Oklahoma Foster Care

Open your heart and home to a foster child in your community.

Fostering with Nightlight in Oklahoma

Your Nightlight Foster Care Advocate will help train and certify your family as foster parents. We provide support, encouragement, and advocacy, while helping you navigate the Oklahoma child welfare system.
Oklahoma Foster Care Program Overview
(918) 491-6767
foster.ok@nightlight.org

In Tulsa County alone there are over 1,000 children in out-of-home care. These children are in need of nurturing home until they can return to their biological family. You can play a vital role as part of a professional team of Nightlight Staff, state caseworkers, and biological families to see these families restored.

Foster Care

While the goal of our foster care program is to see children reunified with their biological families, reunification is not always possible. When biological parents have their parental rights terminated, the child’s foster parents are often considered first for a permanent placement. Our program is looking for parents who will champion reunification until it is no longer an option.

Adopting Your Foster Children

The State of Oklahoma does not have an actual foster to adopt program, however, Nightlight can help you adopt older children. We facilitate matches through Nightlight’s Adoption Bridge, AdoptUS Kids, and the Oklahoma Heart Gallery. These are children in foster care who are legally free for adoption. This process is for parents who want to adopt children in foster care who are eligible for adoption.

Adoption & Foster Care

Not sure if you are ready to become a foster parent? Support foster families and foster children by checking out the CarePortal to see the current needs of Oklahoma families. You can also help by mobilizing your church to take part in Orphan Sunday and Stand Sunday.

Other Ways To Get Involved

Setting clear expectations for Foster Care

We believe that foster care is a powerful way to care for families near you. As you consider becoming a foster parent in Oklahoma, it is important to have accurate expectations.

Nightlight Healing Homes Foster Care Advocates have small caseloads, enabling them to provide you with individual attention and support. Our experienced team will help you become established as a foster home. Nightlight is able to provide foster care services to families who reside in Region 5 and are within 75 miles of Tulsa.

Nightlight Christian Adoptions foster care program provides interested families with individualized support and help navigating the Oklahoma foster care system. We are passionate about families helping families. Nightlight believes that children from hard places come from parents who have also experienced significant hardship in life. It is our goal to support foster families as they become a bridge between children and their biological families for the sake of family restoration.

Foster parents should have realistic expectations of the children they will be welcoming into their home. Each child is unique and each will bring with them experiences from their past and present.

Foster parents should know that one of the best things they can do is support a child’s connection to their biological parents. This is a powerful way to care for the child in your home.

Seeing foster children leave your home and care can be heartbreaking. Reunification with their biological family is one way to measure success as a foster parent.

Nightlight Oklahoma Foster Care Program Overview

Foster Care Advocate

918-491-6767 foster.ok@nightlight.org

How do I become an Oklahoma foster parent?

The process to become a foster parent takes about 3 months to complete. We recognize that this is a considerable time commitment for you to make but the education required is crucial to becoming successful as foster parents. Here is an outline:

Meet our staff. Contact our office to schedule a meeting with our foster team. Let us help you explore whether foster care is a good fit for you and your family.
Complete an application. Foster parents can be single, couples without children or families with children. Background checks are completed on each person over the age of 18 in the home. The foster parents must have adequate financial, emotional and physical resources to meet the needs of the foster child.
Complete Foster Parent Training. Training includes 27-hours of pre-certification training which teaches you how to care for children who have been living in difficult circumstances. The training helps explain your pivotal role with the professional child welfare team.
Home Study Assessment. The home study includes comprehensive interviews with you and all family members. There is also an assessment of your house by an experienced Nightlight staff member. This helps us ensure we’re finding the right fit for your family and that you’re adequately prepared for the journey ahead.
Prepare for Your Child’s Arrival. Nightlight will contact you with the referrals for children as we receive them. We are careful to place children in your home that we believe you have the resources to care for successfully.

Having Nightlight help us work with the state foster care program was invaluable! The training they provided and support they continue to provide helped us meet the particular children placed into our care. We want to be the best we can be for these kids and Nightlight is helping us understand them and love them.

Paul S.

Foster Parent Training

Our training calendar for 2024 is now available. Please check here to find a location near you!

View Schedule

Resources

Legacy Family Network: https://www.legacyfamilynetwork.org/

Fostering Connections: https://www.fosteringconnectionsok.org/

Foster Care and Adoptive Association of Oklahoma: https://www.fcao.org/

1.1.1 Project: https://www.111project.org/