How to Become a Foster Parent in Texas: Requirements and Home Study

To become a foster parent in Texas, you must be at least 21, financially stable, and willing to work through a child-placing agency to complete training, background checks, and a home study before the state issues your foster care verification. Most families finish in three to six months, and how quickly you move through each step largely determines the pace.¹

Who Qualifies

You can apply single or married. The baseline: at least 21 years old, financially stable, and a responsible, mature adult.² Financial stability means your household can support itself without leaning on foster care reimbursement. Agencies verify this with pay stubs, tax returns, or financial statements. You must be a U.S. citizen, a legal permanent resident, or otherwise lawfully residing in the country.

Each prospective foster parent needs either a high school diploma or GED from a recognized program, or must pass an agency screening confirming basic reading, writing, and math along with the ability to serve as an appropriate role model.³ Good physical and mental health are expected. Every household member over age one must have a documented tuberculosis screening, done per CDC recommendations, within 30 days before or after starting to live in the home.⁴

Background Checks and Disqualifying Offenses

FBI fingerprint checks are required for every prospective foster parent, everyone 14 or older living in the home, caregivers, volunteers with unsupervised access to children, frequent and regular visitors, and babysitters who provide unsupervised care.⁵ Anyone who lived outside Texas within the past five years must also clear out-of-state abuse and neglect history checks and sex offender registry checks.

Some criminal convictions permanently bar you from fostering. These are tied to federal requirements under 42 USC 671(a)(20)(A) and include murder, manslaughter, sexual assault, aggravated assault, trafficking, kidnapping, arson, injury to a child or elderly person, abandoning or endangering a child, indecency with a child, and solicitation of a minor, among others.⁶ Felony convictions for domestic violence and repeated violations of protective orders also disqualify applicants. Offenses that don’t appear on the absolute-bar list may still affect an application depending on the nature of the offense, how long ago it happened, and the agency’s assessment.

Pre-Service Training

Before licensing, you’ll complete the National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC), a 19-hour pre-service program covering trauma-informed care, child development, foster care policies, and how to prevent and report abuse or neglect.⁷ Prospective foster and adoptive parents typically train together, and the training period doubles as a window for both you and the agency to assess whether fostering, adopting, or both is the right fit.²

You must also obtain CPR and First Aid certification and keep them current for as long as you foster. Some agencies require additional training on medication administration depending on the children they place.

The Home Study

The home study is the most personal step. A social worker visits your home to evaluate safety, living conditions, and sleeping arrangements. They conduct individual interviews with each prospective foster parent, every child aged three or older living in the home (full or part time), and each other household member.⁸ Expect questions about your personal history, family dynamics, motivations for fostering, and how you handle conflict and discipline.

Gather supporting documents before the first visit: financial records, medical statements, personal references (both relative and non-relative), proof of marriage or divorce if applicable, birth certificates, and Social Security cards.² Most delays trace back to this stage. Incomplete paperwork or scheduling conflicts can easily add weeks.

Getting Your Home Ready

Your home doesn’t have to be big or new, but it does have to meet specific standards. You must provide adequate sleeping space for each child, allow fire and health and safety inspections, keep all pets vaccinated, and agree to a nonphysical discipline policy.² Under that policy, every disciplinary measure must teach acceptable behavior and self-control without causing physical or emotional harm, and the caregiver must explain the reason for any consequence at the time it’s imposed.⁹

A foster family home may care for up to six children total, and that count includes your own biological and adopted children, any foster or respite children, and any children you provide daycare for.¹⁰ Narrow exceptions allow seven or eight children when it’s needed to keep siblings together, maintain a meaningful existing relationship, or care for a child with severe disabilities, but those need specific agency approval.

The Steps in Order

The path runs like this: contact a child-placing agency, attend an orientation, complete pre-service training, undergo background checks, finish your home study, and submit your completed application package.¹ The agency reviews everything for completeness and compliance with state minimum standards and then makes a licensing decision. Three to six months is typical; applicants who stay on top of paperwork sometimes finish faster.

Once approved, you receive your foster care verification (the formal name for a foster license in Texas), and your agency starts matching you with children based on the child’s needs, your family’s strengths and preferences, and practical factors like school proximity and sibling placement.

What Foster Parents Are Paid

Texas sorts foster children into four service levels based on the intensity of care they need, and reimbursement scales with the level. The figures below are the minimum daily amounts that must reach the foster family, effective September 1, 2025.¹¹

Basic: children who need routine guidance and supervision — $27.07 per day (about $812 per month).
Moderate: children who need more structured support and may have intermittent medical or behavioral needs — $47.37 per day (about $1,421 per month).
Specialized: children needing 24-hour supervision and caregivers with specialized training for therapeutic or medical interventions — $57.86 per day (about $1,736 per month).
Intense: children with the highest needs, including serious medical or behavioral conditions requiring constant professional-level care — $92.43 per day (about $2,773 per month).

The state pays a higher daily rate to your child-placing agency, and the agency passes through at least the minimum to you. Some agencies pay above the floor, so it’s worth asking about rates when comparing agencies. Reimbursement covers the child’s food, clothing, personal supplies, and daily living costs; it isn’t income for the foster parent.

After You’re Licensed

Annual training continues after licensing. If you’re caring for a child receiving only basic child-care services, each foster parent completes 10 hours of training per year. For a child receiving treatment-level services, that rises to 25 hours per parent.¹² In a two-parent home, hours combine toward the 20- or 50-hour total, and the split doesn’t have to be even. Your agency assigns a case manager for ongoing support, coordination, and training referrals.

The agency also evaluates your home against licensing standards every two years. Keeping up with annual training, keeping CPR and First Aid current, and staying in touch with your caseworker are the practical keys to an uneventful renewal.

If You’re a Relative of the Child

Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other relatives of a child who has entered DFPS conservatorship follow a separate kinship path. Texas Health and Human Services built distinct kinship standards to reduce barriers relatives face during verification while still protecting the child’s safety.¹³ Kinship caregivers who complete a home assessment, sign a caregiver agreement, begin training, and whose family net income is at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty limit may qualify for Relative and Other Designated Caregiver payments. Longer-term Permanency Care Assistance is available to kinship caregivers who become verified foster parents, foster the child for at least six consecutive months, and then obtain permanent managing conservatorship.

If Fostering Leads to Adoption

Many foster parents eventually adopt a child in their care, and Texas builds the process to allow that from the start. Foster and adoptive parents share the same basic requirements — age, financial stability, background checks, and home study — and train together in the same pre-service curriculum.² If adoption becomes a child’s permanency plan, you don’t start over.

Adopting from foster care in Texas has no placement fees. Adoptive families may also claim the federal adoption tax credit. For the 2025 tax year, the maximum credit was $17,280 per child, fully available at a modified adjusted gross income of $259,190 or less and phasing out completely at $299,190.¹⁴ The IRS adjusts these numbers annually for inflation, so check the current figures when you file. Children adopted from foster care with special needs may qualify for the full credit even if actual out-of-pocket expenses were lower.

1
Department of Family and Protective Services. Steps to Become a Foster/Adoptive Parent
2
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Requirements for Foster/Adopt Families
3
Texas Health and Human Services. Foster Home Studies Content Guide
4
Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 26-749.1417 – Who Must Have a Tuberculosis (TB) Examination?
5
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Background Checks FAQ – CPS Foster and Adoptive Homes
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Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Chart 2 – Assessing Criminal History Offenses
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Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Foster Parent Training
8
Child Welfare Information Gateway. Home Study Requirements for Prospective Foster Parents – Texas
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Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 26-749.1951
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Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 26-749.2551 – What Is the Maximum Number of Children a Foster Family Home May Care For?
11
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Rates for 24-Hour Residential Child-Care Reimbursements
12
Legal Information Institute. Texas Administrative Code 26-749.930 – What Are the Annual Training Requirements?
13
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Kinship Care
14
Internal Revenue Service. Adoption Credit