My dictionary describes a profession as one requiring training and specialized study. A person engaged in that occupation is considered a professional. So, why not foster parents. For many year now, I have been fighting for foster parents to be considered professionals. As a foster parent I went through the experiences of being talked down to and considered a non-professional. I think the fight must go on since foster parents deserve the classification of ‘professionals.’

A good foster parent goes through many hours of training every year. You are required to educate yourself on a number of pertinent issues. Every year, new information, concepts, programs, and issues are brought forth. A foster parent is required to study these just to do their job. If training makes one a professional, an expert, than surely the foster parent should be considered so. When others are heard to say, but they are just foster parents, I start to lose control.

Lots of foster parents have worked with kids for decades. How many "professional" people do you know that study that long to be a doctor, lawyer, or teacher. We consider these people professionals, however.

What people tend to forget is the fact that in addition to training, required and otherwise, foster parents must learn on the job everyday. It becomes a necessity for new topics to be mastered with every new foster child. You may be immediately forced to learn about specific learning disabilities, behaviors, and illnesses.

A foster parent searches out information needed and begins to study the facts until they are well versed on the subject. An older, more experienced foster parent will already have studied hundreds of topics, while a beginning foster parent will need to learn everything and quickly.

As a new foster parent I knew little about drugs, but as an experienced foster parent I knew much more than I cared to know. I learned the general symptoms of a child on drugs and also the symptoms of each individual drug. Eventually I recognized many drugs by sight, knew the street names, and what they sold for. I even knew by whom and where they were being sold sometimes. The point is by necessity I became an expert on the subject.

Foster care requires a proficiency in behaviors and the accompanying acronyms that describe these disorders. Most foster parents develop an amazing medical knowledge since you regulate the health and monitor the medication of those children placed in your home. You must know CPR and first aid and be able to qualify in the Red Cross testing of these skills. A foster parent knows about a variety of medications and how to determine if they were really taken or not.

Today's foster parent must be pretty aware of all the educational options for kids. It is imperative that they know what the rights of the children are in the expectation that they receive an adequate education. You must understand Personal Education Plans and often act in the place of a parent when making educational decisions.

When foster kids challenge the law, they usually lose. The foster mom or dad is probably the one to make sure they have an adult present when being interrogated. They know a great deal about court proceedings since they attend hearings so often. They must learn the process and often know as much as lawyers about possible resources for the children. Community service spots, restitution possibilities, programs with available space, and even which judge is best for which kid is common knowledge to the foster parent. They may have researched facilities and can advocate for their kids when the decision is being made as to where to put them.

You add to this that foster parents must understand, be able to function in, or least have knowledge of youth culture and you start to see how versatile these folks are.

The foster parent is an efficiency expert feeding large amounts of people and running a huge household on a limited budget. An expert at scheduling, they balance more meetings, appointments, and activities than a business executive does. The foster care chauffeur has figured out how to drive everyone, everywhere in different directions and get them all to their respective places on time. The schedule some foster parents keep would wilt the toughest person.

Together, foster parent couples have studied enough topics to earn several degrees, but where is their diploma. Some certification is now available, but it is still a far cry from the degree.

Yes, the lawyer, doctor, and teacher have a great deal of knowledge and do deserve the professional designation. Usually, they are only experts in one general area. Foster parents need to be master of many areas.

So, foster parents act like and expect to be treated like professionals because you are. The rest of the world will recognize it some day. Till then, some of us do consider foster care a profession and all of you professionals. I salute you.

Jo Ann Wentzel is Senior Editor of:   Parenting Today's Teen

Jo Ann has a new book released on CD-Rom - "It Begins and Ends With Family" For info Click here
Now- in E-Book format-It Begins and Ends with Family Click here

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Other articles on Foster Parent Community by Jo Ann Wentzel:

• Reasonable Expectations of Foster Kids
• Don't Forget Gifts Of Toys For Teens
• The Value of Consistency
• Hanging In There For The Long Haul
• Teens Believe They Are Immortal
• Picking Your Battles
• School Violence Due In Part To Intolerance
• Foster Kids Really Are Ours
• Gifts To The Foster Parent
• Help Kids Discover Their Softer Side
• Yippee! Kids Go Back to School, Oh No! Trouble Now Begins
• Caring for A Pregnant Teen
• Learning On The Job
• Did We Know How to Parent Before Labels?
• Respite for Foster Parents

Biography of Jo Ann Wentzel

Between the years of 1966 and 1993, I brought children into life, into my foster home, into court, and into their own apartments. Mother of three, two natural children born to me and one foster kid who never left our family, grandmother to five, foster mom to over 75 kids, and mother, friend, guardian angel, or their worse nightmare, depending on which of the other hundreds of kids you ask.

A quarter of a century devoted to raising children, learning what issues concerned them, volunteering to help groups serving kids, and teaching others what little I know. Life Ready was our own business where we installed kids, who had no other choice, into their own apartment. My husband and I, as para-professionals, also were contracted by counties in Minnesota to supervise kids and work with families to help get foster kids back home.

Before foster care, I was a licensed daycare provider and cared for all ages of children. During foster care, our specialty was teenaged boys and we had a group home where we served up to eight youth at a time. Street kids and gang members were among those we worked with and families ranged from traditional to what in the world. Our kids came from all over Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and North Dakota. Volunteer positions were held in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Minnesota.

I have held the position of Guardian-ad-Litem in Goodhue County, a paid not volunteer position. I trained to be a surrogate parent which enables you to sign I.E.Ps for children whose parents can't or won't. I have taken Mediator training for Minnesota court system. With my husband, I presented a seminar at the Minnesota Social Worker's Convention in Minneapolis, spoke at the Federal Medical Center( a prison), and gave several talks to school classrooms.

My book is about the experiences and adventures of a foster parent. It encourages creative parenting and offers useful methods and ideas for everyone raising kids. It features just a few of the many wonderful kids that lived with us.It tells how we ran our home of as many as eight teenaged foster kids at a time. It is written from the viewpoint of the expert, the one who does the job, the hands on provider- the foster parent.This book is currently looking for a publisher and will be available just as soon as we find one.