Foster Parent Training Project

摘要

This final report on a Tennessee Department of Human Services project to train foster parents in child care describes the background of the project, project planning and implementation, and the curriculum developed for the project. Potential project trainees were selected from State registries of foster parents and surveyed their education levels, occupations, length of experience as foster parents, previous training programs, etc. The typical parents were in their middle to late forties and had completed from the 7th to the 10th grades in school. They had 6 years of experience as foster parents, had cared for eight children, but had had no previous training. Three major components were identified as needed curriculum content for these parents: organization and administrative topics, child development, and child management. The training was scheduled around two 2 - day units and sessions were devoted to defining foster care, identifying characteristics of children for whom foster family care is appropriate, discussing types of homes and services to parents and children, defining foster parenting as a profession, considering child welfare as a field of welfare, and examining the American legal system regarding juvenile courts, foster child marriages, adoption, school law, and liability. A curriculum outline is presented describing the objectives of each session, specific discussion topics and activities, material presentation methods, and books and references necessary to conducting the sessions. The appendices contain training materials, a sample evaluation form for the project, and discussions and recommendations for the project.