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This message was originally posted by jlcljayne.

My husband and I live in Kansas and we are in the MAPP classes to become foster parents. We had a few questions that we hope someone may be able to help with.....

We are in the process of looking for a new home to help accomodate the extra kids in our house. We were wondering if the children who get moved from home to home start school wherever their new foster families live? Is it hard to get them enrolled or are there special provisions the schools have for these special cases? If the kids are to be involved with any before and after school programs, are there any special pricing considerations to these foster kids? What about discount school lunches? Any ideas or help or experiences with these issues would be appreciated......

Thanks and good luck to you all!

Crystal and Jeremy

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This message was originally posted by Live2shop.

If the children are in long term care, they usually transfer to your school district. But, if they are in CPS intake and waiting for dependency of the state, you usually transport them to their school. This is also a case by case thing. Such as, if it is a hardship on a foster family to transport and this is the only placement they can find, then they really have no choice. Also, if it is in the best interest to hide the child, the department would prefer if the child was moved. Usually, we transport them to their own school until we know they are staying with us a while.

As for enrollment...just need what you would need for your own children. Be sure to list that they are foster children so the school knows. Most schools know to look out for anything strange or out of the ordinary.

School lunches...we usually fill out a reduced/free lunch application and the child gets free lunches. The DCFS office also pays for any before/after school care that is needed. As for any activities, usually they will have applications to special pricing if available for that event.

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This message was originally posted by seypup.

the only trouble we ran into was when the children had not been schooled before... because there was no shot records. the only place that would take them for me was kindercare.

everywhere else they said---no shots, no class.

kindercare said that if the state inspected them they would just say, well, they are your kids after all!

but at least we had care until we could move them to headstart or kindergarten!

we couldn't get shots because i didn't have their coupons for a couple of weeks, or a letter placing them under my authority for a couple of days.

so you might want to ask around ahead of time if you are taking in the 4-6 bracket or are planning on using any childcare.

good-luck!
jan

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This message was originally posted by jlcljayne.

We are almost finished with our map classes and are getting a little nervous. We have read on here that some people get kids right after they are licensed. We have 1,000's of questions but will probably just have to dive in and get a little (or alot) wet. Thanks again and this site is wonderful....hard to get a "honest" and "real" answer from our MAPP teachers. They are trying so hard to be so positive that we kind of feel they are not being that accurate.

We are very excited to do this but really feel we need good support. Thanks all!

Crystal and Jeremy

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This message was originally posted by Live2shop.

I quickly found out that the classes weren't always accurate. They discribed all kinds of wonderful services that the department funded for the foster children. When I tried getting tutoring for two of my fs's they denied me. Even when one of them was at a 3rd grade level at 13! It took me 9 months of constant griping and asking questions before the tutoring started. I found many more road blocks along the way. It seems the licensors that run the classes have an idealistic way foster care is run. Wouldn't it be a perfect world if we could get everything we needed for the children without having to climb the mountains?

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This message was originally posted by watcherwoman.

I don't know about Kansas, but in Georgia the kids go to the school local to the foster home. If they're going to be moved within a few days, or are expected to go home after the detentional hearing, foster parents try to transport them to their old school until a permanent placement is found. Children in foster care qualify for free lunch at school, but after-school care must be taken up with the individual caseworker. They do not routinely pay for any child care expenses, but in some cases they make exceptions. Good luck!

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This message was originally posted by Live2shop.

I can tell you that if they would not pay for childcare while I was working, I would not be able to care for that child. You said in Georgia that some SW's make "exceptions" for working foster parents? So how would they afford to pay for daycare if they were working? Here in Washington they don't pay for the current month of care until the following month. I can tell you I have never been denied childcare from DCFS so I could work, and if I were to, they might have to find alternative care for the child that it was being denied on. You know, full-time childcare is more expensive than a basic subsidy check for the caregiver. Now who could afford that?

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This message was originally posted by HarleyP.

At this time I have 2 toddlers in child care and DFAC's is covering
the child care for both. They will not cover all of it but I have
chosen to put them in a more expensive daycare. They will pay
a maximum of 62.00 a week and they are some daycare's in
our community that charge that but I have chosen a different
one so I pay the difference out of pocket.We do the same as you
and fill out an invoice every month and connect a reciept and they give us our money back. I have another Foster child in school and he stays in a afterschool program until I get off from work and
DFAC's covers all of that. If they did not cover some of the
expense we could not be in it either because we have
6 children in our home and to feed and put clothes on them
is very expensive and if we have to pay for all of the daycare
we could not do it. I doubt that you could find many familys that
could.
Penny (Harley)Ga.