group home questions

Wow! Seven kids. Whew. At one time we too were thinking of becoming a group home, but were told they don't exist anymore. Not here in Texas at any rate.... We were told that within the last 2 years or so. Go figure.

We are licensed as a group home. We have three forever kids and currently six foster kids. Our ratio requirements are pretty strict since all of our foster children are so young--we have 7 kids under the age of 5. When we were placed with our 7th child, we were required to hire a caregiver to be here with me any time my husband is not. When we got the surprise phone call that our son's newborn brother had been taken into care, licensing agreed to place him here as long as we added a THIRD caregiver! That did not seem like too big of an issue because we were under the impression that our next youngest (now 20 months old) would be going home in January, thus relieving us of the need for the third caregiver. Instead his parents were given an extension until July. Once I realized that this was going to be a more long-lasting requirement, I had to put my four middle kids into preschool. It cost me a lot less money to put them into preschool (1/2 price at my husband's work) than it did to pay two full-time nannies. That was hard for me since I'm a long-time homeschooling mom who loves having the kids at home. Everyone is thriving and happy, so I think we made the right choice. Let me know if you have other questions!

So was it the fact that you had seven kids,or the ages of the kids??

I was under the impression that it was because we had 7 kids, but we have always had young ones, so I cannot be certain. I just know that it was part of becoming a group home for our family.