One of the requirements of MEPA-IEP, the Multiethnic Placement Act and the Provisions for the Removal of Barriers to Interethnic Adoption (See Appendix), is that the agency shall not delay or deny the foster care or adoptive placement of a child on the basis of the child’s race, color or nationality. In addition, it is against federal guidelines under MEPA-IEP to maintain separate lists of foster parents based on race or ethnicity. In order to comply with this federal requirement, foster parents may be called on to accept a child of a different race, color or nationality. You are the best judge of your family’s strengths and needs in this area as this will affect your family’s ability to assure that the “best interest of the child” is being met. The following pointers may provide some guidelines for parenting children of a different race, color or nationality.

• Be aware of your family’s, including extended family, general feelings and limitations regarding different races and cultures. Provide positive role modeling in regard to your perception and actions toward other races/ethnicities. 
• Become aware of the strengths of the child’s racial or ethnic group and the positive contributions they have made to the community and society as a whole.  
• Be aware that the losses suffered by children (especially school-aged children) who are placed transracially are sometimes compounded through the added loss of being placed with an entire community or neighborhood of people who are much different from that which they are accustomed to. This may also entail the loss of familiar foods, music, traditions, eating patterns and social and religious customs. 
• Allow the child to bring significant personal items along from the previous placement. 
• Be prepared to make some changes in your lifestyle, but not your entire life! Include reading materials (books, magazines, etc.) that reflect the child’s race, culture or ethnicity. The public library is an excellent source for obtaining this information. 
• Allow opportunities for the child to make contact with people of his or her own racial or ethnic group. Support the child’s contact with the birth family and other significant people in his or her past. Be able to relate to the child’s family in support of the agency’s plans and goals.
• Manager, your own family members, teachers, and other community advocates. 
• Demonstrate a willingness to work with the Case Manager or other community representatives in addressing the child’s racial, ethnic or cultural needs. Make provisions for the child to practice his own religion if there is a significant difference in religious beliefs. 
• Be willing and able to advocate for the child in situations involving prejudice or racism. Assist the child in developing healthy ways of filtering negative behavior and information that may come from your own extended family members or the community. 
• Develop an understanding of the personal care requirements of the child. Learn about skin and hair care and how to treat various skin and hair problems as scabies, lice, impetigo, etc. 
• Seek information from Case Managers who may be of the same race or ethnicity as the child to learn proper care and maintenance or cultural habits and patterns .  
• Take stock of your own family’s needs and the impact that a transracial placement may have on individual family members and the family as a whole.

Additional Pointers for Cross-Racial Parenting (Adapted from Foster Care practice Week Training Curriculum (DHHS, Youth and Families Professional Development Center, Tallahassee, Fla. 1991).

Helpful Hints for Foster and Adoptive Parents:

• Encourage a child’s positive self-identity. 
• Discuss culture issues openly and non-judgmentally with the child. 
• Screen TV programs which may contain offensive racial, ethnic language or characters. 
• Select books with culturally diverse children in them. 
• Encourage posters, pictures, etc. that portray members of the child’s racial/ethnic/cultural group in a positive light. 
• Refrain from making racial jokes or allowing others to make such jokes in the home.
• Maintain dolls and toys in the home that represent various races/ethnicities. 
• Locate a responsible mentor who is of the same race/ethnicity as the child. 
• Celebrate the differences between your race and the child’s. Attend ethnic festivals, celebrations and other events. 
• Actively demonstrate your respect for the child’s race, culture or ethnic group. 
• Learn about the child’s racial, cultural and ethnic history and share this knowledge with the child. 
• Share your racial, cultural and ethnic history to promote the child’s familiarity and comfort when interacting within your culture. 
• Encourage the child to speak freely about any instances of racial or ethnic discrimination. 
• Educate yourself or seek assistance on how to help your child cope with discrimination and racism. Validate the child’s feelings when faced with racial or discriminatory experiences and support his perception of any inappropriate behavior toward him.

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