Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children   

ISSUE: Limitations on Foster Care Training Availability and Applicability

BACKGROUND: The Department of Human Resources requires that all foster parents complete an approved foster care training course in order to be certified as foster parents. This training is provided to all foster parents regardless of whether or not they are family foster care providers, levels of care providers, or therapeutic foster care providers. Each type of provider renders a different type of care.  

The only approved course for training is MAPP (Model Approach to Partnership in Parenting). Only the Child Welfare Institute of Atlanta is approved to certify trainers for the course. This course is designed for the family foster care parent. Much of the curriculum is not applicable to other providers of foster care. Certified trainers are often difficult to secure, making the provision of training difficult. 

PROPOSAL: The Department of Human Resources will specify and approve other training modules that can be used by providers in the training of foster parents. These training modules must meet certain curriculum specifications and standards as determined by DHR. 

BENEFITS: This option would allow our providers more flexibility in the training of foster parents, offer training that is more suited to their specialty of care, and give foster parents greater access to a wide variety of training modules which still meet curriculum specifications.