Unfortunately it's a mixed bag. She'll have a case worker tell her she can do one thing but then the handbooks they give her explicitly forbid it fairly often. They're oftentimes not very knowledgeable about their own rules.

IIRC she can have the children stay at a babysitters house (that hasn't been viewed by CPS or reviewed for suitability) without breaking rules but cannot have a babysitter at her house to watch the kids.

The rules aren't very consistent and I think the majority of people just opt for not following them to the letter, but that's not generally how my mom operates so.

My mom has been fostering and to follow all the rules about having anyone take care of the kids in her absence is fairly insane. I'm currently the only approved person who can just watch them at the house because in order for someone to do that they need to be fingerprinted, fbi background check, interview with the caseworkers, etc.

Just getting myself approved took over 6 months even though we were quick about responding and providing everything they needed from me.

That means that respite care is often the only path to covering childcare in line with the rules (can't just hire a babysitter, not that you should have to!), and every time my mother has asked the caseworkers about scheduling respite care she has had to basically strong arm them to find a respite worker because they're in such short supply.

She's unfortunately had to go so far as saying she was going to have to give the kids back in one situation when they refused to find someone.

I guess my point is that providing respite care definitely will help a lot of foster parents as it really can be hard to follow the rules and have any breaks or keep up with what you need to do outside of taking care of the kids.