A Texas foster parent should expect four things from their child-placing agency: a worker who knows the family and visits at least quarterly, a written policy that spells out reimbursement, training and respite, a way to reach someone in an emergency, and training before and after placement. Some of that is required by the state's minimum standards for child-placing agencies, which HHSC rewrote in rules adopted in the Texas Register on August 7, 2026, and by DFPS's 24-Hour Residential Child Care Requirements for children in DFPS care. The rest is what separates an agency you can live with from one you cannot. This post sets out what Texas requires, then what Angelheart adds on top.
What is a child-placing agency, and what does it do for you?
DFPS defines a child-placing agency as a private foster or adoption agency that works in partnership with DFPS to train foster and adoptive parents and find homes for children. Every agency operates under the same HHSC minimum standards, 26 TAC chapter 749. The Chapter 749 rules adopted in the Texas Register on August 7, 2026, effective August 10, 2026, repealed and replaced large parts of the chapter; HHSC says they simplify, consolidate and reorganize requirements while maintaining protections for children in care. An agency that serves children in DFPS care also works under DFPS's 24-Hour Residential Child Care Requirements, which DFPS says child-placing agencies must comply with when they provide services to DFPS children. This post was updated on October 19, 2026 to cite the sections as adopted in August; the substance is what to hold your agency to.
What must the agency put in writing?
Its side of the deal. Section 749.121 requires an agency to develop policies clearly stating the rights and responsibilities of the agency and its foster parents, and it lists 12 things those policies must specify. Four of them answer the questions families ask most:
- Respite. The type and amount of support and services available to foster parents, including what the agency will provide for babysitting, overnight care and respite child-care services.
- Reimbursement. The amount of reimbursement the agency will provide and when foster parents will receive it.
- Training. Which part of the training the agency provides, which part the foster parents must acquire on their own, and who pays training fees, travel and the associated child care.
- Communication and appeal. How the agency and foster parents will communicate, the foster parents' right to appeal agency decisions that affect them, and how they may review their own home record.
If an agency cannot hand you those policies before you sign, that tells you something. The sections quoted in this post do not set a response time for a call at night or on a weekend, so ask the agency who answers then, and how.
What do the rules say about respite?
Respite is regulated on the agency's side as well as yours. Under section 749.975, as adopted in August, the agency must inform the child's parent and explain the respite plan to the child, including how long it will last; the agency's child placement management staff must approve any respite; and after 60 days in respite the agency must decide whether it is still the best option and set a timeframe for the child to return home or move. Under section 749.977, before a babysitter, overnight care provider or respite provider cares for a child, the agency must share the child's treatments and medication instructions, what the provider needs for daily care, including supervision, discipline, safety plans and high-risk behaviors, authorization for medical treatment, and emergency contacts for the child's physician, the foster parents and the agency.
For a child in DFPS care, the 24-hour requirements add to that. They require the agency to make emergency caregivers available for respite, which DFPS calls intermittent alternate care, when foster parents show signs of needing a break from fostering, and they name its purposes as giving foster parents additional support with child-care responsibilities, increasing the retention of foster parents and decreasing the number of moves a child experiences. The agency must get the CPS caseworker's written approval before arranging it, and an episode lasts no longer than 14 days unless DFPS approves a longer stay.
How often should you see your worker?
At least once every three months, in your home. Section 749.1105, adopted in August when the old section 749.2815 was repealed, requires child placing staff to visit the foster home for supervisory visits at least every three months, inside the home. Within any 12-month period two of those visits must be unannounced, one must have all household members present, and both foster parents, if there are two, must be present for one visit every six months. At least once every three months the visit must look at changes to household members, frequent visitors or the people who will support you as a caregiver during an unexpected event or crisis, and at changes to the home that affect a child's health, safety or well-being. The standard sets the minimum; a good worker will also ask how you are doing.
The child gets visits of their own. Section 749.1213 requires child placement staff to have monthly in-person visits with each child in care, at least half of them in the foster home, with a chance for the child to meet privately and talk about how the placement is working out.
Section 749.663 puts the same duty on the staff themselves: child placement staff are responsible for maintaining direct contact with the child and the foster parents, and for monitoring and providing support services to foster parents. DFPS's own foster home development workers carry a parallel list, including regular telephone contact, quarterly home visits, help obtaining needed services, support to foster parents in the event of an investigation, and making sure foster families are treated as members of the foster care team.
What training should you expect?
Before the agency places a child with you, section 749.803, as adopted in August, requires at least one foster parent to complete four hours of general caregiver training, six hours of emergency behavior intervention training, which the agency may waive if it does not apply to the children's ages and the home's services, and safe sleeping training if the home will care for a child younger than two; other caregivers, including a second foster parent, have 90 days after the placement. The general training must cover topics suited to each child's needs, trauma informed care, preventing, recognizing and reporting abuse, procedures for emergencies such as severe weather, a volatile person or a serious injury, and preventing the spread of communicable diseases. Section 749.805 requires one foster parent to hold pediatric first aid and CPR certification before the home is verified. DFPS's steps page adds that prospective families complete the 19-hour NTDC curriculum plus certification in first aid and infant, child and adult CPR, psychotropic medication training, medical consent, sexual abuse prevention and suicide intervention training.
After placement, DFPS says verified foster homes must complete annual in-service training that ranges from 10 hours per family to 30 hours per foster parent depending on the home and the children's needs. The August rules add an annual check of every home: under section 749.807 the agency must evaluate the household's immediate needs, the home's compliance and investigation history, and the health, safety and well-being of each child, and must give every caregiver in the home additional training on any area of non-compliance it finds. A home caring for a child who receives treatment services for emotional disorders, intellectual disabilities or autism spectrum disorder gets at least one hour of annual training on those services for each caregiver. Your agency's written policy has to say which parts of your training it provides.
What does the agency ask of you in return?
DFPS's requirements page lists it: keep the caseworker informed about changes at home, school and in the community and any problems that arise; make efforts as a team member toward reunifying children with their birth families; maintain CPR and first aid certification; attend the annual training your agency requires; and keep no more than six children in the home, counting your own. The August 2026 rules also carry out HB 2789, which removed the requirement that a child in care have a tuberculosis test.
Where Angelheart fits in
Everything above is the floor. What Angelheart states on its foster care page is what sits on top of it: case managers kept accessible to foster families and a team approach centered on the family as the unit; an on-call worker available 24 hours a day, with contact information for every administrator in the family's hands; reimbursed respite for a needed break; quarterly advisory meetings between families and administrative staff, so the people setting policy hear from the people living it; mileage reimbursement for travel defined in the foster parent handbook; and trauma-informed training facilitated by our own staff. Our requirements page lists what we ask of a family, and our four offices mean the worker who visits you is local.
None of that is a promise about a child or a timeline. It is a description of how we work, and it is written down, which is what the standard asks. If you want to see it for yourself, start with the inquiry page and we will send you our policies before we ask you for anything.