How to Become a Foster Parent in North Dakota

For families interested in foster-to-adopt, becoming a licensed foster parent is the entry point. You cannot participate in the AASK foster-to-adopt program without a foster care license. The licensing process is also where many families first encounter the real shape of what caring for a child in state custody involves — and what concurrent planning means for families who want to eventually adopt.

Minimum Requirements

To be licensed as a foster parent in North Dakota, you must:

• Be at least 18 years of age
• Pass a fingerprint-based criminal background check through the FBI and North Dakota state records
• Pass a child abuse and neglect index search
• Have adequate income to support your household (foster care payments supplement but do not replace household income)
• Have a physical home that meets state safety standards
• Complete the PRIDE pre-service training

Single adults, married couples, and unmarried partners can all be licensed. There is no upper age limit and no requirement to own (versus rent) your home.

The PRIDE Training

PRIDE stands for Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education. It's a standardized pre-service training curriculum used across North Dakota and many other states. The training covers:

• Child development and the effects of abuse, neglect, and trauma
• The foster care system and the roles of different parties (case workers, courts, birth families)
• Concurrent planning — what it means to simultaneously work toward reunification and prepare for permanency
• Building relationships with birth families
• Meeting children's physical, emotional, and developmental needs
• The transition from foster care to adoption when reunification isn't possible

PRIDE training takes approximately 27 hours total, spread across multiple sessions. It can be completed through a licensed agency partner (Catholic Charities ND, Nexus-PATH) or in some cases through the county Human Service Zone.

The Home Study / Preplacement Assessment

Concurrent with or following PRIDE training, a preplacement assessment is conducted of your home and family. The assessment includes:

• In-home interviews (at least one visit in your home)
• Documentation review: medical clearances, financial verification, reference letters
• Background checks for all adults in the household
• Physical home inspection for safety compliance

Safety requirements include working smoke detectors, locked storage for firearms and ammunition, medications out of reach, and adequate sleeping space. The 2024 case management redesign eliminated background check fees for public foster care licensing.

A completed foster care license is valid for specified period (typically renewable annually or biennially) and must be kept current. Significant changes — new household members, moves, major life events — must be reported and may trigger an update to the assessment.

What Happens After You're Licensed

Once licensed, you're available for placement. The type and timing of placement depends largely on what age ranges and circumstances you indicate you're prepared for. Families who are open to:

• Sibling groups
• Children ages 7 and older
• Children with emotional or behavioral challenges
• Children with medical needs

...generally receive placements faster than families with narrow criteria. This isn't a criticism — it's a practical reality of who is in the system.

Concurrent Planning: The Honest Reality

Concurrent planning means the state is simultaneously pursuing two goals: reunifying the child with their biological family when it's safe to do so, and preparing for adoption if reunification isn't possible. As a foster parent under concurrent planning, you are parenting a child while the outcome of their case is still uncertain.

This is genuinely hard. Many families have been in a foster-to-adopt situation where the child they hoped to adopt was eventually returned to their birth family — and while that's the right outcome for the child, it's painful for the foster family. Families who go in prepared for this reality — who have thought through their own emotional resilience and support systems — do better than those who enter expecting a straightforward path to adoption.

Federal law pushes for termination of parental rights after a child has been in foster care for 15 of the previous 22 months, with exceptions for egregious circumstances or kinship placements. This is the outer timeline for the concurrent planning phase, though cases often move faster.

The AASK Program Entry Point

If you're specifically interested in adopting a child from North Dakota foster care, the Adults Adopting Special Kids (AASK) program is your pathway. AASK is coordinated through CFS but managed by licensed private agencies. Contact Catholic Charities ND or Nexus-PATH (for the Fargo area) or Catholic Charities ND (for Bismarck or Minot) to begin the AASK process.

AASK serves children who have been legally freed for adoption — their parental rights have been terminated — and who need permanent adoptive families. Some AASK cases involve children who have been in foster care for years; others move faster. The Heart Gallery of North Dakota profiles waiting AASK-eligible children with photographs and brief biographical descriptions.

The Relationship Between Foster Care and Adoption

Being a foster parent and being an adoptive parent are legally distinct roles. You become a foster parent through licensing; you become an adoptive parent through a court decree. The transition happens after a child's parental rights are terminated and an adoption petition is filed and granted. The post-placement supervision period (six months of monthly social worker visits) applies from the time of the adoptive placement, not the foster placement — though in concurrent planning situations, the court may count some of the foster period toward this requirement.

For families who want to adopt through North Dakota foster care, the North Dakota Adoption Process Guide covers the full AASK process, the foster-to-adopt transition, subsidy negotiation, and what finalization looks like for families who started as foster parents.

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