"Strong Families With Healthy Children
Within a Safe Community"

This program is for people interested in providing care for a special needs child(ren) from the Minnesota Waiting Children's Program or foster care program. "Most of Minnesota's waiting children live in foster family homes. Others have had a single long-term placement away from their birth families. Many have backgrounds of neglect and abuse and their behaviors may reflect these experiences. Some may have physical or emotional disabilities and their birth families were simply unable to care for them."

Besides adopting children from the Minnesota Children's Waiting Program, there are two other ways that you can provide care to children in Olmsted County.

Foster Care:
Providing short term, substitute care to children who will likely return to their birth families. If interested in this program, we will refer you to our foster care program since this requires you to hold a foster care license.

Concurrent Planning/Permanency Resource Family:
Providing foster care to children while having an active role with the agency to help reunify these children with their birth families. If reunification is not possible, your family is willing to adopt the children so they do not have to move to another placement. On July 1, 1999, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law called Concurrent Planning. This law affects children who are up to the age of eight or a sibling group where one child is up to the age of eight. Under this law, birth parents have six months to complete the necessary steps (or be making significant progress) to be reunified with their children. If interested in this program, we will work with foster care to complete your home study since not only is an approved adoption study necessary to participate but so is foster care license.