BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is struggling to find homes for foster teens.
“We need them to be in a stable environment with people who are able to guide them through this part of their life where they are learning to launch into adulthood,” said State Child Welfare Manager of Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services, Athena Long.
State Child Welfare Manager of Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services, Elizabeth Green said, “Those teens are about to exit into this big, bad world into adulthood. They need that parental figure to help them learn and grow just as much as that they can be prepared for. Can you imagine how wonderful that would be?”
Long says there’s approximately 498 children in need of foster care in the Baton Rouge area. She says those who become a foster parent, also become certified to be an adopted parent.
“In the state of Louisiana we do certify foster parents, so when you come in to be certified as a foster family, you are also certified as an adoptive parent,” she said. “And should a child’s permanency plan go toward TPR (termination of parental rights), then at that point, you could be considered as a placement for the child or you can also look at children that are on our adoption exchanges to see if their children are already free and ready to be a part of a forever family to adopt.”
Green says Louisiana is making the program easier for future foster parents by doing things like streaming online orientations and pre-service training, which makes things shorter in the foster care process.
For more information on how to become a foster care family, call 225-287-7491 or click here.
