if you want to know the good, the bad and the ugly of it, esp. in your own area-see if there is a local foster parent support group, contact them and ask if they permit people considering becoming foster parents to attend a meeting. in this way you can learn about it from folks who are actually doing it (vs. via the materials that your local social service agency is putting out to solicit foster parents which is of course very slanted to the positive).
i worked in the administration side of the program-i have tremendous respect for foster parents. it is very challenging though and (in my experience) demands a great deal of time and flexibility within one's life (if court mandates x number of therapy and/or visitation appointments per week you must work your schedule around that not the other way around, providers are not the ones most convenient to you they are the ones contracted so your schedule has to work around theirs w/ travel time figured in). there's the financial aspect as well-the stories of foster parents enriching themselves b/c of the 'huge' payments are unrealistic b/c there is a base stipend that is prorated by the number of days a child is in your home and anything above that is b/c of 'difficulty to place' issues. the majority of parents i encountered were spending more than they received.
