The single most common foster care inquiry we get is: Can I foster a newborn baby?

The answer is, of course, yes. If you meet all the qualifications, you can indeed. However, we want to tell you a little more about the larger situation, and ask you to be open to other possibilities.

First, Washington ranks 1st out of the states for proportion of children under 1 entering care and 43rd for children age 17. That’s good news. It means we’re acting quickly when children are born into unsafe situations.

Second, of the 8,993 children in foster care, 3,838 (almost half) are 4 years-old and younger. So there is definitely a need for foster parents willing to care for young children.

However, LOTS of other people are interested in fostering young children. And significantly fewer people get involved in foster care specifically hoping to care for an older youth. Which is odd to us because older youth are, almost always, easier to parent. They’re in school much of the day, they usually know how to handle basic hygiene themselves, and often have a well-developed skill for independent play. Sure, when older youth have big behaviors, it can be a little louder, but the fundamental causes and solutions are much the same.

Since fewer families have older children specifically in mind, these children are often much harder to place in homes. And that fact is frequently the cause of an older child’s behaviors. It’s a cry for help, an expression of their anxiety that maybe nobody will ever want to give them a safe place to grow up. Imagine how quickly an older child’s behavior can change when they meet you and begin to believe that you are a reliable and safe adult in whom they can trust.

And, since so many foster families have young children in mind, there can sometimes be a bottleneck of available homes who are only interested in caring for very young children while older children languish in unstable night-by-night placements.

If you’d like to know how to have the biggest impact as a foster parent, consider getting licensed for multiple children ages 0-18. That way you’ll be ready to care for a sibling group with a huge age spread, and you’ll be able to do it in a single home. Siblings are often separated in foster care, and sorrow about that separation is frequently the source of adverse behaviors. But if you’re willing to help keep them together, that can do wonders for their health and healing.

Visit skookumkids.org/fostercare to learn more about what type and terms of foster parenting license might accomplish the most good and work best for your family.