Partnerships in fostering: a newsletter of the Georgia DHR Foster Care Unit, Summer 1998

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A NEWSLETTER OF THE GEORGIA DHR FOSTER CARE UNIT

Trauma Helping Work Through

All children who are placed infoster care experience the traumas of separation and loss, in addition to any abuse and neglect they have experienced. The adults in these children's lives must recognize their needs and develop strategies to help them, especially now as the new school year begins.
"Sometimes we may feel frustrated with the behavior of a child who has experienced hardship or trauma, but it's important to take a moment and remember that the child is asking for help in the only way he or she knows," said Dennis Herendeen.
Herendeen is a licensed psychologist who since 1975 has worked closely with the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) as a therapist and forensic evaluator. As the new school year approaches, Herendeen emphasized the need for teachers, foster parents and case managers to work together on behalf of children. He stressed that adults can recognize some children's behavior as being "warning signs."
"These warning signs are the things the child is doing to call attention to himself or herself," explained Herendeen, "like not being attentive in school, not cooperating in the classroom, not turning in assignments, or seeming distracted or unhappy. Sometimes warning signs are children misbehaving. Other times children turn within themselves, daydreaming or not paying attention. Adults have to be alert to both types of warning signs."

In helping children work through their traumas, adults need to do two things that may seem to be opposite. First, adults need to treat these children like any other "normal" youths, so they can relax and not feel different or strange. But adults can go too far in "normalizing," ignoring that these children may be struggling with things that happened to them which most children never have to endure. Thus, adults must help these children feel normal while also being sensitive to each child's unique issues.
"Who people are depends on where they're from and what happened to them along the way," Herendeen stressed. "We've got to be aware of the traumas children have gone through because those traumas are there and will hinder the child's life unless they're addressed."
As the new school year begins, children will be spending most of their time at home and school. The adults who spend the most time with these children must act as team members, keeping in touch with each other whenever they notice behavioral changes.
Herendeen stated, "The teacher, the foster parents and the DFCS case manager need to share information for the child's good. As busy as we are, we've got to take time to talk about these kids. The earlier we recognize a child's warning signs and intervene, the more likely we'll find a way to help the child before a fullblown crisis which might result in a child leaving school or dropping out."

Dennis Herendeen says that children's behavior can be a cry for help.

Building Partnerships

With

5

One Child's Story

A child divides most days between being at school and home. If the adults in these two settings do not work together, the child can feel confused and pulled between two disconnected worlds.

Mary Prescott from Sylvania is a foster mother .,,.,..-.-------------.-......~ who believes in the
importance of working with the school. Last year, a child we will call "Tyrone" came into the Prescotts' care. After Tyrone entered kindergarten, the Prescotts began receiving up to three calls a week from the school about his misbehavior, and he was placed several times in in-school suspension.

This Sylvania foster parent and case manager believe in working closely with the
school system.

" In school, he wanted to fight, wouldn't stay in his seat, talked out in class, wouldn't follow directions or pay attention to the teacher," Prescott explained.
Prescott always returned calls and came to the school whenever she was asked to meet with the teacher, the counselor or the principal. She also worked with the student support team, which is a group of staff who plan ways of working with children who are difficult to manage. When the team met to discuss Tyrone's situation, she always joined them.

"We'd talk about his problems," Prescott described. "They'd ask me what I was doing to try to stop it, and they'd tell me what they were doing. That kept me informed about what he was doing in school, and sometimes when he got in trouble I'd take his bike or some toys from him. I'd tell him we love him and didn't want him to do those things. Sometimes if my children are good, I'll give them money-we walk to the grocery store, and I let them buy treats. Or if Tyrone was good, my husband took him to church choir

practice, which he liked. He knew I was in touch with the school and would hear if he acted out."
Prescott also sometimes visited Tyrone's classroom, and he "didn't get in trouble then. He just loved for me to be there." Prescott's DFCS case manager, Melanie Middleton, also sometimes visited Tyrone's class.
"The teacher really likes for you to do that," Middleton noted. "I'd go for maybe 20 minutes, and he's always watching you to see if you're watching him. That means a lot to him, and he lets all his friends know someone is there to see him."
Middleton kept actively in touch with the school, meeting with Tyrone's teacher and the assistant principal.
"A lot of times, foster parents don't call the case manager, so she doesn't even know there's a problem, and I'm glad Mrs. Prescott calls," Middleton emphasized. "Sometimes she'll call me when something isn't going well. Other times, she'll go on her own to the school and handle it, then call me and let me know what she's done, to keep me aware at all times so I'm not in the dark."
Other members of Tyrone's team of adults included a teacher's aide who took a special interest in Tyrone. Mr. Prescott served as Tyrone's first male role model, spending much one-on-one time with him. Tyrone also worked with a counselor, and a physician monitored his medication.
Eventually, the Prescotts stopped receiving phone calls from school, and Tyrone's notes from school arrived with smiley faces instead of complaints.
Some of the Prescotts' useful actions were returning phone calls; meeting with school staff to plan in sharing discipline techniques; calling and sharing responsibilities with the case manager; and visiting the classroom to make the child feel special.

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School
Terminology

Governor Zell Miller expanded Pre-K to all families, regardless of income.
Pre-K
Strengthens

Georgia 4-year-olds have an advantage. The Georgia Pre-kindergarten Program is one of the best prekindergarten programs in the nation.
Pre-K can bolster children's confidence and self-esteem, which is especially important for children who have been placed in foster care. Pre-K gives children a head start in many ways. They receive an early start in academic subjects, which helps them feel generally more competent and self-assured. Being with other children helps them learn and improve social skills. Being in a classroom helps them begin getting used to the structured setting of school.
Pre-K classes meet six and a half hours per day, five days a week,

from September through June. Classes are limited to a maximum of 20 children. To learn more about Pre-Kin your county, call the Office of School Readiness tollfree at 1-8884GA-PREK.
Funded by the Georgia Lottery for Education, Pre-K is offered in every county in the state. In 1995, Governor Zell Miller expanded the program for all children, regardless of family income. This program reaches a higher proportion of 4year-olds than in any other state in the nation and this year will serve 61,000 children. Georgia's Pre-K program's excellence was recognized in 1997 when it received the Innovation in American Government Award from the Ford Foundation and Harvard University.

Ca 11 1.888.4GA.PREK

To decide if a child is eligible for special education programs, a team of school staff and parents gathers information from home and school and tests the child. Following are special education programs and brief descriptions of guidelines for children entering them.
EBD: Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. A student has problems in one of five areas so much that school performance is impaired. The areas are interpersonal relations, learning problems, unhappiness/depression, unusual/inappropriate behavior, unusual
fears I anxiety.
SEBD: Severe Emotional and Behavioral Disorders. A student has problems in one of the five EBD areas to a more severe degree than in EBD (see EBD above).
LD: Leaming Disabilities, also called Specific Leaming Disabilities (SLD). A student has a weakness in a particular area (math, writing, reading, etc.) which is measured by test scores and is not due to factors such as emotional, motivational, vision or hearing problems, poor attendance or frequent moves, etc.
MI: Mild Intellectual Disability. A student has an IQ in the range of 55 to 70 with behavior that limits daily living skills.
MO: Moderate Intellectual Disability, also called MoID. A student has an IQ in the range of 40 to 55 with behavior that limits daily living skills.
SID: Severe Intellectual Disability. A student has an IQ in the range of 25 to 40 with behavior that limits daily living skills.
PID: Profound Intellectual Disability. A student has an IQ in the range of 25 or below with behavior that limits daily living skills.

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Getting Extra Hel for Children
Many supports are available to help school children. Foster parents and case managers can help children in care by learning about and using these supports.
Schools offer many programs to provide students with extra help. In the elementary grades, special instructional assistance (SIA) programs give children extra help with academics. Many schools offer tutoring programs, including peer tutoring. School counselors often work with groups of students during the school day to help them deal with specific issues, such as managing their anger or grief/loss issues.
To find out about such programs, foster parents and case managers can ask the child's teacher, a school administrator, counselor or the person at the county board of education in charge of student support services. These programs go by various names, so the parent can begin by explaining the areas in which the child needs extra help, such as school work or behavior, then asking what programs are available at that school. Foster parents can find out about other programs to help with behavioral and emotional issues by calling organizations like the local mental health center, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls

Foster parents, DFCS and the schools should be partners, says
Ann Glendinning.

obtain tutoring services for youths between 15 and 21.
Some colleges provide students with credit for tutoring or working with children with disabilities or behavior / learning problems. Foster parents can call a college's education department to inquire.
Having some of these supports in place before the child starts school can make the child's and the fos ter parents' lives easier. Ann Glendinning, Cobb County assistant superintendent for special student services, suggested that foster parents and case managers meet with a principal before enrolling a child, especially one who may need extra help . She noted, "If the school, foster parent and case manager can together come up with a plan on how they approach things in the first months of the child's educational program, that alone gives that youngster so much more security about his future ."
Foster parents can obtain valuable school- and child-related information from the Georgia Learning Resource System (GLRS) . A GLRS is in every region of the state and will answer questions by phone about a wide variety of subjects, such as what programs are available in a local school, what a parent can do to help his/her child improve reading skills, or what a parent's rights are when his / her child is in special education. GLRS has a large library of materials which anyone can check out, including information on medical conditions, learning activities and much more. The GLRS toll-free telephone number is 1800-282-7552 .

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Club or YMCA. Some of these organizations, as well as churches and schools, offer helpful afterschool programs. Some county DFCS offices have money available for special activities, such as art lessons or transportation from football practice. The independent living coordinator can help

If a student is struggling academically or behaviorally, the student support team (SST) can help. "The SST is a group of people in the school who meet to do ongoing reviews of the student's situation," explained Frank Smith, consultant for psychological services at the Georgia Department of Education. "Usually the team includes a special education teacher, regular education teachers, the child's teacher, a counselor, often an adminis-

trator, the parent or foster parent, people from other agencies and anybody who's appropriate to
r help the child. Foster parents are valuable SST members. Without them, the team may not have
l the details they need." Sometimes the SST considers whether a child needs special education services. As the child is evaluated for special education, forms must be signed. These forms give permission for things such as testing and, perhaps, eventual placement in special education. If a foster parent and case manager agree that the foster parent will take on the responsibility of giving these written permissions, the foster parent must be appointed the child's "surrogate parent." To be a surrogate parent, a foster parent must receive special training required by state and federal law. The training can last from an hour to a day, depending on h ow much experience the foster parent has had working with the school and with special education.
If foster parents become surrogate parents, Smith stresses the importance of their understanding what the various permission forms are for. Foster parents should not hesitate to ask as many questions as they feel they need to.
Although special education's mission is to help children, parents can sometimes feel confused by its paperwork and rules. Special education programs benefit from having foster parents as active partners, and foster parents can learn more 1. about special education in several ways.
! To help the school staff make good decisions
about placing a child in special education, foster parents can observe the programs their child might enter. Most school systems have more than one way to deliver special education services, and foster parents may want to observe several classrooms and have one or more informal brainstorming sessions with school staff to come up with a plan that meets the child's needs. If the parent observed the program a year ago, he/she should understand that it and the students in it

could have changed since then.
Getting to know someone who can answer questions and explain the process can be helpful
Student support teams need foster parents, says Frank Smith.
for any parent. "Somewhere in the school or central office is someone with whom a foster parent can feel comfortable," Glendinning said. "It's OK if it's not the principal or the child's teacher. The foster parent may just 'click' with a particular staff member. Sometimes it's just a matter of finding a personality match." Foster parents can also call the state Department of Education (404-6562800) to ask questions about special education.
If parents feel overwhelmed by the special education process, they can also talk with the case manager. If together they decide the parent needs more help understanding and working with special education, the parent can request a parent advocate. Parent advocates are parents who have had children in the special education system and are familiar with the rules, paperwork and parent rights. The local board of education will provide the name of an advocate. Parents can also get in touch with an advocate by calling Parent to Parent (1-800-229-2038) and Parents Educating Parents (770-577-7771). These organizations and other parent support groups also provide support for parents fostering children with disabilities. The local mental health facility may provide the telephone n umbers of local parent support groups.

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Tips for Helping a Child School

Imagine a child's anxiety when going to a new school. Children in foster care especially may need extra help in feeling secure as they face this challenge.

You can help reduce your child's nervousness

by bringing him/her to "open house," which

most schools offer before the school year begins.

Also you can help the child feel more comfortable

by bringing him/her to tour the school on a quiet

day before the school year

begins, such as during teach-
Children in foster care ers' pre-planning. If the school

especially

may

need

extra

year has already begun, bring the child one afternoon after

help in feeling secure. the students have gone home.
Call ahead to make sure the

teacher will be available for a "getting acquaint-

ed" visit without a lot of other people around.

Help the child find key places, like the cafeteria,

the gym, bathrooms and bus area. Let the child

wander around the school, simply to get used to

it.

Help the child practice how to respond to uncomfortable questions he/she might be asked, like, "How come you're starting school in the middle of the year?" or, "Aren't those your real parents you live with?" Help the child think of answers and phrasing that feel comfortable for him/her.

Give your child tools to be more organized. You can buy the child a planner or help the child make one. Show him/her where in the planner to write down homework assignments. Write the child's bus number and locker number/combination in the planner, in case the child forgets them. For any time the child might get lost or need an adult, write important phone numbers and addresses in the planner, including yours and a friend's. Know the time when the child usually gets home from school. To be prepared if the child is ever late, obtain the bus driver's and transportation department's phone number. If the child is late, you might also call the school's secretary.

Get a copy of the school handbook, and review it with the child. This can help the child know "how things work" at that particular school to avoid embarrassment, such as wearing something he/she shouldn't. Perhaps the handbook will say the school requires children to bring their own book bags; if so, you will know to get a book bag for your child so he/she will not feel "different" from the other children. A handbook usually explains a school's breakfast and lunch policies,which will allow you and your child to decide whether he/she wants to take or buy a lunch.
Talk one-on-one with teachers to explain the child is in foster care. This can help teachers be more sensitive, so they can avoid putting the child "on the spot." For example, a teacher might ask students to write an essay about their parents-an assignment which could confuse a child in foster care. Such a problem could be easily avoided if the teacher assigned more than one essay topic, giving students comfortable choices. Teachers do not want to embarrass their students, but they need to know about their students to be sensitive.
Find a "contact person" for the child, introduce the child to this person and make sure the child knows how to find him/her. The child can go to this contact person if he/she feels lost or overwhelmed. This person should be someone other than the child's teacher, since the teacher may not always be available. Getting to know the school secretary can also be very useful, such as for times when you need to get messages to your child or arrange for schedule changes in picking him/her up from school.

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What is the A'lerage

The 1998 Foster Parent and Staff Development Institutes Continue

Here are some characteristics of an "average" 6-year-old. Don't assume something is wrong if a child in your care or on your caseload differs from these characteristics. Remember that children change a lot in a year, and all children develop at different paces.
Six-year-olds are usually in the first grade. To make good progress in first grade, it is good if children are able to recognize all letters and know what sounds these letters make; recognize about 25-30 words that they see regularly, such as stop, store, gas; have some understanding of telling time and counting money; count to 20 and have some understanding of adding and subtracting.
They are usually very active but do not accom-

plish much. They can be clumsy. They can dress themselves. They have developed a preference for using either their right or left hand. Their attention span is about 45 minutes.
They have learned to use words to say what they want or feel, instead of physically acting out. They often get tired because of their rapid growth. They are beginning to develop their own beliefs, and they look to the most significant adult in their lives as a model for that. They worry about people's approval and are learning to control themselves. They are aware of much more than they can understand. They are just coming to know that adults are not all-powerful and always in control. There can be a lot of fear and anxiety at this age.

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

No Physical Punishment at

Some Georgia school districts allow physical punishment, such as spanking, when children misbehave. But children in foster care can never be physically punished in school or at home, according to state policy.
"This policy is based on a consent decree DFCS signed in 1988," said Doris Walker, manager of the DFCS Foster Care Unit. "Children in foster care have experienced some kind of abuse or neglect, and a spanking can be upsetting for them in ways many of us wouldn't guess. A spanking might cause serious internal injuries because of previous abuse, or bring back painful memories. Also it's been proven that physical discipline is not effective with children coming from these circumstances."

If the school sends a slip asking for authority to administer corporal punishment, foster parents should deny permission. If foster parents need follow-up or help in putting this message in writing to the school, they can contact their case manager. To avoid misunderstandings, foster parents and case managers can explain this policy when entering a child in school.
"Children in foster care need discipline," Walker stressed. "But instead of physically punishing children, it's better when foster parents, case managers and school staff work together as partners to come up with appropriate alternatives to physical punishment. Then children can be more successful at school and home, instead of adults confusing them by acting differently in these two settings."

tered 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 (800) 227-3410. This year's two remaining Institutes are at 1) Columbus on Sept. 25-26, with DFCS staff attending Sept. 24 and 2) Savannah on Oct. 16-17, with DFCS staff attending Oct. 15.

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Foster Care Unit Division of Family and Children Services

BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE
PAID ATLANTA, GA PERMIT NO. 5823

' Summer Swimmin Safet
If you or your neighbor owns a pool, you should take a lifesaving and CPR class and make sure the children in your home know how to swim. Even they know how to swim, adults should always supervise them at the pool. Children should only dive in eight feet of water and in approved diving areas. If you rescue a child from underwater, hold his/her head down for five seconds to drain water. If the child is not breathing, begin CPR and have someone call 911. A physician should immediately check the child, even if he/she revives quickly and seems recovered. County DFCS departments will soon be receiving expanded policy about water safety issues.

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So new foster parents can receive this newsletter, please fax their names and addresses to Jayne Bachman at (404) 657-3415. Also please fax her the names of foster parents, DFCS staff and other partners who are successful in helping children in care and their families. Also let us know about the successes of children in care. This newsletter wants to showcase successful partnerships and specific things partners are doing that we can all learn from!

Fax Us Your Names and Success Stories