Foster Care Training

This training focuses on how child welfare professionals can support caregivers, including group home staff and foster parents, in requesting evaluations, understanding the process and effectively advocating for foster children and youth with mental health needs at school. Many students face removal, discipline, school failure and dropout because essential supports are not available to them, despite being legally required. For students in foster or kinship care, or court involved youth, these issues are particularly urgent because behavior challenges are often rooted in underlying trauma or disability related needs. We will focus on how the process of requesting support for a 504 plan or IEP works, common barriers and how to overcome them, what services and assessments are available, and what steps caregivers can take to resolve disagreements or problems. In light of the COVD-19 school building closures and shift to distance learning, we will also review what laws and policies are in effect, what to do if they are not followed and how to help caregivers document problems and request compensatory services and support with school reintegration planning as schools begin to reopen.