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A NEWSLETTER OF THE GEORGIA OHR FOSTER C ARE U NIT

Celebration of

ce

Goes Statewide

Graduation from high school is a major milestone in anyone's life. Yet some teens must go through this landmark event with no one there to honor their accomplishments or cheer them toward future goals.
Six years ago, a Dekalb County caseworker held a party for nine teens on her caseload who would have attended graduation by themselves. Each year since, this celebration spread to more counties. This year for the first time, teenagers in foster care from all across Georgia were invited to Atlanta for the sixth Celebration of Excellence Day.
Approximately 150 gradua tes participa ted in the June 11 celebration, which was part of a three-day event including college tours and many workshops to prepare the young people for college and independent living. Also honored were foster parents who helped these youths.
Kyana Anderson left the Georgia foster care system when adopted by her godmother in Memphis,TN. She explained she needed to return to A tlanta to attend this year's celebration because "I can't forget the people who helped me get where I am. I probably wouldn't have graduated if it wasn' t for some things that happened to me in Atlanta."
Anderson has been accepted at the State Technical Institute of Memphis, where she will study legal assistance technology.
Felicia Browder attended last year's celebration. Since then, she has become a mass communications major at Fort Valley State University,

w here she is the opinion editor for the college newspaper, hosts a movie review program on the college TV station and announces on the college radio station
"From being in the foster care sys tem, I feel sometimes kids' accomplishments are overlooked," Browder said. "This event is a big pat on the back to say, 'We see you're making progress in spite of things that may have happened in your life.' Being with the other young people there, I felt it dispelled the stereotype that children in fos ter care are underachievers and can't overcome things that may have happened to them. It let me know there are other ambitious young people like me who have had some bad things happen, but they're not letting it faze them. They' re going on to achieve their goals."
Sheba King also attended last year 's celebration. She now attends Haverford College, where she has acted in two plays, one of which she directed. She is also co-chair for Big Brothers/Big Sisters.
"When you go through difficulties, sometimes you think that it's just you," King stated. "When you see other people have gotten through it, it gives you strength. I'm glad foster parents bring the younger children to this day, so they see for themselves w hat's possible."
Celebration of Excellence Day is hosted by the Division of Family and Children's Services and the Children's Legal Advocacy Coalition, with numerous private s u p p o r ters.

Honored for excellence are (from fop to bottom) Kyana Anderson, Felicia Browder and Sheba King.

Strengthening "Level of Care"
GeorgiaExv.ands
its ommitment

Soon, children with the greatest needs and their fos ter parents will receive unprecedented support. The Georgia foster care system is transforming itself to help them.
This change will focus on the children in foster care who are most fragile. Some of this group are diagnosed as severely emotionally disturbed. Without strong guidance and attention over time,
these children might never manage to fit into society. Others in this group have extreme medical needs. Without proper care and nurturing, these children will weaken and even die.

erally was not seen as a problem," Walker explained." For instance, it seemed appropriate for medically fragile children to stay in hospitals with doctors and nurses, rather than with families. And it's true that there will always be children with needs so severe that they will need to be in hospital settings. But home health care and outpatient care have come to be a lot more extensive. With managed care, hospital stays have shortened. By moving many of these children into foster homes, they can receive nurturing as well as care so they survive longer and better. We're getting used to seeing these children with ventilators and feeding tubes and all the equipment they come with."

"Too many of these specialneeds children have drifted through the fos ter care system, not improving or even worsening," explained Peggy Peters, director of the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS). "They end up in instituPeggy Peters is director of DFCS. tional settings, like h ospi tals and residential care. But when these children can live with fos ter parents in a home setting, their quality of life is better, and they're more able to learn about living with other people. Then it's more likely they'll be able to exit the state's custody and return to their birth parents or live with an adoptive family."
Moving Children From Hospitals to
Families
DFCS, the Georgia Associa tion of Homes and Services for Children and other child advoca tes for five years have called for greater support for these special-needs children. This year for the first time, the legislature budgeted money specifically for support to these children and their foster parents. This will greatly strengthen the foster care system, emphasized Doris Walker, DFCS foster care manager.
"Ten years ago, these children's situation gen-

The growth of these problems dates back to the early 90s, when increasing numbers of children with AIDS were entering the state's custody. Also substance abuse was at its height, with more children born prematurely and with many medical and behavioral issues. In response, DFCS assembled a committee of state and county staff, private agency staff and foster parents to examine caring for these children; this committee also included medical professionals from Egleston Children's Health Care System, Grady Memorial Hospital, the Marcus Center and Scottish Rite Children's Medical Center. Additionally, a Senate study committee met from 1997-98 to explore this problem.
What Does 'level of Care" Mean?
These committees all agreed that children in fos ter care had a wider range of needs than in the past. These children fell into three broad categories or "levels of care," as DFCS began to refer to these groups. One level of care included traditional foster children. By contrast, another level of care included those children with needs so severe that they required 24-hour supervision. In between these two levels of care were increasing numbers of children. While these children's needs were severe, the committees began considering how to help these children move from institutions into more home-like settings. It was also

realized that some of these children were being placed with foster families inadequately prepared for these children's acute needs.
"It was clear these foster parents needed more help to meet these challenges, including more training," explained Dianne Sacks, manager of the DFCS Treatment Services Unit. "We've tried field-tested training developed by Scottish Rite for foster parents with medical staff, and we need to do this with hospitals around the state. Training also involves foster parents working with professionals, such as a psychologist who would teach a foster family how to work with a child's behavior disorders and medications."
Helping Foster Parents to Help Children
Sacks added, "These foster parents also need more support. They need caseworkers and other service providers to come out to their homes regularly, both for the child and for the foster parents themselves, to answer their questions and to make sure they're hooked up with necessary resources, such as medical services, psychological services, transportation or whatever their child needs. We need to compensate these caretakers with a higher per diem allowance, because caring for these children is very labor-intensive. To support these families and children, DFCS will be working more closely with private child welfare agencies in providing supervision, consultation and other direct support services. We can't make all these changes at once, but we will continue working hard to phase in these changes."
DFCS plans to distribute information about new level-of-care procedures in the coming months. Linda Ladd, DFCS treatment services consultant, described the procedures for evaluating the children w ho will receive sp ecial level-of-care services and per diem rates.

resources, so that across Georgia children with similar problems will receive similar monetary amounts and services," Ladd explained. "We've also been working to improve procedures for matching these children with foster families.
~ This change will focus on the children in
fester care who are most fragile.
Some foster parents may feel their children qualify for additional support; however, as we review applications from across the entire state, we're able to compare and identify which children have the most intense needs. We know all children in care have special needs and can be challenging for foster parents, but it's important for everyone to understand that these funds are meant for a small percentage of children with the most extreme problems. These funds are also very limited, so we have to make sure the children who most need the support are the ones to receive it. It's important for people to know it's not one person deciding which children will receive this funding. Many people are involved in the decision-making, both on the county level and in the state office."
The process for applying for level-of-care funding for a particular child begins with a case-
(See Commitment, page 7lJ
Fram left to right are Linda Ladd, Dianne Socks and Doris Walker.

"We've been monitoring expenditures and results to standardize how we evaluate children w ho might receive additional

Who are
Level ot Care ? Helping Children With the Greatest Needs

Teresa Powell cares For medically fragile children.
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In the coming months, increased support will go to help more medically fragile and severely emotionally disturbed children in foster care. This increased support is possible because the Georgia legislature targeted funding to expand this assistance.
Many of us may never have met children like

nose so it runs down the back of their throat and into their tummy. You have to check with a stethoscope and a syringe, because the tube can possibly come out the throat or go in their lungs."
Powell has cared for children requiring feeding pumps. Before going to bed, she would program the machines. Some nights, she would be wakened by the pumps beeping. She would get up, determine the problem, then rely on her training to know how to fix the problem.

these and, thus, cannot truly understand this national problem. Following are glimpses into the lives of two Georgia foster families working to help these children.
edically Fragile
Teresa Powell, from Stockbridge, has been a foster parent for 20 years. Six years ago, she began caring for medically fragile children.
"We've cared for four severely medically fragile children and 10 heart-monitored babies," Powell explained. "We had a little boy who'd had surgery on his intestines, so he BMed in a bag. There was a lot of training in how you put the bags on, how you take care of the irritated and broken-down skin. I've had two babies where I've had to use a tube for feeding because they couldn't suck a bottle. You put this tube up their

Of the child with the intestinal surgery, Powell recalled, "Every time that little fellow gained a pound, he lost half of it. We danced on our heads to get him to eat. We had to keep adjusting his diet, and we had to feed him often because he couldn't consume much at one time. All of these children are on special diets, and their food has to be prepared a special way the doctor tells you. My mother helps me, and she'd just sit and play with him and love him and coax him to eat. He was a small and irritable child. I remember going to get him, and the doctor looked at me and said, 'Are you sure you can take home this demanding child?' Now he's doing so well. He was adopted. He's the sweetest thing."
Powell relies on her husband, mother and 24year-old son to help her in caring for the children.
"When you have medically fragile children, you can't call in the teenager next door and say, 'Hey, can you come over and take care of our kids?"' Powell stated . "We don't leave our kids with just anybody because just anybody couldn't come in and take care of them. It would take a week to explain what has to be done in the short time I'd be gone."
With such medically fragile children, the risks are real. Powell experienced this when a baby in her care died. Despite her efforts and those of the medical professionals working with her, the child died in Powell's arms.
"We visit her grave twice a year," Powell said quietly, tears in her voice. "Her birthday is in

May, and I've already bought flowers. They told me over and over that this was going to happen, but now I understand this truly can happen. Caring for children like this requires so much more time, so much more energy and so much more effort. But there's nothing like the smiles on their faces. They're always glad to see me. It seems like the more that's wrong with them, the more I love them."
Caring for SED Children

"We go to Macon to the psychiatrist once a mon th for medication, which is about 235 miles round-trip," Jones recounted. "She has an allergist we see sometimes in Augusta, which is about 180 miles. Her pediatrician is in Statesboro, which is probably 40 miles each way. We go to Warner Robins for play therapy and counseling every two weeks, which is 230 miles. The school calls very often, and I work with her teachers because they tell me she disrupts classes. I've worked with her speech therapist."

We will call this Emanuel County parent "Kathy Jones," to preserve confidentiality. Jones has fostered 12 children, two of whom were diagnosed as severely emo tionally disturbed (SEO). Both still live with her, along with two other children.
"The oldest has been with me six years," Jones explained. "She's a fetal alcohol syndrome child and was sexually abused . When I first saw her, she was 3. She was totally uncontrollable, just running and yelling and bouncing-always wide open. In the beginning, she wouldn' t sleep. When she ate, I would have to sit with her and keep taking her hand to stop her from packing food in her mouth until she choked."
The child would smear feces on walls and furniture and on herself, or ea t it. With a psychologist's guidance, Jones began to have the child wash her own clothing and clean up these messes herself.

Finding supplemental care givers and social supports is another challenge Jones faces.
"Anyone who's ever provided supplemental care for me once won't do it again," she explained. "We have no day care facility anymore that w ill keep her. I have a sister, brothers and inlaws, but none are willing to take her in even for
\\ When you have medically fragile children, you can't call in the teenager next door and say, 'Hey,can you come over and take care of our kids?' //
an hour. It's not that they don't care, but they feel they can't deal with it. So I spend a lot less time with my family than I u sed to."

"Really it would be easier to do it yourself, because in the long run you're going to have to come back behind and do it right anyway," Jones sighed. "We went through years of that. Toilet training is still a big problem, and she's now 9. I've had to work with her a lot to help her calm down. I would stand there and hold her by the hand while she was beating me and biting and kicking and stomping my feet."
Jones works closely with a team of professionals.

Jones concluded, "Until recently her caseworkers and anybody else thought there was no future for her. Now everyone is starting to see she's learning to read, and she can sit down and carry on a conversation. I wondered if she would ever be able to do that. I love her, and when I decided to foster I said, 'I will treat these children the way I would my own.' I would never send one of my children away because they had a problem. I would try as well as I could to work it out."

PreservingFamiZy Bonds

Reaching Out to

p

1 vers

Zelma Smith {left) led the kinship educational pro-
gram which Juanita Gordon attended.

Kinship caregivers: connecting with them and clarifying roles are major goals for the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) . DFCS is striving to increase the numbers and capabilities of kin who care for children.
Most of us will agree that if catastrophe struck and our children were left without us, our first w ish would be for them to be taken in by those we most love, whether they were brothers, mothers or best friends. Traditional foster parents will always be indispensable in Georgia's quest to care for children living apart from their birth paren ts. Yet som etimes relatives and close family friends can bring children into their homes more painlessly than the most devoted of traditional fos ter parents.
Juanita Gordon, from Augusta, sta ted, "When my sister's children came to live wi th me, they already knew where the bread was in the refrigerator. They knew what bed they were going to sleep in. And I wasn't a stranger to them, so they didn't have to go through trying to figure out, 'Can I trust this person?' "

Patterson added, "Children and birth parents usually have long histories and emotional ties with certain people, such as grandparents, aunts, uncles, godparents or simply close family friends. When DFCS can place children with these familiar people, the children's lives can feel less disrupted. Also birth parents may have some basis of trust with these people, w hich can help in working together as teammates. If the birth parents prove unable to be reunified with their children, kin who adopt can be living links for those children, connecting far back into those children's memories."
DFCS is now rewriting state policy to emphasize that caseworkers should work diligently to assess family members who might provide safe and permanent homes for children.
An Educational Program for Kin
As part of its commitment to working more closely with kinship caregivers, DFCS contracted with the Child Welfare Institute to develop a kinship counterpart of MAPP. MAPP is the 10-week educational program which prepares traditional foster parents for caregiving. Although MAPP offers many useful tools for any caregiver, DFCS concluded that kinship caregivers are different in many ways from traditional foster parents and need a separate educational program tailored specifically for their needs.

Gloria Patterson, DFCS human services specialist, said, "In finding homes for children, DFCS has always worked with relatives and other persons with significant emotional connections to the family. Now we're placing much more emphasis on kinship care. Part of this is because new state and federal laws stress the importance of children spending less time in the fos ter care system."

The new nine-week educational program was piloted last summer with two groups of kinship caregivers, in Chatham and Richmond Counties. Juanita Gordon was among the participants. Gordon is a single mother with two birth children. Gordon also fos ters and has begun procedures for adopting three of her sister's children who came into her care four years ago.
"Until I got m y sister's children, nobody could tell me I didn't know how to raise children," Gordon laughed. "But I had a lot to learn about dealing with these kids and their mother. I can't tell you how helpful those classes were. When the instructor talked about these things, it would

just open right up to you. It would be like, 'This dren very specific instructions and giving kids

is what's going on!' "

time out," Harris described. "My 7-year-old

grandson kept riding his bicycle in the street. He

r
l

Like many kinship caregivers, Gordon felt torn when working with a birth parent who is also a close relative. While such long-term relationships

would also be loud and combative, kicking and chopping, acting like the Power Rangers he'd seen on TV. We'd tell him those things were over

might provide a foundation on which to build

trust, those relationships can also be laden with

rivalries and emotional "baggage" from the past.

Tyrone and Pauline Harris are kinship caregivers.

Gordon recalled, "After the kids came to live with me, my sister would pop up at my house. We'd end up in the biggest arguments. I didn't understand why she didn't want me to take care of her children. The classes helped me see she didn' t want me to do it because it might make her look bad in her children's eyes."

The kinship program helped Gordon change counterproductive patterns of acting with her sister.

"After I was in the kinship classes, I tried different ways of us talking together," Gordon said. "I told her, 'Before you come, give me a call and let me know when you're coming. I need to be prepared.' We started sitting down and making rules, like, 'If we want to talk or have a question to ask, we'll say we have a question. I'm not going to yell at you, and you won't yell at m e. I'll respect you, and you'll respect me. If a conversation looks like it's going to get heated, we need to end it. We won't have arguments in the presence of the children because they've had enough of it.' I needed to learn how to be rational with her. I had to learn how to negotiate."
Helping Kin to Use New Tools
A high percentage of kinship caregivers are grandparents, like Tyrone and Pauline Harris from Savannah. For two years, they have been caring for their daughter's three children. Mr. Harris explained how the kinship education program helped him think creatively about such things as managing his grandchildren's behavior.
"The classes covered setting limits, telling chil-

the limit. If he kept doing them, we'd send him to his room. If he got mad and wouldn't go to his room, I'd put him in the corner and have him face the wall for 15 minutes, and I would be right there with him. He'd be standing in the corner while the other kids were out in the yard playing basketball. He realized that you can have joyous times when you stay within the limits. Then he got to do things he wanted, like playing basketball or riding his bicycle in the yard."
Kinship caregivers often can face different emotional dynamics than traditional foster parents. A grandfather w ho previously enjoyed "spoiling" his grandchildren might have to shift into the role of disciplinarian when his grandchildren move into his hou se. Such a change of roles can be confusing for both the adults and the children. Also while traditional foster parents usually have the luxury of planning for fostering and even d ebating w hether to foster, a crisis often thrusts kin into the role of caregiver. They often hastily decide to take children into their homes, even though doing so may go against their personal plans and goals. Thus, a husband and wife may
(See Kinship, page 11)

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New Federal and State Laws

1998 Foster Parent and Staff Devel opment Institutes
Partnerships for Children

Photos by George B. A rmstrong

A major child welfare reform is sweeping the nation. Part of this new direction is to recognize that the last sweeping reform was well in tended, but it strayed from putting children's best in terests first.
This last major reform began in 1980 with the passage of a landmark fed eral law. Agencies set out striving to keep children w ith their birth parents, connected wi th their roots and origins. But the best intentions can go too far, and, across the nation, the reform turned into caseworkers too often ..-,..;.o........ d oggedly workin g with birth parents for years, while the children drifted in fos ter care. Agencies became so focused on preserving birth parents' rights that children's interests too often suffered.
This imbalance was addressed last November w hen President Clinton signed into law the Adoption and Safe Families Act, w hich is the most fundamental child w elfare legislation since 1980. In Georgia's last session, the legislature passed House Bill 1585 to merge these national principles into Georgia child welfare practice.

Doster added, "But we also know children need secure, safe homes to be heal thy, self-sufficien t, mature adults. We know that in these past years too many children went too long adrift without a sense of belonging. The new laws require that children be placed in permanent homes or situations more quickly. We hope these laws' compressed timeframes w ill help birth parents see the urgency of trying ex tra hard to m ake positive changes. If they' re unable to m ake needed changes, we hope under the new laws they'll be able to look at what's best for their children, even if that means ea rly relinquishment of their parental righ ts so children can move to perm anent hon1es."
Under the new laws, the court sys tem w ill hold DFCS agencies strictly accountable fo r moving children into a p ermanent situation in 12 m onths' time. DFCS will still be able to obtain short extensions if caseworkers can give judges compelling reasons w hy the current permanency plan will w ork if given a few more months.
Doster explained, "To be in compliance w ith the new laws, the state is required to file a termination 'of parental rights if a child has been in care 15 out of the last 22 months, or if the child is an abandoned infant, or if the parent has serious-

"We'll still be strongly committed to w orking w ith birth parents," empha sized Linda Doster, Foster Care Unit program consultant. "We'll always know that no one can have a sort of bond with a child that a birth parent d oes, and we'll still believe the best outcom e w ill be for children to be able to return to living w ith their birth parents."

ly injured this child or a sibling of this child. Some people have the misconception these laws are all about encouraging terminations of birth parents' rights so children can be ad opted . That's incorrect. What these laws mean for caseworkers is they'll need to work even more diligently with birth parents to try to reunify them with their children within these shortened timeframes. They'll need to work much more intensively with families from the beginning, putting in more of a time-investment up-front."
DFCS is currently preparing orientation and training for child w elfare staff on working under the new Georgia law, w hich goes into effect in July.

G
Foster Care Facts

20,939 Total number of children served by OHR in 1997

16,044 Average number of children served each month in 1997

2,358 Children placed with relatives

944 Children placed in relative foster homes

8,002 Children placed in family foster care

521 Children placed in group homes

637 Children free for adoption and placed in adoptive homes

1,267 Children free for adoption and not yet placed

367 Children placed in child caring institutions

64

Children in custody on runaway status

469 Children placed in intensive trea tment settings

To strengthen skills for helping children in foster care: that is the purpose of the 1998 Foster Parent and Staff Development Institutes.

action to heal the damaged child through the power of the family. Also the conference had a fun, non-threatening style."

The three Institutes held so far this year have been strong successes. More than 125 foster parents and DFCS staff attended the Cartersville session, and more than 260 participants attended the Decatur session. Attendance numbers have not yet been reported for the Macon session.
As part of the Institutes, Dr. Frank R. Kunstal leads two days of discussing how the stages of children's development affect how children attach and behave in foster care. He also offers practical solutions for foster parents who are struggling with children's "growing pains." Kunstal is a psychologist, dynamic author, columnist and trainer.
''Just as last year, Dr. Kunstal has enhanced my ability to w ork more com passionately with children to understand their problems," commented one Institute participant. ''I wish we could have him more than just once a year. He has been very illuminating in my life."
Another Institute participant stated, ''This conference provided an opportunity to learn and remember the basics of early childhood development. When children's needs aren't met, the results are predictable. This conference increased our knowledge of how we as foster parents can take

The Institutes also provide professional development for agency staff and allow all participants to choose to attend a variety of workshops. Thursday sessions are designed to help staff focus on solutions rather than problems, using positive self-talk to maintain optimism and commitment and building a personal leadership attitude.
Georgia foster parents and staff will be receiving further information, invitations to the Institutes,as well as information about continued parent development hours. If families are not already registered for a session, they may obtain further information or registration forms by contacting their county DFCS offices or the Institute planners at Care Solutions at 1-800-2273410.
Here are the scheduled dates and locations for this year's remaining Institutes:
Columbus: Sept. 25-26, with DFCS staff attending Sept. 24
Savannah: Oct. 16-17, with DFCS staff attending Oct. 15
The 1998 Institutes are sponsored by the Department of Human Resources Division of Family and Children Services.

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~ongrats

Agency of the Year Award Presented

This year the National Foster Care Association (NFCA) honored the Chatham County Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS) with its prestigious Agency of the Year Award. Chatham County was selected in a competition open to all public and private childplacing agencies from all 50 states.
"This award is very impressive because Chatham County was selected from so many agencies,"said Lorraine Adams, a member of the NFCA board of directors. "Chatham County DFCS was chosen not only for their close collaboration with and support for foster parents, but also for their success in reducing the number of children who are in foster care. They exemplify the partnership attitude, working with their fos-

ter parents to reach out to birth parents and the community. They really have done so much work in their county."
Pat Bowers, a Chatham County foster parent, said, "We don't like to call [the county DFCS] 'the agency,' but 'our partners.' Our partners work with us with birth parents, schools, juvenile court and mental health."
This award is part of Chatham County's impressive foster care history. Twenty-eight years ago, foster parents from Chatham County were the first Georgia foster parents to attend a national foster parent conference. Chatham County had a local foster parent association before Georgia had a state organization.

You Have Two New Contacts at the State Office
Foster parents sometimes need special advice and answers. When foster parents feel they need to talk to someone in the state office of the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), they have two key contacts: a toll-free information line and a special foster care liaison. Foster parents calling these telephone numbers will now be greeted by new voices.

Winifred Abdullah has replaced Merle Franklin in running the toll-free information line. The infor-

mation line's purposes are 1) to improve the quality of care to children in foster care and provide

additional support to foster parents, 2) to help DFCS county workers recruit additional foster care

resources, 3) to provide information about foster care resources to DFCS county offices, 4) to reinforce

the partnership between DFCS, foster parents, public agencies and pri-

8 260 0

vate providers and 5) to support private providers as they develop fos-

ter care programs and services. The toll-free information number is 1-



888-310-8260 and is open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Ann Bagley has replaced Betty Wrights as foster care liaison. Her job is to help bridge the gap between the state office and foster parents throughout Georgia. Both foster parents and county staff may call her for answers to questions about policies and procedures related to foster parenting, as well as grievance procedures and foster parent rights. Bagley is available to serve as a mediator to help seek a resolution when disagreements arise between foster parents and county departments. While foster parents have the right to initiate grievance procedures, Bagley hopes she can help resolve disagreements so a grievance procedure will not be necessary. Her telephone number is 404-657-3628.

Com mitment _rca_ntin_ued_rrom~pa.g;.e..J._J - - - - - -

worker,who prepares the application and supporting documentation. The county DFCS office then holds a review, either solely by department staff or by a multidisciplinary team which includes community representatives such as Mental Health Department staff, medical professionals and teachers. The approved application is then sent to the state DFCS office for a second review. This review committee is comprised of DFCS staff as well as professionals from such agencies as Children's Medical Services, the Division of Mental Health/Mental Retardation / Substance Abuse and the GradyEmory medical system, among others. If the review committee approves level-of-care funding for a child, the amount of the funding is based both on the child's needs and the necessary services required and provided, such as the foster parents knowing how to operate a child's apnea monitor. Even if a child is approved to receive level-of-care funding, the funding is considered temporary and will be reduced as the child's con-

dition improves and fewer services are required.
Walker emphasized, "This new funding is a valuable resource for children. Also it's important that county departments should always continue working to strengthen the network of resources and funds within their own communities. For example, Medicaid covers many expenses associated with a child's diagnosed illness, like car lifts, wheelchairs and sometimes even having nurses to sit with children. Children's Medical Services is another source for obtaining equipment like wheelchairs and walkers. The Cerebral Palsy Foundation, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the Epilepsy Foundation, Babies Can't Wait and other organizations also can help with children's needs. County departments need to be aware of these and other resources that may be available nationally and within their communities. When counties connect with a network of services, they can help fill in the gaps so children and families obtain the things they need."

}(i11sfzifJ -~-ont_mu_ed_~~mp~ag~e7_J _____________________

have been looking forward for years to their hard-earned retirement, yet they instead find themselves meeting with teachers and driving children to the dentist.
DFCS Plans a Kinship Summit
DFCS is currently planning a major summit conference for Sept. 1998 to strengthen the network of Georgia's kinship caregivers.
"The reason for the summit is to take a good look at what kinship caregivers need," said Jayne Bachman, DFCS foster care consultant. "We want to look at kinship issues, changes for policy and practice meant to support kinship caregivers, as well as recent legislative changes. We want to talk about making the new kinship education program available across the state. When we have the summit, we'll be inviting DFCS staff and kinship families who have participated in the kinship education program. We really need to look both at what kinship caregivers need and how

DFCS can better support them."
Harris testifies that kinship caregivers can benefit from connecting with the foster care system.
"We'd had the kids with us for more than a year and didn' t know we could apply for a per diem," Harris said. "We finished the kinship course and had the Health Department to come in and check the house and do a background investigation, and we were approved to receive a per diem. We'd been trying to get Medicaid, but everything came through once we finished the kinship classes, because several DFCS employees really got it rolling. Taking the classes, we met other kinship caregivers, and we keep in touch with several of them. We became members of the foster parent association. So the course helped us to get more hooked in with the system. I would tell other kinship caregivers to work with their county department because it could be beneficial for them."

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PAID ATLANTA, GA PERMIT NO. 5823

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Foster Parents to Increased Per Diem and Training

To bolster foster parents in their mission, they

Of the required 15 hours, a minimum of 12

will be receiving an increased per diem and training.
Foster parents' basic per diem will be increased

must focus on developing one or more of the 12 skills practiced in MAPP, Georgia's foster parent preparation program. With prior written approval by their county director or designee,

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to $11.10 per day, effective July 1.

foster parents may use three of their required 15

"In-service hours" have been renamed "continued parent development hours," to reflect new efforts to improve foster care in Georgia. Effective January 1, the number of required annual parent development hours increased to 15

hours to meet personal growth and development needs; these activities may include counseling by a professionally credentialed counselor, participation in a support group or a program of stress management.

hours. Foster parents who accept level-of-tare

children may need additional hours beyond the

mandatory 15 to meet the special needs of a par-

ticular child.