A resource parent is a caregiver who provides out-of-home care for children in foster care. The Resource Parent is approved to provide care on a temporary (foster care) and/or permanent (adoption and legal guardianship) basis and includes all types of caregivers including approved relatives or approved Non-Relative Extended Family Member.

The role of a resource parent is to provide high quality parenting, consistent with the needs of the child.

Some need the temporary commitment of a resource parents until they are able to return to their birth parents. Others need a permanent commitment of a resource parents who become their forever families.

  • Be at least 23 years old.
  • Have sufficient income to meet your own family’s expenses and financial obligations.
  • Each adult in the home must submit to criminal records clearances, including the California Department of Justice and FBI Live Scan and the Child Abuse Index Check.
  • Have adequate space. – no more than two children per bedroom
  • Must be able to provide a suitable, safe, and stable environment.
  • Have reliable transportation.
  • Complete required training.
  • Meet state regulations.

An adoptive parent is someone that provides a permanent safe, stable, and loving home for a child or children when it has been determined that they cannot safely be returned to their birth parents.

Families who adopt through foster care are eligible to receive monthly adoption assistance payments, Medi-Cal benefits, and post adoption services.

Yes, under the Resource Family approval process, all families are eligible to adopt. Resource Families may become forever families for the children in their care or children whose parental rights have been terminated. When children enter foster care they need a resource family who supports the child’s reunification plan with their birth family, but is also prepared to adopt them should they need an adoptive family.

Yes, Better Life is licensed to provide domestic adoption home study reports if requested by families.

Adoption is permanent. Adoptive parents have the same legal rights and responsibilities as parents with biological children.

A guardian is someone appointed by the court to care for a child until he or she is 18 years old. A guardian is not a child’s legal parent and may be subject to ongoing supervision of the court. Guardianship does not give all the legal rights and responsibilities of a parent to the guardian the way adoption does to an adoptive parent. The court can make a decision about guardianship whether or not the guardian agrees.

Kinship care is when an adult provides custodial care for a related minor child or youth. The adult may be a grandparent, aunt, uncle, older adult sibling, or other relatives; or the adult may be someone unrelated to the child who has a relationship connection with the child.