The pre-service competency categories for parents Include:

1. Protecting and Nurturing Children: Children placed with foster families and adoptive families need to live in a safe place that keeps them from harm, is friendly, and where the parents show they care. Some children who have not been kept safe or cared for may not accept or understand the efforts to do so at first. Others are hungry for attention. The pre-service training will help the caretaker to understand a child’s feelings and reactions to separation and help the caretaker to deal with those feelings and reactions.

2. Meeting Developmental Needs and Addressing Developmental Delays: For most of us, growing up is a natural, predictable development process. For example, infants who have the opportunity and encouragement to walk at the right stage of their development will learn how to walk. Many of the children who need foster families or adoptive families did not have the opportunity or encouragement to grow by learning how to do things at the “right” time in their development. They may be “behind” in some ways or “ahead” in others, compared with children of the same age who had their developmental needs met. The pre-service training helps prospective foster parents and adoptive parents understand the reasons for these developmental delays and differences and how to cope with them.

3. Supporting Relationships Between Children and their Families: Birth family relationships include brothers, sisters, and other relatives, as well as parents. Children do not arrive at the door of a foster family or adoptive family without bringing some kind of personal history with them. Even infants who have never been held by their parents have a prenatal, birth, or hospital history. The memories, experiences and attachments children bring with them will vary, but they will come with the child. The pre-service training prepares the caretaker to understand the importance of a child’s history and how to deal with it.

4. Connecting Children to Safe, Nurturing Relationships Intended to Last a Lifetime: The Division believes—and the law requires—that children are entitled to permanent, lifetime family relationships. Children’s Division (CD) works with the parents to correct problems so children can return home whenever possible. If the parents cannot or do not respond, the Division looks for another permanent family for the children. The different roles of foster parents and adoptive parents in providing a permanent family for a child will be explained in the training sessions.

5. Working as a Member of a Professional Team: Whatever a child’s circumstances, needs or past experiences, the Division, foster parents, and adoptive parents work together for the child’s benefit. There are many troubled families and children who need help. The work that needs to be done is too much for any of us to do alone.

One way these competencies are demonstrated is in the resource parent’s ability to apply the required Reasonable and Prudent Parenting Standards.

Adoptive parents are expected to meet additional competencies:

1. Knowing how adoptive families are unique;
2. Understanding the importance of separation, loss, and grief in the adoption process;
3. Understanding attachment and its importance in the adoption process;
4. Anticipating and managing challenges as an adoptive family; and
5. Making a lifelong commitment to a child.

Chapter Memoranda History: (prior to 01-31-07)

CD06-64

Memoranda History:

CD07-48, CD09-106, CD12-30, CD13-100, CD16-65, CD17-42. CD19-07