Each Friday on the Stability, Permanency and Adoption blog we will provide a selection of news from the past week that you may have missed.
Today’s news round up:
In Ontario, Canada, working parents who participate in foster-to adopt programs can participate in parental leave benefits. The Star online reports that even if the child is reunified with birth parents, the foster parent can receive parental leave benefits if they were willing to adopt the chils had reunification not been successful. In the past, foster-to-adopt families were only eligible to request parental leave benefits after they began the adoption process. To read the article, click here.
Children in New Jersey’s foster care system will benefit from improved services as a result of a Silbermann Foundation grant awarded to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) School of Nursing. From the article: “We are very excited to branch out into the field of child welfare nursing. It is our great hope that the curriculum developed at the UMDNJ-School of Nursing will attract qualified nurses to this important subspecialty. It is also our aspiration that this curriculum becomes the national standard in teaching and attracting nurses to this extremely important field,” said M. Steven Silbermann, spokesperson for the Rosanne H. Silbermann Foundation, a non-profit charitable family foundation established by the late Rosanne H. Silbermann in 1998 that supports medical, educational and religious organizations.” To read more click here.
Writer Dr. Suzanne Babbel, PhD., has written part two of a series, The Foster Care System and Its Victims. In Part I, Dr. Babbel describes what happens when a child is reported to have been abused. In Part II, Dr. Babbel describes how foster care can harm more than help an already vulnerable child. Both articles are available on the Psychology Today website.
In The Huffington Post, Kelly Kennedy writes about how several states are changing the way they consider recruiting foster parents. From the article, “Most jurisdictions end up being in a reactive mode because they don’t have enough fosters parents so they’re just focused on getting people into the fold instead of making sure standards for parents are elevated,” said David Sanders, an executive vice president at Casey Family Programs, an advocacy organization in Seattle.” The new focus is on recruiting foster parents that consider their job “parenting,” such as Maritza Moreno who told the Huffington Post, who says a parent wouldn’t rely on having the county worker take the foster child to doctor’s appointments. Morento says foster children “really need a parent, not a caregiver.” To read the whole article, click here.