300 South Dakota children are waiting for you

This paid piece is sponsored by Children’s Home Society.

Who is an example of the kind of person who becomes a foster parent?

You are.

That’s because all kinds of people become foster parents. People of all income levels, religions, races and family sizes are stepping up to make a profound and lasting difference in the life and future of a child. Yet the state of South Dakota has 300 children waiting for a foster care placement.

“Foster parents have a critical role in the lives of children and youth in need of stable, compassionate, selfless and unconditional care,” said Chelsie Ogaard, community-based services program director at Children’s Home Society.

What is therapeutic foster care?

There’s basic foster care, and there’s next-level foster care — known at Children’s Home Society as therapeutic foster care.

“The difference is that children in therapeutic foster care may have more emotional or behavioral needs,” Ogaard said. “We provide the parents with additional training and a much greater level of ongoing support.”

Children’s Home Society’s services for therapeutic foster care parents include collaborative and coordinated planning for:

• • Treatment
  • Transition
  • Permanency
  • Therapeutic case management
  • Counseling and therapy services
  • Supervision of foster home and children in foster care
  • Intentional involvement with child’s birth family or support network
  • Education or special education services
  • Vocational services
  • Medical services
  • 24/7 support

Who are the children?

Therapeutic foster care serves children who have experienced abuse, neglect, traumatic life events and, often, the loss of their family. Some children may have significant medical issues.

Many of these children have built walls around themselves to avoid being hurt again. As a result, they may have difficulty managing their emotions and may present challenging behaviors.

“With our help, therapeutic foster care families offer compassionate, trauma-informed, client-centered, strengths-based foster care for children with moderate behavioral or emotional needs and others requiring special medical care,” Ogaard said.

“In other words, these children need a little extra, and we equip you to provide that.”

“For each child, we provide a safe, stable and nurturing home environment conducive to the child’s positive development,” she continued. “We establish individual objectives for each child to promote healthy development in terms of physical, emotional, educational and social needs.”

What does therapeutic foster care do for children?

Therapeutic foster care is a program “designed to empower children with emotional or behavioral needs to succeed in a family setting,” Ogaard said.

For most children, succeeding in a family setting is something taken for granted and is a building block for a lifetime of successful relationships. But for those in therapeutic foster care, it is a major milestone because they have come from families and situations where that wasn’t possible.

“The most essential component of therapeutic foster care is the child’s positive adaptation as a member of a family system. Foster parents provide positive guidance, care and supervision to meet the developmental needs of the child,” she said.

“We recruit foster families who have the desire and ability to care for these children. The parents receive extensive and specialized training along with intensive support, supervision, consultation and intervention services.”

Working together with foster families, Ogaard said, “we help children heal from trauma and prepare them for permanency either through reunification, kinship, guardianship or adoption.”

What is the process of becoming a foster parent?

Ogaard said people often want to know what happens if they’re interested in becoming a foster parent. The therapeutic foster care licensing process consists of four main stages:

• Inquiry: Complete the information form here. A member of the Children’s Home Society team will reach out to you, answer questions you may have and provide additional information as appropriate.
• Application: Completing the license application with Children’s Home Society is the official start of the licensure process. This stage includes providing references and passing criminal record checks.
• Training: Applicants complete a total of 40 hours of training, which we provide at no cost to families. A 30-hour basic training course covers child development, including impacts of separation from birth family; attachment; grief and loss issues; importance of birth family connections; behavior management strategies; and permanency options. An additional 10 hours of training is needed to become a therapeutic foster care provider to better prepare the family to meet the child’s needs.
• Home study: A home study is conducted to help determine if foster care and/or adoption parenting is right for you. The process also helps the Children’s Home Society team identify the type of child who can benefit the most from your family.

“We get good feedback on the training program,” Ogaard said. “People say it really does prepare them for therapeutic foster care — and that they learn valuable information about parenting, child development, the impacts of trauma and more.”

What if you’re not sure you want to do foster care?

According to Ogaard, many folks are or have been interested in foster care but haven’t taken the next step to learn more.

“Finding out more doesn’t mean you’re signing up to provide foster care,” she said. “But you’ll never know if you don’t contact us.” She points out that prospective foster parents can step out of the onboarding process at any time.

“We don’t want to minimize the enormity of the decision,” she said. “It’s a big commitment. But we also don’t want to minimize the need that exists. These kids deserve love. They deserve families. They deserve a chance.”

Learn more about therapeutic foster care at HelpSDChildren.org, and view a video about it here: