The information in this program outline is provided by the program representative and edited by the CEBC staff. The Foster Parent College (FPC) program has been rated by the CEBC in the area of: Resource Parent Recruitment and Training.

• Types of Maltreatment: Physical Abuse, Physical Neglect, Emotional Abuse
• Target Population: Foster, adoptive, and kinship parents, as well as social workers and other mental health professionals who work with resource parents.

FPC is an online training venue for foster, adoptive, and kinship parents. Interactive multimedia courses offered through the site provide resource parents with both pre-service and in-service training on clinical aspects of and parent interventions for their child’s behavior problems. Instructional content is based on social learning theory and attachment theory. There are currently 31 courses on FPC, 15 of which address specific child behavioral and emotional problems. Course topics in the area of parenting strategies include safe parenting, positive parenting, resource parents’ marriage relationships, working with schools and birth parents, house safety, child safety and supervision, kinship care, culturally competent parenting, grief and loss in the care system, and substance-exposed infants. The first three courses in a planned series of pre-service training courses are now available, covering the topics of child abuse and neglect, the child welfare team, and parent-child attachment. Most FPC courses can be taken individually via computer or in groups via DVD. Two newer online courses are advanced parenting workshops that were designed to be conducted in a group setting, with a discussion board and homework assignments. In addition, agencies can adapt any of the self-paced individual courses for delivery as group workshops with a discussion board, adding their own homework assignments.

The goal of FPC is to strengthen agency efforts to support and retain foster parents by providing quick and easy access to expert help on specific parenting and behavioral challenges through online training.