Copyright by the Alaska Center for Resource Families, 2006
In working toward the safety and permanency of children, the Office of Children's Services realizes the importance of the connections between children and their birth families, their culture and their communities. Increasingly, resource families are asked to actively support these connections. This means supporting a child's continuing relationship with the birth parent. It may also mean more contact between the birth parent and the resource parent.
Working with Families: The Role of the Office of Children's Services
The Office of Children’s Services is mandated to investigate and work with families where there is suspected abuse or neglect of children. Social workers often work with families who:
Social workers need to balance the goal of reunification with the safety and permanency needed for the child. The roadmap for the parent to reach these goals is called the caseplan.
The Caseplan
When a child is removed from his home for reasons of maltreatment, the Office of Children's Services' initial goal is to return a child to his birth family if the family can make the changes needed to keep a child safe. This is called reunification, and this attempt to reunify a family comes from both Alaska state law and federal laws.
In working with the family, a social worker together with the birth family will develop a caseplan. The caseplan needs to be developed within 60 days of the child’s removal from his parent’s care.
The caseplan outlines the goals of the case, changes parents must make to improve their home, and the services that the family is referred to. Reunification is usually the initial goal. The caseplan should be updated every six months or when there is a significant change in the child’s needs or the parents’ situation.
The caseplan also specifies the care of and services to the child. This plan outlines how often children have visitation, where the children will be placed, and what special services the child needs. This information is shared with you, the resource parent, so you can support the connections and contact needed between parent and child.
Visitation and Contact Between Parents and Children
Visitations are an essential part of the reunification process. If parents don't keep in contact with children, then attachment can be damaged. Parents may not be motivated to make changes. Children may lose valuable opportunities to build a relationship with their parents or relatives. Resource parents are critical partners in making sure children keep connected to their families.
Visitation early in the placement and often enough to keep a relationship between parent and child are considered one of the primary factors in the success of reunification. Alaska State Statutes require that there be visitation between a child and his parents or guardian, unless there is court order indicating otherwise.
Resource families are important in this process of keeping the relationship between the child and his family. A social worker relies on the resource family to keep a child safe, to nurture and provide daily parenting and care to a child, and to assist with obtaining the needed counseling or services a child may need. Social workers also depend on resource families to support the caseplan, and help children get to visits or keep up contact with their extended families.
Resource families provide an important role to birth families as well. Resource families can:
Many resource parents have strong feelings about birth parents. Before we go farther in the course, let’s explore these feelings.
What are your concerns about working with a birth parent? In your learning journal, write three (3) of your concerns about contact with the birth parents. Then write three (3) benefits if foster families and birth families can work together.
BENEFITS IF I CAN WORK TOGETHER WITH THE BIRTH PARENT:
1.
2.
3.
CONCERNS I HAVE ABOUT CONTACT WITH THE BIRTH PARENT:
1.
2.
3.
Resource families might have many concerns about birth parents.
What were your concerns? Yours might have included:
Your concerns are important. It is always important that we keep the safety of children and the safety of our resource families foremost in our decisions.
Birth parents may also have strong feelings toward resource families.
Birth parents are initially angry or deny that anything is wrong. They may be in shock or be embarrassed. They may feel they are being judged. The Office of Children's Services works with birth parents to help them take responsibility for their actions and to become motivated to make the needed changes for their home to be safe enough to return the children. Parents will sometimes will be angry at foster parents because they are part of the system. They may be jealous and angry with you for having their child in your home while they have been judged unfit.
It might seem unfair that birth parents are angry with you for taking care of their child. But birth parents struggle with many different issues that cause them not to have very good coping or problem solving skills.
Don't take these feelings personally. Think of it as a process. Where someone starts is not where they always end up. If birth parents can work through their strong feelings, and resource families can be supportive, the resource family may be a source of parenting information and a possible support after children have returned home. Birth families and foster families working together make it better for the child.
There are many benefits of resource families and birth families working together.
We wouldn't encourage children to keep connections with their birth families if there weren't advantages and benefits to the child. In the exercise, what did you list as some of the possible benefits? Compare them with the list below:
Children do best when resource families and birth families work together in a cooperative, non-blaming way. Children do best when adults can communicate openly and solve problems together.
As one foster father said during an Anchorage CORE Training for Resource Families, “We have found that the best thing that we can do for the children in our home is to be kind to their parents.”
INTERESTING LINK: OCS has developed a publication to share with parents whose children are in OCS custody emphasizing the importance of focusing on what's best for children. You will find an abbreviated version of this publication at : http://hss.state.ak.us/ocs/Publications/ParentInfo.htm
A pattern of cooperation between the child’s two homes can be established from the outset by including parents in the pre-placement visits or setting up a meeting shortly after a child is placed in a resource family's home.
There is a model of best practice called called "Ice Breakers" that facilitates a meeting among birth parent, resource parent and caseworker. With the help of the Annie E. Casey Family to Family Program, Anchorage will be implementing this program beginning in Spring of 2006. This meeting gives resource parent and birth parent a chance to meet each other early in the process and talk about the placement, share information about the child, be clear on the visitation and contact guidelines. The meetings are facilitated and monitored by the social worker.
Even if your area does not have such a program, working with your social worker to reach out to birth parents early in the process will help establish a better relationship of trust.
From the January 2003 State of Oregon Department Newsletter at http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/localoffices/sdas/sda3/news/news0103.shtml
Whenever a child is removed from their home due to safety concerns, birth parents are often faced with many questions about the welfare of their children. Using "Ice Breakers" is just one more way to help alleviate these concerns and help families understand the issues of concern.
What are Ice Breaker Meetings? They are a new "best-practice tool" being introduced into child welfare practice. The purpose is to bring the foster parent, birth parent and caseworker together to facilitate a face-to-face introduction and encourage information sharing about the likes, dislikes and routine of the child. Ice Breakers help to assure that while a child is in out-of-home care they are as comfortable as possible.
Benefits are numerous
Everyone involved in a case benefits when an Ice Breaker is used. Foster parents benefit since they are able to get specific information from the parent which will allow them to better understand the needs of the child.
Studies have shown that children will do better in their placement, have better emotional development, do better in school and are more likely to successfully return home. Birth parents are able to feel more at ease about their child's safety, well-being and placement, which has proven to allow them to engage in needed services quicker, knowing their children are in good hands. "Ice Breakers also help to eliminate the adversarial relationship that often exists between the foster and birth parents," said Irvin Minten, Family-to-Family Coordinator.
How they work
The meetings last around 20 minutes and follow a structured format. Only first names are used at introduction, no addresses or phone numbers are exchanged and no future meetings are scheduled during the Ice Breaker .
If, for any reason, an Ice Breaker isn't appropriate for the specific circumstances of the child, alternative ways to communicate and keep the child connected will be explored. Sometimes this can involve exchanging a weekly journal, notes, phone calls, etc.
The ultimate goal is to have Ice Breakers be standard practice upon placement of child. As a way to encourage and introduce this positive new tool, all child welfare workers in unit have been asked to conduct at least one Ice Breaker before the end of the year. Irvin summed it up by saying, "Every family deserves an Ice Breaker."
1. Do I understand what an Ice Breaker meeting is?
2. Can I list what some benefits in having an Ice Breaker meeting?
As OCS seeks to keep children close to their families, more relatives are becoming foster parents to a child in their extended family. Feelings may be very mixed about the birth parent when that parent is also your sister, or son or a brother.
Kinship placements have increased nationwide over the past 10 years. Some of the reasons for this include increases in alcohol and other drug abuse, parental incarceration, and child abuse (Crumbley, et al). According to the Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support, in 2002 Alaska had approximately 1848 children in state’s custody. Of those, approximately 596 children were in kinship care. The most common type of kinship care placements are grandparents caring for grandchildren.
ALASKA STATUTE: 47.14.100(e) requires OCS to consider relative placement whenever a child is removed and in need of an out of home placement. Additionally, the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 mandates OCS to follow specific placement preferences for Alaskan Native/Indian children. Although there are no specific laws requiring OCS to look outside of family placement, whenever a child is removed, efforts are made to place the child with a relative or a person the child is familiar with. These kinship placements help to reduce the amount of trauma children experience when they are removed from their primary caregiver. Additionally, it helps to maintain the continuity of care; and in most cases the child is able to stay in the same community.
If you are a relative caregiver, you have the advantage of making the child feel at home. You may already have a relationship with the child, so he may not feel the intense anxiety or separation that other foster children do. You can keep the child close to his culture, family and his history.
But taking care of your relatives sometimes can put a strain on family relationships. Sometimes tension can arise between you and the child’s parents. You may feel torn between your relative and what the system asks you to do. If you need to provide supervision, your relative may be resentful or ask for more visitations or visitations alone than what the social worker says you can do.
You may also feel a lot of anger and hurt toward the birth parents. You may also have mixed feelings about having the responsibility of caring for children thrust upon you unexpectedly. You may feel angry at the Office of Children’s Services for interfering with your family or perhaps doing things that you feel are harsh or unfair. If you are a grandparent, you may have added financial stress or demands on your physical health.
Kinship families are an important way to keep children connected to their families. But there are special demands placed on the kinship care parents, both from OCS and from the birth parent.
The Grandfamilies Project is an Alaska-wide project through the Volunteers of America that supports grandparents parenting their grandchildren. You can find out more about this project by calling toll free 1-888-522-9866 or e-mailing the project at grands@voaak.org
If you are interested in Kinship Care, the Alaska Center for Resource Families has a self-study specifically on Kinship Care. If you are a resident of Alaska, you may request a copy of this self study "Kinship Care" by emailing The Alaska Center for Resource Families or visiting their website at www. acrf.org
INSTRUCTIONS: These questions test material learned in Lesson One of this course. Type in or select the correct answer for each questions. When you have finished, check your responses against the correct answers at the end of the page.
1. The _________________________________________________ meeting brings resource parent, birth parent and social worker together to faciliate a face-to-face introduction and encourage information about the likes, dislikes and routines of the child. (FILL IN THE BLANK)
2. The _________________________________________ outlines the goals of the case, changes parents must make and the services the family is referred to. (FILL IN THE BLANK)
3. In most cases, the Office of Children's Services is required initially to attempt to reunify the family if a child is in foster care. (CHOOSE ONE)
4. ________________________________________________ starting early in the placement and happening often is considered one of the primary factors in the success of reunification. (FILL IN THE BLANK)
5. Name two (2) benefits of when resource families and birth families are able to work together cooperatively and without blame. (LIST TWO BENEFITS)
a. _____________________________________________________________
b. ______________________________________________________________
6. ____________________________________________________________________ means that relative become foster parents to a child they are related to or know well. (FILL IN THE BLANK)
1. ICE BREAKERS
2. CASE PLAN
3. TRUE
4. VISITATION
5. ANY TWO OF THE FOLLOWING:
6. KINSHIP CARE or RELATIVE PLACEMENT
In the Lesson Two, we will look at why keeping children connected to their families is so important and actually helps the child.