We were all teenagers once, just for some of us it was a little longer ago. Do you remember thinking that your parents didn’t talk right? That is because parents don’t understand or use the current slang that teenagers are using. It has gotten worse because of internet use and text messaging. Now the teenagers have their own abbreviation slang as well. If you have a teenager that you raised from a baby then she might tell you some of the slang. If you have a newly adopted teenager, or a new teen in your foster home, good luck. Chances are, your new teenager wants some privacy and... more

Usually a foster care caseworker is assigned to a new case within two to four weeks of a child or children entering the foster care system. Siblings entering foster care would normally have the same foster care caseworker. By the time a caseworker is assigned to the case, the children have already been in a foster care home for two to four weeks. Hopefully, it is the same home that child protective services (CPS) placed them in the day they were removed, but it isn’t always. Since the children are settling into their new home, the worker doesn’t usually... more

Foster parents rejoice when a new child is placed in their home. With Mother’s Day approaching, a woman might feel especially blessed to have a new child placed in her home. After all, that is why they went through weeks of training and mounds of paperwork. Many foster parents have an ultimate goal of adoption and hope that a child will be able to stay forever. Initially, when a child arrives as an emergency placement no one is sure which direction the case will take. Will the child go home or will parental rights be terminated allowing the child to be adopted. The arrival... more

Most agencies now require the completion of numerous training hours to become licensed foster parents to care for children. In Michigan, parents who want to foster children for the Department of Human Services are expected to complete nine PRIDE classes. Each class is about three hours long, which is quite an initial time commitment for two active parents. One of the sessions addresses the agencies expectations of foster parents in the reunification plan. While many foster parents pursue licensing with the hope of adopting a foster child, the agency makes... more

As strange as it may sound, even foster children are given goals in the reunification plan. The foster children, like their parents, are expected to make progress towards their assigned goals. Their progress is reviewed every 90 days by the court at the review hearings. The goals for the children vary depending on their ages, developmental levels, and needs. It is up to the foster parents and caseworkers involved in the case to assist foster children in achieving most of their assigned goals. This is because most foster children do not have a car or a driver’s... more

Children have been removed from their parents’ home by child protective services. The children have been placed either in a licensed foster home or with an approved relative for temporary care. Unless the children were removed for extreme reasons, the original permanency goal of foster care is usually reunification with the birth family. Within a couple of weeks after the children are removed, the parents will meet with the foster care worker who has been newly assigned to their case. The foster care worker will review the reasons that the children were removed... more

When a child is removed from his or her parental home a judge or magistrate must sign an order allowing it. A child protective service worker usually requests this order, although a police officer may also request it. Once the removal has been approved, the child can be placed temporarily in foster care, a group home, or juvenile facility. That order is temporary, however, and after it is signed, an adjudication hearing must take place within 72 hours. Typically, a foster care worker has not yet been assigned to the case. Therefore, the child protective service worker involved in the... more

If you have provided foster care for children then you already know that every 90 days the case progress has to be reviewed by the court. If the children remain in care for 12 months then the case progresses to permanency planning status, for the children’s long-term goals. This is because regular foster care is meant to be a short-term answer to family crisis. Many studies have proven that children, who just age out of foster care without either being adopted or returned home, do not fare well in adult society. The courts, in their wisdom, have concluded that within 12 months a family... more

A reader posed a question to me after reading a blog I wrote for my daughter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The blog was a reminder that racism and prejudice are alive and well in today’s world. I suggested that it is up to us parents, to change the world’s thinking, at home one child at a time. We cannot allow our children to make racist comments, repeat, or even listen to racist jokes at home. Educate your children about judging a person by his or her heart, actions, and words, instead of by the color of skin.

Here is the readers comment.

Question... more

You have fostered a child for several months or perhaps even a few years. During this time, you have loved the child as one of your own. The foster child may have even been in your home for such a long time that you can hardly remember what it was like without him or her. Sometimes a child is a really good fit into a home and this one was. There were times during the case plan when you wondered if you might be able to adopt the foster child. The birthparents just were not doing what they needed to do, but lately, in the eleventh hour, they have been doing everything... more