Course Enrollments Top One Million!

March 21, 2022

Eugene, OR — FosterParentCollege.com (FPC) recently achieved a significant milestone: The number of its online courses enrolled in by parents and agency staff crossed the one-million mark!

“It comforts everyone on our team to know that we are fulfilling our mission of improving the lives of children and youth in care by providing quality training to their caregivers and families,” said Lee White, co-founder of Foster Parent College. “We are grateful to our many state and agency partners for helping us reach this milestone. We are also deeply indebted to the many experts who have helped develop our courses, as well as to the dedicated FPC staff.”

FPC's self-paced courses are available 24/7, offering a convenient way for pre-licensed and licensed caregivers to meet their training requirements. Currently there are 56 courses offered on the website, 20 of which are available in both English and Spanish.

Unique to the website is the course evaluation system. After completing a training, viewers have the option of submitting a course evaluation questionnaire, along with comments. Since 2018, many of the courses have received over 20,000 evaluations. Overall, the courses have consistently achieved ratings of 4.3 – 4.7 on a 5-point scale.

“It sends chills down my spine when we hear from parents how much our courses have helped,” says Liz Brooks, co-director. For example, on our course Escalating Behavior Unwrapped, a parent recently commented, “This was amazingly helpful as we have a child who has anger issues and escalates sometimes easily. It provided guidance for us to help him and us cope! I am excited to work on this new skill!!”

Over the past few years, as online training has taken hold, agencies have turned to FPC in record numbers and have realized the value of its online training. Currently, the most popular courses on Foster Parent College are Child Development, Trauma-Informed Parenting, Child Abuse & Neglect, Foster Care to Adoption, and Understanding Behavior in Foster Children.

“We like that the parents get a certificate, that we can log on and record their participation, that we can set up a standard for passing and not passing, and that we can cluster and schedule a series of courses,” said Cindy Stogel, foster care and adoption coordinator for the Los Angeles Children's Bureau. “Our agency values the learning opportunities FPC courses provide in both preparing our resource families and in their ongoing learning, as well as the CEU feature for our staff!”

Foster Parent College launched in 2004 and has steadily increased and improved its offerings since that time. Later this year, it will introduce a new website look that will be mobile-friendly and provide other enhancements for both parents and agency staff.

FPC is rated by the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse as supported by "Promising Research Evidence" and was given the highest rating for "Child Welfare Relevance." FPC is endorsed by the Canada Foster Family Association, the National Foster Parent Association, County Welfare Directors Association of California, California Alliance of Caregivers, and the California State Foster Parent Association. It also has a strategic collaboration with the Child Welfare League of America.

Thank you for your support!