Screening and Training of Foster Parents
55Most applicants become a foster parent with great intentions to serve disadvantaged children and to be an inspiration to foster children. While at first being a foster parent may seem like a pretty rosy proposition, it is tough work. Foster children come with baggage - and usually a lot of it. Most foster children have lived through horrors that most adults cannot imagine. If you haven't been in foster care yourself, it is truly impossible to imagine the pain and sheer terror foster children constantly battle in their psychological lives.
Why do foster children live in terror? It's sad but true that over a third of foster children experience some kind of abuse from their foster parents. Keep in mind that most foster children move to 2-3 different homes in the course of 1-2 years. This means that the chances of abuse skyrocket.
Some foster parents in the past have decried agencies for being too sensitive to foster children's allegations of abuse. Foster parents who blame the foster children for making false allegations do not truly understand the psychological state of the foster child. The foster child is always in a struggle to survive. Any threat to survival - imagined or not - will cause a foster child to do anything to be moved to a different setting to survive. This includes making sometimes awful and untrue allegations.
Despite the public outcry of many foster parents and the public perception of foster parents, real abuse in the system exists. Whether it be emotional, social, physical or sexual - any and all abuse against foster children is wrong. Just look through your local newspaper. Chances are, you will see many stories about foster care children who have been abused or even killed at the hands of their foster parents.
How does this happen? We must examine the state policies regarding foster parents. Some states require as little as a few hours of training and an in-home inspection. Unfortunately, almost anyone can pass the minimum standards to become a foster parent. Some states mandate criminal background checks, but many glaze over this process in a desperate attempt to foster out children. Also, many states do not require proof that their foster parents are actually spending the foster care aid money on the children they foster! This has resulted in mass foster care homes where people will foster unlimited children in an attempt to get as much money as possible.
How can we improve this system? Foster care parenting needs to be monitored and controlled by federal standards that are reinforced by federal law. Those that betray the trust of the foster children should be held liable at a federal level. For far too long, states have been faltering with negotiable standards for their foster children, with deadly consequences.
Prospective foster parents, at a minimum, must be required to attend at least eighty hours of training over the course of eight weeks. Also, prospective foster parents should be required to pay a nominal sliding fee for the classes to add funds to the foster care system, and to eliminate those who wish to foster for profit. The fees could range from as little as $50 to as much as several hundred dollars, depending on income. Then, the state would be required to perform a lifestyle inventory and a criminal background check for prospective foster parents. The states should be required to provide the results of this check to a federal examiner that would validate the results.
Psychological training should be part of the training provided. When foster parents are fostering a child, they should be highly encouraged - if not required - to attend a foster parenting support group about once a month to network with other foster parents. This would provide accountability in the foster care parenting community and great support to often stressed and overworked foster parents.
Jamey Madonna has spent several years as a top earner in the home business industry. He promotes Global Resorts Network and EDC Gold. All revenue generated through his internet marketing business goes to support CHILDREN OF THE SON, a non-profit organization for children in foster care.
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