, so check with your agency promptly any time your household changes, rather than waiting for your next scheduled review.