Texas rules for little ones

The limit is 6, including your bio kids under 18. Over 6 would require becoming licensed as a group home.

You also may want to look on your licence to see how many children you were "approved" for. This also makes a difference.

The rule allows two infants, which are children under 18 months. You would be allowed more, depending on your license, as long as they are over 18 months. I have had 4, ages 2 and under, but only two were classified as infants. My guess is that exceptions are made, though.

Yes, two under 18months. And if you have two infants, you can only have two more under five. Six total children for a regular foster home with mixed ages.Of course, they get around these rules *very* regularly. A waiver or variance is really easy to get.

We were told 2 kids under a year including bios, but years ago when my kids were little we did have a short term kiddo placed with us for a total of 3 under a year for a couple of months. It is very hard to grocery shop or run errands with 3 infants lol.

6 six kids total, like everyone else said. I just wanted to add that in addition to space, you need to have at least one vehicle that seat everyone in the family at once. I suppose it isn't checked by everyone, but it is a rule.

Unless the rule has been changed in the past year or so, this isn't true. Agencies may have this as a policy, but DFPS does not....or at least they didn't. A while back, we had been contacted for a sibling group when we already had a different sibling group placed with us. At the time, we had 5 kids and 2 cars. I specifically asked about there being a vehicle requirement and was told by our FAD worker that there wasn't one. We took 2 cars everywhere we went for about a month before getting a van. Without a waiver, you can only have 4 kids ages 5 and under and only 2 under 18 months.

I had a friend in TX who fostered 4 littles at a time, none were sibs.

Hmmm. I knew the 2 under 18 months thing, but had never heard of 4 ages 5 and under. If that's the case we are in violation...and no waiver, lol. When our most recent kids were placed with had 3 month old, 6 month old, 19 month old, 3 year old and 5 year old. We are required to have enough car seats but not a vehicle that we can all ride in. We have been asked to take another little a couple of times, I can only put 5 in my SUV. When we bought our car a month ago, we specifically did not get an 8 passenger or we would end up with 6 kids under 6 lol!

We apparently had a waiver, but didn't know it. We weren't told about the limits on ages or the waiver until one of the placements left!

Haha! That sounds about right!!

I think it could depend up on the agency too. I was told that they would not place me with more than on under 18 months - unless they were siblings. Didn't say anything about the 5 and under thing. But now that I think about it, that could just have been the last SW who stressed over her own two, but our new SW has two of her own, close in age, and didn't seem to have a problem when I said that after Li'l Singer was adopted I'd be open to two more - siblings or not. As far as the car thing - it doesn't matter if they all fit in one car, as long as you can transport them - if there are two parents, two cars are fine. Seeing I am a single parent, I have to be able to transport them on my own, so all must fit in my car - again, this is the agency telling me this.

Thanks for the replies. I have a minivan so I could fit 5 little kids in the back and one kid over 12 in the front. I work at a daycare and am often in charge of 4 babies under 13 months plus 2 more children under 5. I LOVE it. I could totally see myself having 3 babies under 2 years old. I just didn't know if the agency would let me. I'd have to buy an extra crib but that's ok. I would have 1-2 cribs in my room and 1-2 in the other room. That way I could have 3 littles. Also, since the daycare I work at could accommodate my fosters, I would be with them all day (great for bonding, etc) so I feel like I could have ample time with each individually throughout the day. My only negative thing I can think of is that I would never be able to grocery shop, run errands with all 3 (well, I guess I could but it would be very very hard). However, I could probably just hire a sitter for a few hours once a week to do that stuff. Guess I need to talk to my agency.

You are allowed up to 6 children 0 - 18 years foster, adopt and bio. Minimum standards only allows 2 under 18 months and if you have 2 under 18 months only 2 more under the age of 6. You can go to DFPS website and look up the Minimum standards condensed version for foster parents. Agencies sometimes make the rules even more stringent.

I am single and have had 3 foster plus 1DD in the [url]http://www.recycledrides.org/participantsonly.htmstore[/url]. It isn't for the faint of heart! LoL! I love littles too and don't mind the craziness at home. I learned to go big shopping on my off day during the week while kids at school/daycare. I've also gone on evenings when sibling group had visits or overnights with parent. It's doable...but I like to plan for how I look getting out of the car. Don't want to seem stressed out just getting into church.