Online training credited with Increase in number of first-time families accepting foster children
The coronavirus pandemic caused children to shelter in place at their homes, which could have been even more stressful to kids in the foster care system.
Denise McGinty, community resource coordinator for the National Youth Advocate Program, an organization that works to place children with foster families, said the pandemic separated foster kids from other adults they could trust in their respective school systems at the same time they had already lost touch with their parents.
“A lot of the kids, they aren’t going to school now, they might be distance learning,” McGinty said. “They don’t have the teachers there to check in with them, and so you might see reporting down, or there’s just not as much in-person contact.”
The need for homes to place foster children has not stopped during the coronavirus pandemic, but has come about is an increase in the number of people who are getting trained to become foster parents.
