(Posted 2024 March)
We see you! Life is hectic with therapies, activities, school, work, and other obligations. We know that it can be a challenge to prioritize training, even though you know it’s important.
It can be tempting to push those important, but not urgent things to the back burner a few times too many.
The fact is that Virginia requires foster parents to complete 30 hours of training - that’s only 10 hours each year- every three years to stay licensed.
The good news is that with so many online training opportunities, it’s never been easier to get in those mandatory training requirements at the touch of a finger. So here are some suggestions for ways to boost your training hours.
Training Offered
The Fairfax County Foster Care and Adoption program provides and accepts a variety of training opportunities to make it convenient and easy to get your hours:
- The Department of Family Services offers Fairfax County resource parents a variety of training workshops such as Reflections, What’s an IEP?, and Foster to Adopt. Be on the lookout for invitations to upcoming training Workshops in your email.
- Self-paced training offered online by Foster Parent College. Some of these classes are offered in both English and Spanish. These courses are FREE to foster families certified through Fairfax County. A new class is highlighted each month in this Foster Family Newsletter.
- VDSS Northern Regional In-Service Trainings are available monthly through Zoom for foster families in Fairfax County and other Northern Virginia jurisdictions. Topics include trauma-informed parenting and working with a child’s family. Your resource worker can help you register for these trainings.
- Annual conferences such as the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) Conference and the National Foster Parent Association Conference.
- Training offered by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) such as the annual FCPS Special Education Conference.
- Training offered by the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) such as Mental Health First Aid and Virtual Opioid Overdose & Naloxone Education (REVIVE! Kit) Training.
- Formed Families Forward, a local non-profit, offers training throughout the year on a variety of education, disability, mental health, and other topics relevant to foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
- Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) provides post adoption support and adoption-related training and education to parents who have finalized an adoption from foster care in Virginia at no cost to you. The Virginia Department of Social Services provides the funding for this as well as training, therapy, and conferences for adoptive families.
- Foster the Family D.C. offers support groups for foster, kinship, and adoptive moms and dads throughout the region. As of Jan. 2024, Fairfax County accepts attendance certificates and awards in-service training hours for these support groups.
When you’re struggling to get your annual 10 hours done, remember that continuing education will help you develop skills to face the unique challenges of foster parenting. These new skills and strategies can help prevent burnout along this journey and help you build community with other foster parents along the way.
You can always reach out to your resource worker for more suggestions about specific courses that may help to support your needs.
This article posting is part of the Foster Family News monthly newsletter designed to keep foster parents informed about all the new and notable happenings in Fairfax County.
Learn about what the Foster Care and Adoption program has planned for foster families - stay on top of trends, participate in trainings and learn about policy changes.