September 1, 2008

Incorporating Education into the Family to Family Initiative

In this report by Andrea Zetlin, Lois Weinberg, and Nancy Shea, the academic challenges faced by children in foster care are discussed, and strategies for incorporating education into Family to Family programs are described. Family to Family is a family-centered, neighborhood-based system of foster care that promotes permanence for all children. There are four core strategies upon which Family to Family relies for reforming child welfare systems: building community partnerships which focuses on building relationships in communities and neighborhoods that can support families involved in the child welfare system; team decision making which involves a process for making all placement decisions for foster children; resource family recruitment, development and support, which involves finding foster and kinship families that can support children and families in their own neighborhoods; and self-evaluation, which looks at collecting and using hard data to evaluate outcomes and determine where changes need to be made. Core elements of each of these strategies are described, followed by recommendations for incorporating education into each element. Examples of how Family to Family programs have included education agencies and concerns are also shared.