These webpages identify external resources on specific topics of interest to foster, kinship and adoptive families.
From FASD Success (https://www.fasdsuccess.com/), this fillable packet provides families an opportunity to share unique and critical FASD-related information about their child or youth with teachers and staff.
Find more about this guide at https://www.fasdsuccess.com/understandingmefasdguide.
This fillable “All About Me” template from FFF gives families and students a simple way to share critical information with teachers, staff and others who can benefit from the essential key facts about a child or youth.
This was shared as part of our “Just So You Know… Strategies for Nontraditional Families to Share Their Information with Schools” training. It can be used by any family or student.
Fill in the blanks
Instructions
Sample completed All About Me
The educational strategies presented in this handbook are intended to be helpful to all teachers who work with students who may have a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). If this is your first time teaching a student with an FASD, this guide should be extremely helpful. While many of the strategies are general and are appropriate to use with all students who may share some of the learning needs of students with an FASD, they should be especially helpful to use with students who have been diagnosed with an FASD, from Sanford School of Medicine, Univ of South Dakota.
Children and youth who have intellectual disabilities or developmental disorders are at elevated risk for co-occurring psychiatric or behavioral problems. These young people pose a serious challenge for administrators, program directors and clinicians, especially when they present with aggressive or disruptive behaviors. When appropriate community services have not been organized, these youth can be among the most difficult and costly to serve. Across the country, their families report relentless stress, partly because it is very difficult to obtain the help they need. This paper provides resources and strategies that have improved outcomes and lowered costs, while diminishing risk for institutional placements, referrals to juvenile justice and child welfare.
Developed by Va Department of Education’s Family Engagement Network (FEN) and Formed Families Forward, this checklist is for any kinship caregiver who is enrolling a child or youth in schools and working with schools to get appropriate services and supports.
Checklist for kinship caregivers in PDF
web link to Checklists
This 9.5 minute video is designed for school personnel and families. It offers an overview of education equity and suggests strategies for facilitating greater educational equity through meaningful family engagement practices. The video features the voices and lived experiences of students, parents and caregivers, and school leaders. Strategies are organized by key components of family engagement in multitiered systems of supports.
The video has captions available in English and Spanish.
A fact sheet accompanies the video.
The video is produced by Formed Families Forward in our role as family partner to the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports (VTSS) project.
VIDEO with English and Spanish captions
Promoting Equity through Family Engagement Video FACT SHEET
Feedback survey. Tell us what you think!
Trauma Sensitive Approaches for Home and School videos– produced by Formed Families Forward as part of our work with the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports project. Under 10 minutes in length, each video provides an introduction to critical trauma content.
The videos include:
1) Understanding Trauma
2) Responding to Trauma
3) Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools
Three fact sheets are designed to support the Trauma Sensitive Responses at Home and School video series.
Individual Fact Sheets are available as separate documents, and all three fact sheets in one document. Accessible text versions of all fact sheets are also available in English and Spanish.
Video Series
Fact Sheets for Videos 1 through 3
Video 1 Fact Sheet Understanding Trauma
Video 2 Fact Sheet Responding to Trauma
Video 3 Fact Sheet Trauma Sensitive Schools
Video 1 Fact Sheet Understanding Trauma accessible version
Video 2 Fact Sheet Responding to Trauma accessible version
Video 3 Fact Sheet Trauma Sensitive Schools accessible version
SPANISH Video 1 Fact Sheet accessible version
SPANISH Video 2 Fact Sheet accessible version
SPANISH Video 3 Fact Sheet accessible version
ARABIC Video 1 Fact Sheet
ARABIC Video 2 Fact Sheet
ARABIC Video 3 Fact Sheet
Designed for family members, this 10 minute video explains the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports (VTSS) and offers concrete tips and strategies to engage with school partners more effectively. The video features family members and school staff from around Virginia, sharing their own lived experiences and suggestions for building stronger connections between families and educators to improve outcomes for all students. A fact sheet accompanies the video. Spanish and Arabic captions are available via YouTube settings.
We welcome your feedback on the video at https://tinyurl.com/yah2542o .
Family Engagement video link
Accessible video transcript
Fact Sheet to Accompany Family Engagement with Schools video
ARABIC Video fact sheet
SPANISH Video Fact Sheet, accessible Word format
Feedback Survey; Tell us what you think!
This series of videos features six key elements to engage families in Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports (VTSS). Designed for use by educators and families, the three videos highlight specific strategies for school teams to consider as they build momentum around family-school partnerships and strengthen skills to meaningfully engage families in multi-tiered systems.
Spanish and Arabic captions are available via YouTube settings. A fact sheet accompanies the videos.
Produced by Formed Families Forward, family partner to the VTSS project, in conjunction with Atom Stream Communications, LLC.
Link to Videos
Fact Sheet to accompany videos
Accessible Fact Sheet to accompany videos
Video 1 transcript
Video 2 transcript
Video 3 transcript
SPANISH Fact Sheet, in accessible Word format
ARABIC Fact Sheet
Slides used at the March 19, 2019 VDOE Safe and Supportive Schools Conference in Williamsburg.
From the Virginia Department of Education, this launch page offers a copy of state regulations for implementation of IDEA, and other state and federal special education policies.
Trauma Sensitive Approaches for Home and School videos– produced by Formed Families Forward as part of our work with the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports project. Under 10 minutes in length, each video provides an introduction to critical trauma content.
The videos include:
1) Understanding Trauma
2) Responding to Trauma
3) Building Trauma-Sensitive Schools
February 2018
Reducing Anxiety in the Classroom presentation by Happy Minds Counseling and Consulting, hosted by FFF. Happy Minds Counseling can be found at https://happymindscounseling.com.
NAMI of Northern Virginia offers a number of support groups for families and individuals struggling with mental illness. Find the list of support groups as well as other resources form NAMI of Northern Virginia.
From the Appalachia Regional Education Lab’s Kinship Caregivers and Grandfamilies Community of Practice, convened in 2023 and 2024, this collection offers a description of and links to Suggested Readings and Tools and Resources.
The Appalachia REL partners with key stakeholders in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia to develop resources as part of its Supporting Students, Grandfamilies, and Kinship Caregivers Community of Practice (COP). Learn more about the COP at https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/about/appalachia.
FFF participates in the COP and FFF resources are included in the Resource List.
Kinship Resource List
From the Grandfamilies and Kinship Support Network, a national technical assistance center:
This toolkit contains five actions for K-12 school professionals and kinship service providers to better support students and caregivers in kinship/grandfamilies. The five actions each include specific steps and embedded tools to help children and their caregivers thrive in K-12 settings, and is a companion piece to Pathways to Success: K-12 Education Support for Kinship and Grandfamilies, the Generations United 2024 State of Grandfamilies & Kinship Care Report, which is available at www.gureport.org
Five Actions Toolkit
Originally broadcast live on December 12, 2024, this FFF webinar reviews key components and considerations of individualized education programs (IEP). Specific strategies for strengthening present level of performance statements and IEP goals are offered.
Webinar presentation slides
Recording of IEP Goals webinar
From the Virginia Department of Education, this technical assistance document enhances training and guidance on the development of Individualized Education Program (IEPs) for students with disabilities by incorporating more specific examples of high quality present levels of academic achievement and functional performance descriptions (commonly known as the present level of performance), annual goals, and postsecondary transition sections. The guide provides an introduction to the present level of performance descriptions and examples of aligned goals for pre-kindergarten through postsecondary transition IEPs. Additional resources for IEP development and suggestions on how to use the guide during local professional development activities are provided.
Standards-Based IEP Technical Assistance
ADDitude is a private resource network that support individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, their families and professionals through digital, audio, eBooks, a print magazine, webinars, social media, and more, including: ADDitudeMag.com, ADDitude magazine. weekly newsletters, live webinars, symptom tests and other resources.
ADDitude Magazine
CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) is a national organization that empowers people affected by ADHD by providing evidence-based information; supporting individuals, their families, and professionals who assist them throughout their journeys; and advocating for equity, inclusion, and universal rights.
The National Resource Center on ADHD (NRC), a program of CHADD, was established to be the national clearinghouse for the latest evidence-based information on ADHD. It is primarily funded through a cooperative agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD). The NRC serves as a National Public Health Practice and Resource Center (NPHPRC) with the mission to provide information, education and consultation about assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and issues of health and well-being for children with ADHD and their families.
CHADD website
Released in July 2016 by the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), this “Dear Colleague” letter and Resource Guide clarifies and provides guidance on the Federal obligations of school districts that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education to students with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and implementing regulations.
The Guide provides an overview of Section 504, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and IDEA, and review schools’ obligation to identify, evaluate, and make placement determinations about disability and needed services under Section 504. It also reviews due process procedural safeguards for students with ADHD and their families.
ADHD Resource Guide
The U.S. Department of Education’s Using Functional Behavioral Assessments to Create Supportive Learning Environments guidance is designed to help schools and early childhood programs better support students’ behavioral needs. This guidance focuses on evidence-based practices to support students, with or without disabilities, whose behavior interferes with learning, and is part of the Department’s effort to reduce exclusionary discipline.
An FBA can help with understanding the function and purpose of a child’s specific, interfering behavior and factors that contribute to the behavior’s occurrence and non-occurrence for the purpose of developing effective positive behavioral interventions, supports, and other strategies to mitigate or eliminate the interfering behavior.
The guidance, developed by the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), provides educators and families with information, tools, and resources to support the broader use of FBAs and behavioral plans for students with and without disabilities. The guidance describes an FBA, addresses common characteristics of an FBA and behavioral plans, explains how FBAs can inform instructional strategies, identifies guiding principles to support effective development and implementation, highlights federal funding sources for educator training related to FBAs, and provides technical assistance resources to support implementation.
FBA Guidance
Presented live on November 13. 2024, this webinar, FFF staff presents an overview of Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs). Content addressed when and why FBAs should be made at school, how families can partner throughout the process and what factors may be unique to children and youth in foster, adoptive and kinship families.
Presentation Slides
Webinar Recording
From Sesame Workshop, this activity book can be used with young children to in build resilience when faced with the unique issues presented by a parent’s addiction.
Activity Book
This fact sheet prepared by Formed Families Forward, in partnership with the WAZE to Adulthood project with the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC) covers postsecondary educational options and resources for youth and young adults in foster care, kinship care, and adoptive homes, and who have disabilities in Virginia.
VA fact sheet
The 2022 Virginia Assistive Technology Tools and Strategies: Resource Guide provides instructional strategies, AT solutions, modifications, accommodations, and examples used to address areas of need identified through the AT consideration process to support student success.
There are two Resource Guide PDFs: an ADA Compliant version and a printable table version.
This fact sheet prepared by Formed Families Forward, in partnership with the WAZE to Adulthood project with the Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center (PEATC) covers postsecondary educational options and resources for youth and young adults in foster care, kinship care, and adoptive homes, and who have disabilities in 5 states: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennesse.
FL fact sheet
GA fact sheet
NC fact sheet
SC fact sheet
TN fact sheet
This collection of resources from the US Environmental Protection Agency offers specific strategies for protecting children from a variety of environmental risks including pesticides and other chemicals, too much sun or heat, and storms and floods.
This webinar broadcast live on September 26, 2024, addressed ways that foster, adoptive and kinship families can build collaborative relationships with teachers and school staff.
Presented by Stacia Stribling, PhD, Deputy Director of Formed Families Forward.
Recording of Webinar
Presentation slides
On August 16, 2024, the Virginia Department of Education shared new guidance on Special Permission Locally Awarded Verified Credit (SPLAVC) Accommodation for Students with Disabilities.
The one-pager resource for families.
The resource provides answers to the following questions:
From the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this reports on comprehensive survey of kinship care policies, fielded in 2022 for the Annie E. Casey Foundation by Child Trends. Although states have many strong policies in place to identify, notify and support kinship caregivers, there are some notable gaps and differences.
Data tables also are shared.
Report on State by State survey on kinship care policies
Data tables
A webpage from the national NAMI organization offers specific strategies for families of individuals with mental health conditions who are arrested. Topics include handling medication, working with an attorney, and navigating courts.
Handling the Arrest of a Family Member
This webpage from the CDC offers a variety of resources on FASD including treatment, data/statistics, and real stories.
FASD webpage from CDC
This document from Virginia Department of Education provides a summary of resources and policy changes following the passage of House Bill 777 into law in 2024, Enrollment of and Provision of Free Public Education for Certain Students; Kinship Care and Foster Care.
The law provides that certain provisions of law relating to continuity of public-school enrollment and attendance, and immediate enrollment for students in foster care, apply to a student who has transitioned out of foster care and whose custody has been transferred to the student’s parent or prior legal guardian, or who has been emancipated.
If a student in a kinship care arrangement moves into a different school division during the school year as a result of safely returning home, being emancipated, or transitioning to a new kinship care arrangement, such student shall be deemed a resident in the previous school division of residence for the remainder of the school year for the purpose of tuition-free enrollment and attendance.