[3timesacharm]

Does anyone know anything about the classes we are supposed to take as foster and/or adoptive parents? Our girls have been with us for 10 months now and we are being told that we have to take these "classes" in order to keep our license. I guess you are supposed to take so many per year. Does anyone know about these. Our SWer is coming Wednesday for her monthly visit and I will also talk to her, but this is crazy. NO ONE I mean NO ONE has told me anything about this. I stumbled across some information on the FAFS website. I guess you can get the courses sent to your home and do them there, but I don't know much more than that. Does anyone know how many "credits" we need a year.

With all the hoops we have had to jump through with DYFS over the past 2 years now, my husband is about sick of being told there is still something else to do. IF DYFS told all adoptive parents what they were getting into - all across the board- I think they would lose many
interested parents.

The demands just keep coming.....can't wait for the appeal to be dismissed

[Luke+Dawn]

I just got a schedule of classes in the mail on Saturday. There is

Separation and Loss
Discipline I
Discipline II

From what I understand, PATH classes took care of your first year of continuing education...after that you need to start taking the CE's. I am unsure about how many hours per year. We have our annual inspection next month. So I will try to find out more then.

hope this helps.

[jerzeegrrl87]

The requireds are new. I was first told it was changing from 10 to 15. Also, we get refingerprinted every year.


We were also told that with DYFS becoming DCF they are reshuffling their staff again. as soon people are trained they move them to another job.

[leenab]

Discipline 1 & 2 as well as Separation & Loss are the 3 required courses. Each one is 3 hours in length, giving you 9 hours of training. FAFS offers additional training classes, worth 2 hours each. jerzee is right the new requirements are now 15 hours a year effective 7/1/06. That's a big change from before as training cycles are now 1 year instead of 2.

The most difficult hours to get in are the 3 required courses as they're never offered on a weekend or even friday night. They're during the day or evenings 6-9pm. My DH has had a tough time squeezing them into his schedule.

We have our liscence renewal coming up and our family resource worker is coming out today to give me all the paperwork we now have to fill in annually. Another new policy is that resource families ahve to release their medical records to DYFS at the time of liscence renewal.

Last week I received the new Manual of Requirements for Resource Families. We also have to have carbon monoxide detectors in our home. They also now prohibit smoking inside a resource home.

[jerzeegrrl87]

Where did you get that manual? I would like a copy.

[madfostermomma]

We are getting our credits this year through the counseling we get. Because we are going through Robin's Next counseling our sessions count towards our credits

[marcav]

I'm also confused about the training. If I was licensed in 2005 do my requirements change in 2006 or am I still in the 2 year cycle? I'm in the process of completing the third DYFS class, and have done two through FAFS, and thought that would do it for me. Do I have to take additional classes to comply with the new regs?

Mary

[RandomReality]

I get re-inspected on Friday so I will ask the licensing woman all this. I got 3 credits for Discipline 1 and another 4 credits for doing a couple take home courses from FAFS. I MEANT to do 10 credits but stopped when Baby Boy arrived. I am sure that will be a black check mark against me. Hee.

[leenab]

BOL mailed the manual out to me with a notice that my liscence was about to expire. We were originally lisc. in 2003, so 2006 it's up for renewal.

My family resource worker was out this afternoon with a lot of paperwork, almost as much as when we first became foster/adoptive parents. We're doing fingerprints and background checks again. medical releases for Dh and our sons too. Employment verification for DH, copy of paystub and our budget too. Oh and copies of car insurance, registration, drivers lisc, etc.

Everyone is on the new training cycle. It's July to July...15 hours annually.

[spfstr5]

The manual of requirements is available at the DHS website (although that may probably change soon to the DCF website) Below is the link I followed.

http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices...ded%204-03.pdf