Requirements and Process

At Wellroot, our foster families are an important part of our extended family. We work hard to support them and the children they foster. It takes approximately three months to become a Wellroot foster family. From starting the process to finding permanency for your foster child, we will support you every step of the way.

Who is Eligible to Foster?

If you are a single person considering fostering, you must be at least 25 years old.
If married, you must have been so for at least one year.
In either case, you must be ten years older than the children you are fostering.
To be approved, you may be single, married, divorced, or widowed.
The other adults in your household can only be your spouse or other relatives.
You can have no more than six children in your home under the age of 19 years, including your biological children, adopted children, those for whom you provide daycare and the foster children placed in your home.
You must have a verifiable source of income which allows for you to support your current home and expenses without the compensation you will receive to assist in caring for children placed in your home.

Requirements To Become a Foster Parent

Move your cursor along the line below, clicking on each dot, to learn more about the steps involved in becoming approved to foster children in your home.

Take IMPACT classes with us, the free, state-required training for all potential foster and adoptive parents.

While attending IMPACT classes, complete the required documents including a background check, providing references, medical examinations, drug screening, and financial assessment.

Participate in the home study and inspection process, which takes place over 30 days.

Be approved by Wellroot to care for a certain number of children within your chosen age range.

Say “yes!” when Wellroot calls you to care for one, two or three of the children we seek a home for each week. Be blessed by the experience of sharing your heart, home and family.

How does our program work?

happy five kids Foster families are recruited, trained and approved through Wellroot. These families are then assigned to one of our foster care workers, and we match referred children to a family that will provide a safe, nurturing temporary home. We incorporate a family-centered approach that creates a partnership between the children’s birth and foster families to increase the likelihood that the child will permanently return home to their birth family. When this is not possible, Wellroot assists with the process of establishing a permanent home for the children. We also provide these services:

Training and support foster parents on an ongoing basis so they can successfully provide care
Assessing, planning and coordinating services for the child
Advocating for the child within the court, education and DFCS systems
Collaborating and creating partnerships within the community for the benefit of the child and birth family
Supervising birth parent-child visitation
Maintaining a 24-hour intake and support line

Why Wellroot?

Unfortunately, Wellroot turns away 60 children per week because we don’t have enough foster families, and we need your help. We consistently exceed Georgia’s standards for foster care providers and maintain the highest performance scores in the areas of permanency, safety and well being of children. Our program is faith-based, and our staff and foster parents understand that we seek to show God’s love to children and families. We offer quality service with specialized staff, an intensive staff to client ratio and accreditation from Council on Accreditation and Eagle. Our foster parents express gratitude for the strong support they receive from us.