Services
Are you ready to become a foster parent? LVA is actively recruiting foster parents for children and teens in your community and surrounding areas.
Children in PA temporary foster care
Minimum age to become a foster parent
Typical kinship licensing timeline
Our mission
Loftus-Vergari and Associates is actively recruiting foster parents for children and teens in your community and surrounding areas. A foster parent needs to be committed to providing a safe and nurturing family environment for a child until he or she can return home to live with their biological family.
Children across Pennsylvania
Statewide impact
Loving families, much like yours, play a pivotal role in the success of Pennsylvania's child welfare system. Presently, there are approximately 15,000 children in temporary foster care across the state. As a foster parent, you have a unique opportunity to make a profound and enduring impact on the lives of these children.
Getting started
Individuals interested in becoming foster parents must be at least 21 years old. Becoming a foster family involves a thorough background check to ensure the child's safety. The agency conducts criminal background checks and child abuse clearances for everyone in your home aged 18 and older. While financial wealth is not a prerequisite, the approval process involves a comprehensive assessment of your overall family situation and history, including financial stability. The physical aspects of your home are also evaluated to ensure it offers adequate space and meets all safety standards.
In addition to receiving training and support, foster parents are reimbursed for the expenses associated with caring for a foster child, and healthcare costs are typically covered.
Foster parenting demands a unique type of person who can provide stability to children in crisis when they cannot remain in their own homes. These children still require the fundamental elements all kids need: security, nurturing, and guidance. Foster parents step in to provide these essential elements on a temporary basis.
Most children remain in foster care for a brief period, with the majority eventually returning to their biological families. A foster home becomes a vital sanctuary, safeguarding children, helping them cope with their grief and loss, and preparing them for their eventual reunion with their families.
While most foster children reunite with their biological families, if the court determines that it is not in the child's best interest, parental rights may be terminated, leading to potential adoption.
Adoption pathway
If a foster family decides to adopt their foster child, they will undergo an adoptive family profile or home study. This process includes training, coaching, and interviews regarding the lifelong commitment to adoption, distinct from the temporary nature of foster care. Even though foster parents have cared for the child and undergone previous foster home studies, the same legal requirements apply to them as to any adoptive parent.
Family-first care
Kinship care occurs when grandparents, other relatives, or in some cases a fictive family member (someone who is close to the family and has a strong emotional relationship with the child but is not related through blood) assumes care of a child who has been removed from their parents by Children and Youth Services. There are two forms of kinship care that exist — both formal and informal care.
When children are removed from their biological parents' homes and placed into the legal custody of the County Children and Youth agency, they enter the foster care system. Family members wishing to assume the role of a formal kinship caregiver must become a licensed foster home — a process typically spanning a minimum of 60 days and including criminal background checks, child-abuse clearances, FBI fingerprinting, home studies, training, and ongoing collaboration with a children and youth caseworker.
Informal kinship care occurs when a grandparent or another relative takes on the responsibility of caring for a relative child without involving family court proceedings and without receiving financial support from the child welfare system.
Watch & learn
Take the next step
Ready to learn more about fostering, adoption, or support services? Reach out today — we'd love to hear from you.
