Kinship Treatment Foster Care toolkit

This 2015 toolkit from the Foster Family-based Treatment Association offers an overview of treatment foster care by kinship caregivers.

Hope and Healing for Sensory Deprivation

This booklet provides an overview of Sensory Deprivation or Sensory Processing Disorder. Based on the work of Carol Kranowitz and Karyn Purvis, information on definition, origins, detection & diagnosis,  and treatment are included.

The Grandparent’s and Other Relative Caregiver’s Guide to Raising Children with Disabilities from the Children’s Defense Fund

Children’s Defense Fund Guide to Resources for Kinship Families

Kinship webpage from Child Welfare Information Gateway

Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren

Meeting the Unique Needs of a Growing Population

Kinship Adoption: Meeting the Unique Needs of a Growing Population, from Child Focus.

Generations United/The State of Grandfamilies Report 2017- In Loving Arms: The Protective Role of Grandparents and Other Relatives in Raising Children Exposed to Trauma

In Loving Arms: The Protective Role of Grandparents and Other Relatives in Raising Children Exposed to Trauma

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  Full report

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Guide: A Grandparent’s and Other Relative’s Guide to Raising Children with Disabilities

Grand Resources: A Grandparent’s and Other Relative’s Guide to Raising Children with Disabilities, from Generations United

Are you a grandparent or other relative raising another family member’s child? You are not alone. Grandfamilies – or extended family members and close family friends and the children they raise – are growing in numbers. More than 2.7 million children are being raised in grandfamilies without any parents in the home. Although we don’t know how many, we believe many of the children in grandfamilies have disabilities or special needs. Often they may have disabilities because of the situations that led to them being cared for in a grandfamily. Some of them may develop disabilities if they do not receive services to help them while they are young.

The guide seeks to answer some of the most often asked questions from grandfamilies like yours who have children with disabilities.

Kinship Care Options brochure from Virginia Department of Social Services

Kinship care is a way for children to stay connected to family when they have been voluntarily or involuntarily removed from the care of their parents. Removal may become necessary due to a parent’s illness, incarceration, lack of housing, insufficient income, abuse or neglect. Regardless of the reason for kinship care,most children fare better when connections to family and loved ones are maintained.

Generations Together

Generations together’s mission is to create vibrant, multi-generational communities where children who have experienced foster care find permanent, loving families; those families receive integral support; and seniors find meaningful purpose as valued members of the community.

Their goals are..

• Increase the number of families who can consider providing a permanent home for a foster child and/or sibling group by providing affordable housing;
• Increase the relational support these families need to thrive by providing onsite services and by equipping and enhancing the community to care for itself.

Grandfamilies.org

Grandfamilies.org, a collaboration of Generations United, the American Bar Association Center for Children and the Law, and Casey Family Programs.

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  Grandfamilies

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  Generations United

Kinship Care: Rights and Responsibilities

This fact sheet from Formed Families Forward provides Virginia-specific information about rights and responsibilities for families providing informal and formal kinship care.

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  Kinship Rights and Responsibilities Fact Sheet

Kinship Families: Did You Know?

Click here to download a PDF version of this fact sheet.

• The child in your care can get educational services. Every child age 2 through 21 years old identified as having a disability has the right to free special education and related services. An Individualized Education Program (IEP) must be developed for each individual child with a disability. The IEP specifies the needs of the child and what education and services are necessary to meet the child’s needs. (8VAC20-81-10) Infants and toddlers with delays or disabilities may be able to get early intervention services through the Infant & Toddler Connection. (12VAC35-225)
• You should help make important educational decisions about the child you care for. Virginia special education regulations clarify that an individual acting in the place of a birth parent (including grandparent, stepparent or other relative) with whom the child lives can act as a “parent” under special education regulations and can make decisions regarding the IEP and other important aspects of the child’s education. (Code of Va. 22.1-213.1)
• You should be informed when decisions are to be made. Caregivers must be told when each IEP meeting will occur and are to be present if possible at any IEP meeting. (8VAC20-81-110)
• Your child’s school should be helping solve behavior problems. Schools, along with parents or kinship caregivers as part of the IEP team, must consider the use of positive interventions, strategies and supports to address behaviors that are causing problems for the child or others. The IEP team should develop goals and services related to the behavioral needs. IEP teams can also call for a functional behavioral assessment and determine if a behavioral intervention plan is needed to address the child’s behaviors. (8VAC20-81-110; 8VAC20-81-160)
• School records from previous schools should be sent to a new school. If the child you care for is moving from one school division or district to another, his or her school records including IEPs and other special education information, must be sent quickly from the previous school to the new school. Schools do not need permission from you, birth parents, or the caseworker to transfer records. (Code of Va. § 22.1-289; 22.1-3.4 for those in formal foster care)

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  Kinship Families: Did You Know factsheet