Tips for Foster Parents and Caregivers

Trying to meet the needs of a child with a disability while not having legal custody can be challenging. For those who feel like they’re in unfamiliar territory, you’ve come to the right place. 

Navigate Life Texas is for parents, caregivers and others caring for and supporting children with disabilities and special health care needs. Information and stories on this website come from parents, caregivers, family members of children with disabilities and other experts offering information and tips on every part of life:

• From diagnosis and medical care to school and special education.
• From paying for things a child needs to helping them find friends.
• From legal tools and rights to the child becoming an adult and everything in between. 

Navigate Life Texas also posts blog articles with stories from parents and caregivers, videos and a search page can help you find services, groups and events throughout Texas. Use the Road Map webpage to help steer through this website.

Below, we have collected information and tips specifically for foster parents or grandparents and other caregivers like host home families, and you can find information on legal tools, Medicaid, education and other topics.

Information for Foster Parents

You are not alone as a foster parent when searching for services and supports. Many children in the foster care system have disabilities.

Foster care is when a child lives with a certified foster family because they can’t live safely at home or with another relative. Learn more and find resources on the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) foster care webpage.

Kinship care is when DFPS decides a child can’t stay safely at home and a relative is chosen to care for the child. Learn more on the DFPS kinship care webpage. There are times when family members might care for a child when a parent needs help, but DFPS is not involved. Read tips for those situations below.

When a child with a disability comes into your home after being removed from their parents, it can be overwhelming. You might not know everything about their needs or know what services are available. 

Legal Decision-Making and Rights

For foster parents, part of the DFPS process is to make sure caregivers have a power of attorney in place. Different power of attorney documents give you the legal power to make important decisions for a child in your care. The three main types are medical power of attorney, educational power of attorney and financial power of attorney. 

Read more about what power of attorney is, what it can do and why it’s so important.

Children in foster care have many rights that are helpful to know. Children with disabilities have even more legal rights. 

Medicaid and Community Support

Children in foster care automatically get Medicaid in the STAR Health program. Medicaid offers many services for children with disabilities and special health care needs. You will also have a service coordinator you can call for help. Visit the Medicaid for Children with Disabilities and STAR Health webpages to learn more.

If the child you are caring for has an intellectual or developmental disability (IDD), a developmental disability specialist might be able to help your family. Find your Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority (LIDDA) to ask about services, including respite care for times when you need a break.

You might be able to get a waiver through Home and Community-Based Services (HCS) Aging Out of Care Waiver. The HCS waiver program might also be able to help with home modifications and other support for a child or young adult with a disability. Ask your Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworker or STAR Health coordinator for more information. 

Education Support

The special education process can be a lot to figure out. There are DFPS education specialists who can help you understand what to do. They can also come along to meetings or help you work with schools on things like Admission, Review, and Dismissal (ARD) meetings, discipline or behavior challenges, bullying, suspensions or hearings, and more. 

See the DFPS education specialist page to locate a specialist in your area. The DFPS program suggests foster parents and kinship caregivers call them the earlier the better, such as before an ARD meeting instead of after. 

You can also ask your CPS caseworker to help contact an education specialist.

Young children are approved to get public school pre-K services if they were ever in DFPS or foster care. This might include Early Childhood Special Education services. 

Adoption and Adulthood

Some foster and kinship caregivers have had a child with a disability in their home for many years, or maybe starting when the child was very young, and might consider adopting the child. 

Adoption means you become a child’s legal parent. It also means DFPS support and funding ends. Kinship and foster parents can ask about adoption assistance, which may include help with paying for certain things and receiving Medicaid services. 

Adoption is one choice, but not the only one. Here are a few others for teenagers and young adults in foster care: 

• When a child with a disability is a young adult, a caregiver can apply to become an HCS provider or home. They do not need to be related to the child. If approved, this includes funding for the caregiver. Read more on the Housing Choices for Young Adults with Disabilities page. 
• A child turning 18 can be in extended foster care. This gives the child and caregiver DFPS supports and funding for added months or years. 
• A caregiver can apply for Permanent Managing Conservatorship. This means they legally care for a child until age 18, or maybe age 21, and can still qualify for funding and support from DFPS.

Information for Grandparents and Other Caregivers

As a grandparent, godparent, other family member, close family friend, host home family or other caregiver, you might find yourself supporting a child with a disability or special care needs. Sometimes it’s for a few days or months. Sometimes it’s longer. Above and Beyond Caring, a Texas Home and Community-Based Services (HCS) provider, explains host homes further.

Here are some tips from people who work with family members and other caregivers:

• If the legal parent is not available, be sure to have power of attorney documents so you can make medical, educational, financial and other legal decisions for the child in your care. Read our page on power of attorney to learn about how to get one and what it covers. 
• Medicaid waivers can help your child with important services in the future and into adulthood. Consider adding your child to interest lists (waiting lists) for waivers that meet their needs now or as they get older. This is something to look into soon as the interest lists are many years long.
• Texas has financial benefits for grandparents that cover basic needs, food and medical care. See the Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) Help for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren guide (PDF). Grandparents must be caring for a child in their home, but don’t need to have legal custody.  
• For the parent or caregiver of a child with serious mental health needs who has tried community services and is at risk of giving up custody, the HHS Residential Treatment Center Project might be helpful. With DFPS permission, a child can go to a treatment center for help while a parent or caregiver keeps legal custody. 

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Connect with Other Caregivers

Connecting with other parents and caregivers of children with disabilities and special health care needs might be the most important way to learn the inside scoop about what to look or ask for, what works and what helps other families. See our page on connecting with other parents and finding other caregivers. These connections are important for any caregiver of a child with a disability, whether it’s a parent, grandparent, foster parent or someone else.