Would this need to be locked up?

Not necessarily locked up, but inaccessible. If your fostering babies and toddlers, simply put away well should do. If you are going to be taking older kids who might snoop an actual lock could offer some peace of mind. During our homestudy we were asked the following questions: "Do you have any pornographic material or adult items in the home?" and "If so, where do you keep them and what will prevent children from finding them." My answer to that question was that we had books with adult subject matter and personal items. We keep them in a non see-through box with a difficult latch and that stays on the top shelf in our closet. Kids will not be allowed in our bedroom, however, if we have a child in the home who breaks those rules and likes to snoop we will lock the closet door. Thats all they needed to know. No one wanted details about what we had, to see the box or its contents. I feel like the question was there mostly just to make sure we had thought to secure those items.

Thanks Jamie,That was my thought. Right now they are in one of those plastic drawer organizer things in our closet. It wouldn't be too hard to toss a lock up near the top of the closet. I'm likely way over thinking everything as I tend to do. I'm a little anxious cause even though I've child sat for our friends and family I'm not a parent. I'm more like the fun aunt who bakes cookies and shows the kiddos how to make origami frogs.

Thanks Jamie, That was my thought. Right now they are in one of those plastic drawer organizer things in our closet. It wouldn't be too hard to toss a lock up near the top of the closet. I'm likely way over thinking everything as I tend to do. I'm a little anxious cause even though I've child sat for our friends and family I'm not a parent. I'm more like the fun aunt who bakes cookies and shows the kiddos how to make origami frogs.

We went with a locked bedroom closet. The adult items are in there. We also shoved a mini-fridge in our closet for alcohol and food items for ourselves (often portions saved from the kitchen because if we don't secure some for ourselves, we might not get any and/or energy drinks). We also lock our bedroom door with a key lock and don't allow children in there. Even with that precaution, I would make sure your storage drawers are opaque in case you need to open the closet with a child present.

Thanks Kay, I think the bin is opaque. I'll double check on that. I never thought about a mini fridge in the bedroom. What sort of locks would be best? The kind that need a key or slide type locks just put up high. I was thinking of storing alcohol in the cupboard over the fridge. Cause it's difficult to get to. We aren't very big drinkers but I like to have an assortment on hand. So we have a lot of small bottles.

We have a camera on our liquor cabinet. Right now we only have a 9 yr old boy so no real issues with possible drinking (at least not with him). If you want to lock your bedroom door, get a lock with a key. Our bedroom is the only thing upstairs so it's easier to figure out if someone is up there, but that said, we had a FFD teen that snuck up there and got into our prescription drugs.

Those things may depend on agency/state rules or the age of the kids. We use a key lock on the closet. An up-high slide type lock would mean nothing to a snooping school age child. By the time they're 3-4, they're learning to drag something over, make a pile, and climb to reach what they want. We use a key or combo lock everywhere we want one. We use the mini fridge for things like energy drinks (a teen who already has trouble self-regulating their sleep and emotions does not need to be amped up on caffeine), small bottles of alcohol, popscicles in the freezer section, leftovers DH intends to take for lunch the next day, etc. There are a lot of food items in that closet. A large reason for this is that we take teens, who are often like locusts on any available food items. And while we know when they get up at 2am to wander to the kitchen (because of door alarms), I just verify that they're in the kitchen. I don't prevent them from eating. In many cases, inconsiderate teens have not respected DH's packed lunch for the next day as off limits for snacking so the mini-fridge keeps us from arguments with them. We also have a full size extra fridge in the basement which is actually padlocked and a padlocked metal storage cabinet that has shelf-stable items. I buy a lot of food items in bulk but ration what's available in the kitchen. A big example of this is soda - we allow one can (optionally with caffeine) at breakfast and one can (non-caffeinated) with dinner per child per day and I get them from the basement for them. Otherwise, they can drink water with flavorings or juice or tea or whatever else is available in the kitchen. Anything in the kitchen, they can eat or cook with and there's plenty available. For alcohol, my agency requires all foster parents, no matter the age of the child, to keep it locked but you could put a padlock on that cabinet. I've heard that other places allow it to simply be out of reach if there are young children and only require locks for teens.

We just have the one free bedroom/bed. So we'd only be able to have one child at a time. We are thinking the 6-10 age range. School aged would fit best with us. Both me and my husband work full time he leaves around 5am and is home between 12-2. I leave between 6:30-7:30 and I'm home between 4:30-5:30. We both have some flexibility in how we schedule our days. Leaving late coming home early long lunch and so on. I'm still trying to figure a lot out I guess. The classes don't start til March but I figure it can't hurt to get a jump on things. I know whenever we make it to the home study they'll let us know if we need to fix anything. I'm just somewhere between worried and excited. That is to say excited to be helping a child. I'll double check my state and the alcohol thing. The only thing I remember for sure was medication needs to be locked up. Including vitamins. Which kinda surprised me. Our home is one floor. Three bedrooms, one is the master bedroom, one is an office/crafts room and one is a guest room (queen bed, night table, lamp dresser/mirror thing). Two baths one in the hall, one on the master bedroom. It's not a huge place. But we have room.