California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse Recognizes Blended Training for Prospective Foster Parents

June 13, 2018

Eugene, OR — A revolutionary approach to training first-time foster, kinship, and adoptive parents has been given a "Promising Research Evidence" rating by the nationally recognized California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse (CEBC). Traditionally, potential foster parents receive pre-service training through a series of classroom-based meetings where trainers can pass on core information about parenting children in care, and at the same time conduct an assessment of potential resource parents. In the new blended approach, developed by FosterParentCollege.com and the Institute for Human Services (IHS), these traditional classroom-based meetings are combined with online training.

During the traditional pre-service training process, it is common for child welfare agencies to face high attrition of potential resource parents. One reason for this high attrition rate is the difficulty many prospective parents experience when attending traditional classroom-only training. These trainees must juggle time off work, travel to and from training, and arrange and pay for childcare. The new blended approach reduces these hardships by combining ten online training components that provide core parenting information, with four classroom sessions that allow for a mutual assessment and discussion of agency-specific rules.

Results of a research study on blended training that were published in an article in the journal Child Welfare showed that, when compared to traditional classroom-only training, the blended training produced a significantly greater increase in relevant knowledge from pre- to post-test. The blended training also produced a significantly lower dropout rate than the classroom-only training and thus a significantly higher rate of pre-service training completion. Satisfaction with both training approaches was quite high among study participants, with no significant difference between them.

“We feel honored by the CEBC rating,” said Lee White, president and co-founder of Foster Parent College. “The rating is recognition of our 8 years of development and study of the blended pre-service training curriculum as an innovation in the foster parent industry. This curriculum allows agencies to provide standardized and high-quality training to potential resource parents and, at the same time, it provides opportunity for mutual assessment by agency and parents. The training is already being applied in several states, and the CEBC rating will help other state agencies to recognize the innovation. Ultimately, with the increased retention rate and improved training we are able to help states and agencies improve the lives of children in care.”

The FPC-IHS Blended In-Person and Online Pre-Service Training for Resource Parents joins a variety of in service and pre-service training courses available on FosterParentCollege.com. Each of the over 60 courses is designed specifically for foster, kinship, and adoptive parents.

For more information on CEBC, visit cebc4cw.org. For more information about the Blended Pre Service Training program or to access the free curriculum guide contact Lee White at 541-343-6636.