Identify data sources to explore your state’s system of foster and adoptive parent licensing, recruitment, and retention.

Explore the various aspects of the importance of normalcy for children and youth in care.

Learn to facilitate a normalcy conversation and to promote normal and developmentally appropriate experiences for youth in foster care.

Examine a five-step framework that helps organizations promote youth engagement in normalcy conversations about the youth’s own care.

Learn about the challenges faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) families involved with the child welfare system and ways to help them.

Discover how parent partner programs support family reunification by guiding and motivating parents into constructive interactions with the child welfare system and courts.

Explore innovative programs and strategies that child welfare professionals can use to support reunification and emphasize caregiver and parent voice.

Use the resources in this list to support young people’s transitional needs and help them develop the skills needed for independent living after exiting foster care.

Bruce and Brenda have been married for 33 years and have four daughters. From 2006 to 2009, they provided a kinship placement for their four grandchildren. In 2010, the couple adopted Bruce (now 18 years old), Tre’Nae (now 15 years old), Mason (now 13 years old), and Kiaunna (now 10 years old).

Learn how to support state planning and implementation of the reasonable and prudent parent standard (RPPS), which is required by the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113–183), to help children and youth in foster care experience normal childhood and adolescent activities. 

Use the template and instructions provided to develop parent partner program manuals.

This handout is part of the series, “Perspectives on Normalcy: Videos and Discussion Questions.” It is designed to facilitate discussion about the issues raised in the video, “Kinship Adoption: You Get a Call, ‘Do You Want These Kids?’”

This handout is part of the series, “Perspectives on Normalcy: Videos and Discussion Questions.” It is designed to facilitate discussion about the issues raised in the video, “Community-Based Provider: Empowering Caregiver Decision-Making.” 

Hear about the challenges and experiences of an adoptive family and how they created belonging, healthy development, and normal experiences.

Explore the benefits of reunification and post-reunification supports and how these strategies help prevent reentry into foster care.