Recommended Training

Building a professional relationship with prospective and licensed foster parents is an essential part of your role as the Foster Care Coordinator. This two-day training will provide you with an opportunity to enhance your relationship skills to build trust and engage with your families. These skills will improve your ability to gather information from families while using the SAFE home study tool.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

As you monitor foster parent compliance with Ch. DCF 56, you will need to have the skills and confidence to have critical conversations with them about their behaviors or decision-making. In the Supporting Change through Engagement training, you will learn techniques to have difficult conversations to create movement towards change.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

At times, Foster Care Coordinators act as a mediator between the child welfare team members by offering foster parent support and placement consultation. You may find yourself interpreting child welfare procedures and policies to help foster parents understand the rationale behind decisions. Vice versa, you will have discussions with caseworkers about foster family’s needs and strengths. The Placement training will introduce the experience of placing a child, the factors that must be taken into account when making a placement and review techniques to prepare children, parents and caregivers for placement.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

A significant majority of children and adults who become involved in our child welfare systems have been affected by trauma. Trauma can have a lasting impact on the well-being and functioning of children, adults and their families. For you, the ability to understand the effects of trauma on children, adults and families and to identify and address the specific trauma related needs is critical when screening potential foster parents and supporting them as they care for children affected by trauma.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

This training presents the reason and legislative intent of the Indian Child Welfare Act, as well as the process for workers to follow in complying with ICWA in Wisconsin. Participants will learn to facilitate the implementation of ICWA. They will learn to identify and access resources needed to implement the law. Participants will learn about Indian cultures and how to work effectively with American Indian families. They will learn to work collaboratively with tribal partners and offer culturally specific services to American Indian families.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

Family Interaction between children in out-of-home care and their parents is essential to achieving permanency and improving outcomes for families. Yet, it can be an emotionally raw and vulnerable experience for children, parents and foster parents. This training will help you coach and support foster parents so that they can successfully manage family interaction.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

Some Foster Care Coordinators are also responsible for the Kinship Care program. If this applies to you, please consider taking this training. It is recommended for both new and seasoned Kinship Care program staff. The focus is on DCF 58 Policy, eligibility of caregivers and children, appeal & review rights, waitlist, and the annual assessment. Contract allocation & determination, KCTS, documentation requirements is reviewed. What makes this course invaluable is the face-to-face format which encourages sharing of information it offers all attendees.

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

This training can be accessed on the Foster Parent Pre-Placement training page.

In order to provide placement support and consultation, you must have a working knowledge of the importance of permanency for children in the child welfare system. The Permanence Pre-Service module will introduce you to what the child welfare system has learned about a child’s need for a permanent home and the consequences when that home is not a reality. This training will introduce and discuss permanency planning considerations important for planning family re-unification, adoption or foster care and strategies for concurrent planning

This training can be accessed in PDS Online.

Part of the child welfare responsibility assumed when placing a child in out-of-home care is to assure that the placement is safe for this child at this point in time. Child Protective Services, Child Welfare, and Juvenile Justice workers are required to complete Confirming Safe Environments (CSE) training to address that responsibility.

As the Foster Care Coordinator, you may or may not be responsible for this function. You should consult with your supervisor. However, it is recommended that you complete this training to gain an understanding of the tool because foster parents are subject to the assessment.

More information about this training is available on our website.

The Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Tool is an assessment strategy designed for decision support and outcomes management. Individuals who complete or rate a CANS are required to be trained and certified in its use. Click here to access more information about the CANS Tool Training and Certification Exam.

Sex trafficking of children and youth is a growing concern nationally and in Wisconsin. Sex trafficking of minors has been identified, investigated and charged in most, if not all, counties within Wisconsin. It is both an urban and rural issue.

This course is designed to provide crucial information to child welfare workers to support the identification of and responses to instances of child sex trafficking.

Information about this training can be accessed through our website.

Subsidized Guardianship is a permanent placement option for children placed in foster care. Subsidized Guardianship is a positive option when adoption and reunification are not the best choices. Eligible caregivers, including foster parents, can become the legal guardian and receive a subsidy. Guardians are able to consent for the child’s every day events.

This training offers the Foster Care Coordinator a review of eligibility and the child welfare agency responsibly to establishing a Subsidized Guardianship. This training will prepare you to provide consultation and support to foster parents going through this process.

Information about this training can be accessed through our website.

Although this training is intended for foster parents, it provides the new Foster Care Coordinator an understanding of life skills, and the importance of these skills for children in out-of-home care. You will be able to support foster parents while they teach children, of any age, skills that build a path toward independence.

This training can be accessed through our website or in PDS Online.

Children in out-of-home care are particularly vulnerable to identity theft because their personal information is frequently shared with multiple agencies, caretakers and individuals, making it less protected and more accessible.
The Federal Child and Family Services Improvement Act followed by the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act require all children in out-of-home care are required to have an annual credit check and mandate a remediate process, as needed. The purpose of this training is to inform case workers of their role in keeping youth identities safe and correctly documenting remediation efforts.

Information about this training can be accessed through our website.