NORFOLK, Va. — The COVID-19 pandemic could have a “detrimental” impact on Virginia’s foster care system.
Officials are warning measures like mandatory closures and stay-at-home orders are leading potential foster families to wait longer to foster a child.
The longer potential parents wait to foster a child, the longer children have to wait to find a home.
Dr. Nancy Toscano, the COO of non-profit foster care organization UMFS, said officials are worried the coronavirus pandemic could cause a “gap” in the foster parent pipeline.
“I’m incredibly concerned the need has always been great even before this, but this is going to exacerbate it,” Toscano said.
“Because of the closures and the social distancing measures we know that some families are maybe waiting to make that step to become a foster parent and that can be detrimental.”
She said it’s “very difficult” to find foster parents and the training takes anywhere from three to six months. She explained if potential parents don’t act now, there could be a “dire situation” in the future: kids needing homes, but nowhere for them to go.
“We’re not feeling it right now… but we’re going to feel it in a few months,” she said. “We know the need is great now but with this pause in our society, we know that pipeline will shrink even further, we’ll have a very critical need in a few months.”
Toscano said they’re hoping to get ahead of the problem by moving training and information sessions online so families who want to foster can start preparing now.
“It’s critical for folks who are thinking about doing this to make the step because we’ve moved things to online and virtual where you can manage a lot of those steps online,” she said.
“A couple of exceptions -- obviously CPR, first aid, we’ll wait until the stay-at-home orders are lifted, we do a home study and we’ll wait to come into the home until that time -- but most everything else is done online."
To sign up for a virtual information session, visit the UMFS website here, and select the option for Tidewater meetings.