This mandatory orientation to the iLinc virtual classroom must be completed by all new iLinc users before they can register for and attend any other online course offerings. This orientation session lasts approximately 45 minutes and provides participants with an opportunity to make sure that their equipment is functioning properly before they start a class. The demonstration of the student palette and tools is designed to enable them to make the most of their online learning experience as well as to provide them with the technical vocabulary that they will need in order to communicate with instructors and technical support staff.

We will offer two classes that provide certified foster parents with foundation information and skills required to work in partnership to achieve safety, well-being, and permanency for the children in their care.

This class provides foster parents with a key tool, the Child Development Guide, and the information necessary to identify the presence or absence of significant skills and abilities for at each age and stage of child development, to report important observations to the caseworker and other service providers, and select and use activities that will support a child's optimal development.

By the end of this class, participants will be able to:

• Recognize the specific skills and abilities characteristic of each age and stage of child development.
• Recognize possible indicators of developmental disabilities or delays that require further assessment.
• Use the Child Development Guide to support the healthy development of the children in their care.

This class uses the Cycle of Attachment model to help foster parents understand the foundation process of children's emotional development and health. The behavioral clues that identify healthy attachments are highlighted. Foster parents learn how to select and use parenting behaviors that support emotional security and attachment in children, as well as how to identify behaviors that may signal unmet needs related to attachment.

By the end of this class, participants will be able to:

• Explain the meaning of the term attachment.
• Identify red flag behaviors that may signal unmet needs related to attachment.
• Choose to help a child build and maintain attachments to her birth family.
• Select and use parenting behaviors that will maintain and support a child's attachment to his birth family and his foster family.

This five-part series is intended for foster/adoptive parents who are raising children with developmental disabilities and who have already taken the Internet course Ages and Stages of Development (or, alternatively, the COMPASS Session 3: Promoting Child Development module through in-person delivery) or who are already knowledgeable about child development. Since each part builds on the previous one, these offerings must be taken in sequence. Each training session lasts two hours and each session is offered once during the day and once in the evening so that participants can choose a time that is convenient for them. (Note: The Glossary of Terms, Child Development Guide, and Resource Guide will be mailed to registered participants before classes begin, and participants will be able to download additional handouts from the Foster Parent Training web site.

Class 1 presents a general view of developmental disabilities as defined by the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities.

By the end of this class, participants will be able to:

• Use the Child Development Guide to identify developmental red flags.
• Define the five categories of developmental disabilities, including mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism, epilepsy, and neurological impairments (including the most common neurological impairments found in children in care: attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and learning disabilities).
• Appreciate the importance of early detection and diagnosis, classification, and services access.

Class 2 introduces the services community involved with children with developmental disabilities and addresses the importance of the advocacy role with regard to accessing needed services in a timely and effective manner.

By the end of this class, participants will be able to:

• Identify sources of national, state, and local level services provided for children with developmental disabilities.
• Demonstrate familiarity with a glossary of terms and acronyms used in the field of developmental disabilities.

Class 3 introduces important information for those parenting children with autism. According to AutismSpeaks, autism occurs in one out of 110 births. For those in foster care with autism, early diagnosis and treatment is paramount. Foster parents need to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of autism to ensure this early diagnosis of very young children. They also need to ways to manage homelife with a child who has autism.

By the end of this class, participants will be able to:

• define autism
• discuss its possible causes
• recognize the diagnosis
• prepare to consult and work with professionals
• list intervention strategies and practical ways to move forward after diagnosis

Foster/adoptive parents may find themselves in the position of having to advocate for children with diagnosed or suspected developmental disabilities. As they confront multiple services agencies as part of their role as advocates for the children in their care, such interactions can sometimes be intimidating and frustrating. Workshop participants will benefit from acquiring a better understanding of their individual negotiating styles and will be exposed to a model that will allow them to explore and refine their own negotiating skills as they practice using them in example interactions with service providers.

• Appreciate the importance of the advocacy role with regard to accessing services in a timely and effective fashion.
• Identify the key qualities of an effective advocate.
• Differentiate between aggressive, passive aggressive, and assertive behaviors used during services advocacy.
• Practice using assertive responses as a way to enhance their advocacy role.

Class 4 addresses the challenges of raising a child with developmental disabilities. Family relations, the many ways that caretakers and any other children in the family are affected, and the heightened levels of stress that the entire family often experiences are discussed in depth, and the importance of effective family stress management, and networking are addressed.

• Identify the additional sources of stress associated with the care of children with developmental disabilities.
• Recognize signs of stress in themselves and other family members.
• Utilize stress management techniques that can help lower family stress levels.
• Appreciate the importance of networking with other families raising children with developmental disabilities.

This offering is intended for and available to only those individuals who are currently providing foster care for one or more children to whom they are related or with whom they have close family ties. In order that they will be in a position to receive the maximum benefit from this offering, it is strongly recommended that kinship foster parents register for and attend all nine meetings.

This meeting provides an opportunity for kinship caregivers and the trainer to get acquainted with each other and share a little about personal kinship experiences.

This meeting provides the participants with an opportunity to assess the immediate impact of having children live in their homes, and to assess their ability to meet the needs of the children in their care.

This meeting provides kinship foster parents with an overview of reunification and adoption and identifies ways they can support permanency planning (children leaving foster care). It will also provide participants with the opportunity to assess the strengths and needs of the members of their immediate household and of their extended family members.

This meeting provides the participants with an opportunity to assess the immediate impact of having children live in their homes, and to assess their ability to meet the needs of the children in their care.

This meeting continues to help kinship foster parents examine the behaviors of the children living in their homes, to identify methods of managing the behaviors, and to identify and access needed services.

This meeting assists kinship foster parents in understanding their role and responsibilities in the education of the children in their care and in preparing youth for independent living.

This meeting provides an opportunity for kinship foster parents to examine the challenges birth parents face. Participants will gain a better understanding of birth parent issues and how those issues interplay with the kinship foster parent’s own issues. The nature of drug addiction in birth parents and how the addiction affects their ability to provide children with permanency (help their children leave foster care) will be explained and explored.

This meeting examines how kinship foster parents can redefine their relationship with birth parents, in order to ensure children’s physical safety and emotional well-being, and to support birth parents’ efforts to achieve permanency (help their children leave foster care).

This meeting provides kinship foster parents with the opportunity to complete a self- assessment of their ability to meet long-term needs of the children in their care. Participants will develop a family plan which they should later share with their caseworkers for the purpose of planning for the child (ren).

This class will help participants understand the difference between physical and psychological safety in children and adolescents who have experienced trauma. Participants will also be introduced to the concept of the safety message and how to deliver it effectively as well as ways to help children cope with trauma reminders.

This class will introduce participants to the Cognitive Triangle, and the impact of trauma on children’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Participants will also be introduced to techniques for helping traumatized children understand and control their emotional and behavioral reactions.

This class will explain how children form their identities through their attachments and connections taking into account the intergenerational nature of trauma. Participants will also explore why it’s important for children to talk about their traumatic experiences, and how foster/adoptive parents can support children in this process.

This class will enhance participants’ ability to share a trauma-informed perspective with caseworkers and other adults on the child’s team. Participants will be empowered in their role as advocates and recognize when trauma-related problems require the help of trauma-informed professionals. Participants will also receive information about what they can expect from a trauma-informed therapist.

This class will review the definitions and warning signs of compassion fatigue and of secondary traumatic stress. Participants will be able to identify specific self-care techniques that can help prevent secondary traumatic stress.

• Clarify the relationship between their fathers and their own style of fathering.
• Share their visions of the father they choose to be.
• Explore different cultural styles of fathering.
• Explore the unique roles of fathering daughters and fathering sons.
• Clarify the role of foster fathers in case planning.
• Practice important communication skills, particularly active listening and reflecting.

These on-line classes provide foster parents with the foundation skills and information required to work in partnership to help children who’ve been sexually abused to achieve safety, well-being and permanence. A certificate of completion will be provided.

Foster parents need to vent their feelings about child sexual abuse before they intervene in a child’s life where it has occurred. They also need to know facts related to child sexual abuse. This class provides that forum. Foster parents need to build relationships that free children from adult roles. Building these depends on recognizing needs and the behaviors that stem from them.

By the end of this class and video-viewing, foster parents will be able to:

• Describe the incidence and effects of child sexual abuse
• Identify their emotions toward the child, the person who abuses the child and the non-abusive partner
• Identify the emotions, needs and behaviors of children who are sexually abused
• Describe the needs and behaviors of the person who abuses and those of the non-abusing partner

Foster parents need to see children’s behavior as an expression of underlying needs. They also need to know the range of behaviors that often follow child sexual abuse. This class helps foster parents recognize signs and better meet underlying needs, establishing a basis on which to help the child manage the behaviors.This class also examines the relationships in families where sexual abuse has occurred and the role reversals which children and adults often experience.

By the end of this class and video-viewing, foster parents will be able to:

• Describe the relationships in families where sexual abuse occurred
• Identify sexual and non-sexual signs of child sexual abuse in younger children
• Identify sexual and non-sexual signs of child sexual abuse in older children
• Describe how sexual abuse affects the child’s expression of needs

Foster parents need to highlight the special strengths of children who have been sexually abused. This class helps foster parents identify these strengths and recognize the child’s needs. This class will also look how sexual abuse affects the way needs and strengths get expressed.

Foster parents need to recognize that children who’ve been sexually abuse have experienced a double trauma: that of the abuse and that of placement. Foster parents need to intervene when the child displays challenging behaviors. This class helps foster parents plan ways to meet the child’s needs, while managing behaviors related to the traumas of sexual abuse and placement.

By the end of this class, foster parents will be able to:

• Identify the double trauma children who’ve been sexually abused experience when placed in care
• Recognize the relationship between the child’s needs, behaviors and the foster parent’s response
• Identify strengths in the child’s expression of need
• List strategies to meet the needs and manage the behaviors of children who’ve been sexually abused

• help children talk about their feelings instead of acting them out
• express own anger or frustration without being hurtful
• engage cooperation

• Encourage autonomy
• Use praise effectivel
• Free children from getting stuck in “roles”

This workshop will provide foster/adoptive parents with a guideline for talking about loss and specific things they can say and do to help children at different ages to gain a full understanding of their placement reasons.

• The impact of openness on the children’s well-being
• Talking honestly with the children about their birth family
• Choosing types of contacts
• Ways to make & maintain boundarie