Children, Youth and Families

Foster Care

Types of Foster Care

All Dane County Foster parents are licensed in the same manner but there are different specialty functions which they perform such as:

Emergency Placement

Foster homes who provide emergency placement are “on-call” to take children into their homes 24 hours per day. Children's placements in emergency homes are typically 30 days or less.

Concurrent Placements

Foster homes who provide concurrent care agree work with the social worker and birth parents to return the child to the birth parents' care, but are willing to consider adoption of the child if a return home is not deemed possible by the courts.

Sibling Placements

Foster homes who agree to take sibling groups together.

Independent Living Skills

Foster parents who specialize in working with teens aged 16-18 assist youth in such matters as goal setting, and positive communication as well as concrete skills such as seeking employment, cooking and money management.

Child-Specific License

The child's social worker recommends a family for the care of a specific child.

For More Information, please call the Dane County Department of Human Services at 608-242-NEED (242-6333).