FOSTER PARENT RESPONSIBILITIES
PUBLIC ACT 89.19
| 1. Communicate with Child’s Team | The responsibility to openly communicate and share information about the child with other members of the child welfare team. |
| 2. Confidentiality | The responsibility to respect the confidentiality of information concerning foster children and their families and act appropriately within applicable confidentiality laws an regulations. |
| 3. Advocate | The responsibility to advocate for children in their care. |
| 4. Treatment & Care of Children & Birth Families | The responsibility to treat children in their care and their children’s families with dignity, respect, and consideration. |
| 5. Recognize Strengths and Limitations | The responsibility to recognize their own individual and familial strengths and limitations when deciding whether to accept a child into care, recognize their own support needs and utilize appropriate supports in providing care for foster children. |
| 6. Support Groups | The responsibility to be aware of the benefits of relying on and affiliating with other foster parents and foster parent associations in improving the quality of care and service to children and families. |
| 7. Training Needs | The responsibility to assess their ongoing individual training needs and take action to meet those needs. |
| 8. Strategize to Avoid Placement Disruptions | The responsibility to develop and assist in the implementation of strategies to prevent placement disruptions, recognizing the traumatic impact of placement disruptions on a foster child and all members of the foster family, and to provide emotional support for the foster children and members of the foster family should preventive strategies fail and placement disruption occur. |
| 9. Minimize Stress | The responsibility to know the impact foster parenting has on individuals and family relationships and endeavor to minimize, as much as possible, any stress that results from foster parenting. |
| 10. Promote Foster Care Positively | The responsibility to know the rewards and benefits to children, parents, families, and society that come from foster parenting and promote the foster parenting experience in a positive way. |
| 11. Know Child Welfare System | The responsibility to know the role, rights and responsibilities of foster parents, other professionals in the child welfare system, the child, and the child’s own family. |
12. Be a Mandated Reporter Know Investigation Process | The responsibility to know and, as necessary, to fulfill their responsibility to serve as mandated reporters of suspected child abuse/neglect under the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act and to know the child welfare agency’s policy regarding allegations that foster parents have committed child abuse or neglect and applicable administrative rule and procedures governing investigations of such allegations. |
| 13. Participate in Training | The responsibility to know and receive training regarding the purpose of administrative case reviews, client service plans and court processes, as well as any fi ling or time requirements associated with these proceedings, and actively participate in their designated role in these proceedings |
| 14. Know Appeal Process | The responsibility to know the child welfare agency’s appeal procedure for foster parents and the rights of foster parents under the procedure. |
| 15. Maintain Accurate Records | The responsibility to know and understand the importance of maintaining accurate and relevant records regarding the child’s history and progress and be aware of and follow the procedures and regulations of the child welfare agency with which they are licensed or affiliated. |
| 16. Share Information | The responsibility to share information through the child welfare team regarding the child’s adjustment in their home with the subsequent caregiver, whether the child’s parent or another substitute caregiver. |
| 17. Respect and Maintain Child’s Culture | The responsibility to provide care and services which are respectful of, and responsive to, the child’s cultural needs and are supportive of the relationship between the child and his/her own family. Recognize the increased importance of maintaining a child’s cultural identity when the race or culture of the foster family differs from that of the foster child and take action to address these issues. |
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