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National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC)

Topic Areas
Scientific Rating
Child Welfare Relevance
Resource Parent Programs
3  — Promising Research Evidence
High

About This Program

Target Population: Prospective or current foster, kinship, or adoptive parents of children of any age; children can be from child welfare system, intercountry or private domestic adoption process

For parents/caregivers of children ages: 0 – 17

Program Overview

NTDC, the comprehensive no-cost curriculum, is designed to tackle separation, loss, grief, and trauma in adoption and foster care. This cutting-edge resource offers adoptive, kinship, and foster parents flexible education that aims to empower them over the course of time and at the right time. Training is provided both as a synchronous classroom-based learning experience and through asynchronous “Right-Time” online modules that are available at any time for NTDC participants to build further knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy. While this training originated from key concepts to support children with intense service needs, it is designed to be used in any out-of-home placement, including with kin or adoptive caregivers.

Note: NTDC has also adapted to address the unique needs of indigenous communities; however, this separate manualized version is not part of this program review.

Program Goals

The goals of National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) are:

  • Increase self-awareness in readiness to foster or adopt
  • Expand the parenting paradigm
  • Learn new and necessary parenting skills for children of any need level, including intense needs
  • Learn how to use trauma-focused tools to provide a nurturing environment that promotes healthy development for children experiencing trauma, loss, separation, and grief
  • Learn how to acquire tools, supports, and strategies to meet the needs of the children in their care and build self-efficacy with these tools
  • Improve relationships with the youth in their care
  • Improve likelihood of culturally affirmative relationships with youth in care including promoting continuity with communities of which youth are a part
  • Improve child and family well-being and likelihood of youth staying in their care

Logic Model

View the Logic Model for National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC).

Essential Components

The essential components of National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) include:

  • Part 1: Self-Assessment
    • Self-administered tool that allows families who are preparing to become foster, kinship, or adoptive parents the opportunity to learn more about themselves and the characteristics and competencies that are important when parenting children who have experienced trauma, separation, and loss.
    • Allows the participant to recognize and build on areas of strength, explore areas in need of additional support and information, and identify areas that may cause the most challenge when parenting a child/youth.
    • Prompts reflection on realistic versus unrealistic expectations going into caregiving.
    • Assesses 14 different characteristics and 5 competencies.
    • Recommend completion of the self-assessment prior to beginning the Classroom-Based Training and aga in 90 days after training.
    • Can be completed online or via pen/paper in-person.
  • Part 2: Classroom Training
    • Can be delivered in-person or virtually.
    • After a 1.5-hour introduction, training is divided into 18 themes (with 2 additional specifically for kinship caregivers) spread across 27.5 hours of instruction.
    • Themes can be ordered into whatever best suits local needs, though the Implementation Manual provides an optimal order of themes:
      • Group 1: Foundation Themes (12 hours total)
        • Attachment (2 hours)
        • Child Development (1.5 hours)
        • Separation, Grief, and Loss (2 hours)
        • Trauma-Informed Parenting (2 hours)
        • Trauma-Related Behavior (2 hours)
        • Effective Communication (1 hour)
      • Group 2: Expanding Families (7.5 hours total)
        • Cultural Connections (1 hour)
        • Building Belonging (1.5 hours)
        • Foster Care: A Means to Support Families (1.5 Hours)
        • Preparing for and Managing Intrusive Questions (1 hour)
        • Reunification as the Primary Permanency Goal (1.5 hours)
        • Maintaining Children’s Connections (1 hour)
      • Group 3: Specialized Care Considerations (4 hours total)
        • Impact of Substance Use (1.5 hours)
        • Mental Health Considerations (1 hour)
        • Parenting a Child with a History of Sexual Trauma (1.5 hours)
      • Group 4: Power in Practicalities (2 hours)
        • Creating a Stable, Nurturing, and Safe Home Environment (2 hours)
      • Group 5: Online Themes (2 hours)
        • Expanding your Parenting Paradigm (1 hour)
        • Overview of the Child Welfare System (1 hour)
        • Kinship caregiver group (3.5 hours)
        • Building Parental Resilience for Kinship Caregivers (1.5 hours)
        • Kinship Parenting (2 hours)
    • NTDC also provides 2.5 hours of Hague Convention-compliant trainings for intercountry and domestic adoptions on these themes, which can be found with the general curricular content:
      • Connections with Birth Families After Adoption (1.5 hours)
      • Intercountry Adoption Process Overview (1 hour)
  • Part 3: Right Time Training
    • Asynchronous online training to enhance ongoing learning on an as-needed basis. Not meant to replace in-person training.
    • There are 14 Right-Time themes, each taking about an hour to complete:
      • Accessing Services and Supports
      • Building Children’s Resilience
      • Building Parental Resilience
      • Common Feelings Associated with Being Adopted
      • Education
      • Family Dynamics
      • Intercountry Adoption Medical Considerations
      • Life Story, Birth Story, Adoption Story
      • Managing Placement Transitions
      • Preparing for Adulthood
      • Preparing for and Managing Visitation
      • Responding to Children in Crisis
      • Sensory Integration
      • Sexual Trauma
    • Modules target multiple ways of learning, including showing videos, listening to podcasts, and completing posttests to evaluate competency gains. Modules also provide additional resources for parents to access during and after the training

Program Delivery

Parent/Caregiver Services

National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:

  • Prospective and current foster/adoptive parents, kin carers, and guardians of children and youth of any age who are experiencing:
    • Trauma
    • Moderate to significant behavioral challenges
    • Moderate to significant mental health challenges
    • Separation, grief, and loss
    • Removal from culture or community
Services Involve Family/Support Structures:

This program involves the family or other support systems in the individual's treatment: Some agencies have also made this material available for workers to use on an as-needed basis to support the caregivers on their caseloads.

Recommended Intensity:

One weekly 3-hour session

Recommended Duration:

9 sessions over a 3-month period

Delivery Settings

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

  • Adoptive Home
  • Foster / Kinship Care
  • Community-based Agency / Organization / Provider
  • Public Child Welfare Agency (Dept. of Social Services, etc.)
  • Virtual (Online, Smartphone, Zoom, Telephone, Video, etc.)

Homework

This program does not include a homework component.

Languages

National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) has materials available in a language other than English:

Spanish

For information on which materials are available in this language, please check on the program's website or contact the program representative (contact information is listed at the bottom of this page).

Resources Needed to Run Program

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

  • Laptop or PC, LCD projector, and screen or white wall upon which to project the slides and videos
  • External speakers to project audio for video clips played via the laptop or PC.
  • Power strip and/or extension cords.
  • At least one flipchart and easel so that participants can easily see the flipchart from their seats (a whiteboard and erasable markers make a good substitute). A few activities require more than one flipchart (noted in the Facilitator Classroom Guide).
  • Flipchart pads with adhesive backing or painter’s tape to post flipchart pages on the walls for reference (and to easily remove them after class)
  • Large markers in dark, bright colors that are easy to read from anywhere in the classroom
  • Blank name tent cards (name tent cards made during the first session can be reused for subsequent sessions)

Manuals and Training

Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications

While no minimal training is listed, it is recommended that the training be co-facilitated, with one of the trainers being a person who works in child welfare and the other being a person who has lived experience as a foster/adoptive/kin carer. See page 30 of the implementation manual for more information.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Program Manual(s)

Manual details:

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

Training Contact:
Training Type/Location:

NTDC curriculum is free and can be obtained at no fee through the NTDC website. There is no certification process for facilitators; however, Spaulding for Children does offer train-the-trainer sessions.

Number of days/hours:

If completed, virtual training sessions are 4 days in length with each day’s training lasting approximately 4 hours. In-person sessions are customized and vary in length.

Implementation Information

Pre-Implementation Materials

There are pre-implementation materials to measure organizational or provider readiness for National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) as listed below:

The Initial Design and Implementation Plan (IDIP) is available for agencies to use as a pre-implementation assessment (https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/4-revised-IDIP-for-website-v7-002.pdf). The tool articulates the NTDC theory of change and provides thorough questions for agencies to consider their readiness and ability to implement the program.

Formal Support for Implementation

There is no formal support available for implementation of National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC).

Fidelity Measures

There are fidelity measures for National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) as listed below:

NTDC provides fidelity tools for facilitators to use with each theme. The tools consist of checklists that divide each theme into section, with facilitators self-selecting “Taught as suggested,” Taught with changes,” or “Did not teach” to indicate their fidelity to each section. Additionally, there are open-ended questions on the tool that allow facilitators to provide feedback on how the training went and, if applicable, the efficacy of their co-facilitator. There is no required training to use this tool.

Fidelity tools are publicly available. Users must go to each theme within the Classroom-Based Training portion of the website (https://ntdctraining.org/general-curriculum-materials/classroom/) and select “View and Download Materials,” then “Evaluation” to get to each fidelity assessment tool. For example, for the Attachment theme: the fidelity tool can be accessed by following the theme page to the materials page to the evaluation page and then downloading the fidelity assessment tool.

For assistance downloading these publicly accessible fidelity tools for each theme, please contact.ntdc@spaulding.org

Implementation Guides or Manuals

There are implementation guides or manuals for National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) as listed below:

There is an implementation manual available at https://ntdctraining.org/general-curriculum-materials/implementation-tools/.

This manual guides NTDC implementation for general child welfare and intercountry and private domestic adoptions. It details the three components of NTDC and suggests what resources are needed for the training and how best to engage participants. Due to the flexible nature of the curriculum, agendas are not provided as each jurisdiction can choose to train the themes in the order and manner that works best for their locality.

The National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC). (2022). Implementation manual for families who foster, provide kinship care, and/or adopt children. https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/General-Child-Welfare-and-Intercounty-Private-Domestic-Adotpion-Implementation-Manual-June-2022.pdf

Implementation Cost

There have been studies of the costs of implementing National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) which are listed below:

The National Training and Development Curriculum. (2021). Cost analysis report for the NTDC program in year 2020-2021. Unpublished report. https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/NTDC-Updated-Cost-analysis-report_0303202276.pdf

Research on How to Implement the Program

Research has been conducted on how to implement National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) as listed below:

Bañes, L. C., Fowler, J., Phan, V., Cooley, M., Wollenhall, S., & Day, A. (2024). All Site In-Person NTDC Report. https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Appendix-E-All-Site-In-Person-NTDC-Report-September-2024.pdf

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

Child Welfare Outcomes: Permanency and Child/Family Well-Being

"What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?"

Salazar, A. M., Day, A., Thompson, J., Young, E. B., Podsobinski, J., Fowler, J., Vanderwill, L., Spiers, S. S., & Kongira, M. (2023). Assessing foster/adoptive parent training curriculum's improvement of resource parent knowledge and skills. Research on Social Work Practice, 35(1), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315231222813

Type of Study: Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants: 949

Population:

  • Age — NTDC Group: Mean=38 years; Comparison Group: Mean=36 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — NTDC Group: 454 White, 63 Black/Af. Amer., 17 AI/AN, 16 Other, 11 Asian, and 1 Nat. Hawaiian/Other Pac. Isl.; Comparison Group: 352 White, 52 Black/Af. Amer.n, 6 AI/AN, 5 Asian, 5 Other, & 1 Nat. Hawaiian/Other Pac. Isl.
  • Gender — NTDC Group: 359 Female, 176 Male, and 5 Other; Comparison Group: 290 Female and 118 Male
  • Status — Participants were resource parents

Location/Institution: Six states and one tribal community: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community (SRP)

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to compare the knowledge and skills at baseline and six months after training of resource parents who participated in the National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) training curriculum versus training as usual to assess whether the NTDC curriculum led to increased resource parent knowledge and skills that are key to being prepared to foster or adopt. Participants were resource parents receiving the NTDC training compared to those who were receiving training as usual. Measures utilized include the NTDC Pre-Post-Test Knowledge Assessment, the Trauma-Informed Parenting Scale (TIP), the Grief and Loss Scale, the Receptivity to Birth Family Connections Scale (RBFC) of the Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP), the Family Environment Scale (FES) Conflict Subscale, the Protective Factors Survey (PFS-2), the Foster Child Development (FCD) Applicant Subscale, and the Resource Parent Self-Efficacy in Accessing Supports. Results indicate that NTDC parents had larger growth in trauma-informed parenting, potential to promote positive child development, and key resource parent knowledge from baseline to post-training. NTDC parent growth in receptivity to working with biological parents approached but did not reach statistical significance. Limitations include high attrition; the low enrollment rates of kinship resource parents as compared to non-relative foster and adoptive parents; the training-as-usual in the control groups was not one specific training model but a variety of different models, so NTDC was not being compared to one specific alternative but many; the COVID-19 global pandemic also started in the middle of this study, forcing planned in-person implementation of classroom training to be conducted via a remote platform; reliance on self-reported measures; and the funding period of this study was not long enough to assess whether child outcomes such as placement stability or timely reunification were better for children placed with resource parents who received the NTDC curriculum.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 6 months

Fowler, J., Day, A., Phan, V., Thompson, J., Park, S., & Salazar, A. (2024). National Training and Development Curriculum training program impact on placement, permanency, and stability. Child Abuse & Neglect, 149, Article 106712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2024.106712

Type of Study: Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants: 6,387 (Parents: 3,822; Children 2,565)

Population:

  • Age — Not specified
  • Race/Ethnicity — Intervention: 993 White, 614 Black/Af. Amer., 171 Hispanic/Latinx, 20 Asian/As. Amer., 9 AI/AN, & 2 Nat. Hawaiian/Other Pac. Isl.; Comparison Group: 695 White, 289 Black/Af. Amer., 69 Hispanic/Latinx, 6 Nat. Hawaiian/Other Pac. Isl., & 4 Asian/As. Amer.
  • Gender — Intervention Group: 795 Female; Comparison Group: 505 Female
  • Status — Participants were resource parents and the children in their care.

Location/Institution: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to evaluate placement, permanency, and stability outcomes of children whose resource parents were trained in the National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC). Participants were resource parents receiving the NTDC training compared to those who were receiving training as usual. Measures utilized include administrative data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). Results indicate that NTDC participants were slightly less likely to foster after training, self-selecting out before taking a child into the home. Those who did foster were more likely to foster a child who is a teen, Asian/Asian American, Black/African American, or Hispanic/Latinx. Children of NTDC caregivers entered legal adoptions and guardianships at higher rates than children of comparison caregivers, while rates of reunification were not statistically different. Limitations include the lack of generalizability to the entire country due to the regional clustering of sites in the eastern half and primarily southern part of the United States; the lack of any significant findings related to placement stability may have been limited by the smaller sample, as that data was only available for Missouri; and the funding period for this study was not long enough to assess long-term child permanency outcomes.

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: None.

Salazar, A. M., Day, A., Thompson, J., Podsobinski, J., Spiers, S. S., Fowler, J., Vanderwill, L., & Kongira, M. (2024). The role of the National Training and Development Curriculum for foster and adoptive parents in improving caregiver perceived preparation and confidence to parent. Child & Family Social Work. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.13197

Type of Study: Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants: 949

Population:

  • Age — NTDC Group: Mean=38 years; Comparison Group: Mean=36 years
  • Race/Ethnicity — NTDC Group: 454 White, 63 Black/Af. Amer., 17 AI/AN, 16 Other, 11 Asian, and 1 Nat. Hawaiian/Other Pac. Isl.; Comparison Group: 352 White, 52 Black/Af. Amer., 6 AI/AN, 5 Asian, 5 Other, and 1 Nat. Hawaiian/Other Pac. Isl.
  • Gender — NTDC Group: 359 Female, 176 Male, and 5 Other; Comparison Group: 290 Female and 118 Male
  • Status — Participants were resource parents.

Location/Institution: Six states and one tribal community: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, and the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community (SRP)

Summary: (To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The study used the same sample as Salazar et al. (2023). The purpose of the study was to compare the perceived preparation, confidence and willingness to care for a variety of subgroups of children at baseline and 6 months after training of caregivers who participated in the National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) training curriculum versus training as usual to assess whether the NTDC curriculum led to improved caregiver preparation to foster or adopt. Participants were resource parents receiving the NTDC training compared to those who were receiving training as usual. Measures utilized include the Challenging Children (CC) Applicant Subscale of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory (CFAI-A), the Caregiver Acceptance and Support of LGBTQ2S Youth, three subscales from Casey Home Assessment Protocol (CHAP) were used in the outcome survey: Cultural Receptivity in Fostering Scale (CRFS), Foster Parent Role Performance Scale (FPRP), and Available Time Scale (ATS), and study developed measures assessing caregiver confidence to care for children within various age ranges, as well as items assessing perceived preparation to care for children within various age ranges. Results indicate that NTDC caregivers were found to have more positive differences than control group caregivers from baseline (pretraining) to follow-up on confidence to care for children considered challenging, confidence to care for children across multiple age ranges, and perceived preparation to care for children aged 13 years and older. Limitations include high attrition; low enrollment rates of kinship resource parents as compared to non-relative foster and adoptive parents; the training as usual in the control groups was not one specific training model but a variety of different models, so NTDC was not being compared to one specific alternative but many; the COVID-19 global pandemic also started in the middle of this study, forcing planned in-person implementation of classroom training to be conducted via a remote platform; reliance on self-reported measures; and the funding period of this study was not long enough to assess whether child outcomes such as placement stability or timely reunification were better for children placed with resource parents who received the NTDC curriculum

Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 6 months

Additional References

Bañes, L. C., Fowler, J., Phan, V., Cooley, M., Wollenhall, S., & Day, A. (2024). All site in-person NTDC report. https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Appendix-E-All-Site-In-Person-NTDC-Report-September-2024.pdf

Fowler, J., & Day, A. (2024). Kinship self-assessment report. https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/NTDC-Kinship-Self-Assessment.pdf

Vanderwill, L., Wollen, S., & Fowler, J. (2023). All site NTDC report. https://ntdctraining.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NTDC-All-Site-April-2023-Report.pdf

Contact Information

Melinda Lis
Title: Vice President of The Academy for Family Support and Preservation
Agency/Affiliation: Spaulding for Children
Website: ntdctraining.org
Email:
Phone: (947) 224-1656

Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: February 2025

Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: June 2025

Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: June 2025