Providing Enriching Foster Care Homes Through Training

Becoming a foster parent is an enriching, life-changing decision and one, Independence, Ohio takes very seriously. The foster care training process Independence Oh has is a measure put in place to help throughout the foster care experience. This training also keeps the foster family up to date on rules and regulations as well as new information and tools in foster care. Independence wants successful foster parenting situations and training is the key. It’s the positive foster homes that help a child flourish. Positive foster homes happen when there is a network of staff, training, and guidance working together for the betterment of the child.
The foster care process can be overwhelming and great people helping prospective foster families navigate these waters is an asset to have. It’s a careful balance to enlighten possible foster families to all the training, commitment, love, and understanding needed and still ensure them that it’s a rewarding experience. A staff that knows the procedures to walk prospective foster homes through the application, training, placement, and beyond is what makes the difference. When a foster child is shuffled from family to family it is detrimental to the child and all involved. This issue can be somewhat alleviated when extensive training is mandatory prior to the home becoming licensed and throughout the life of the foster home. Foster children can range in age from 0-18 years and from a varying degree of backgrounds. A prospective foster family needs to be educated on exactly what that entails to ensure the decision they are making to become a foster home is the right one.

There are many responsibilities as a foster care provider such as shelter, food, clothes, and medical care. All needing to be given in a loving, guiding, and stable manner. The length of time for a foster child might vary as it might be until the child is adopted, reunited with the biological family or fully emancipated. A child on average could be in foster care 20.4 months before one of these happens. This is why the right foster care situation for that child is so important. Any decisions concerning the child have to be the right ones at the right time. Being placed back into the biological household too quickly can be detrimental as well.

Nationally, there is a demand for foster and adopted families for children that are dislocated from their biological parents for many reasons such as homelessness, sexual abuse, drugs, loss of parents from death or imprisonment and no other family members able to care for the child. In 2016 there were 118,000 children waiting for adoption. We have seen in the news at times that stretched resources, unchecked foster cases, improper vetting, and lack of training has led to some unwanted results for foster children. Demand cannot lead to bad foster care experiences so Independence has made the process of getting trained and staying trained as easy as possible. After becoming licensed a foster care family has to attend 40 hours of continuing training and 1/3 of that training can be done online, books or videos. The remaining part of this training is required to be done in a classroom. Treatment foster homes are required to attend 60 hours. These homes are designated for foster youth with severe mental, emotional, or behavioral health needs.