This training is designed for caregivers who are pursuing or considering adopting and have knowledge beyond the introductory level.  The class will prepare you to recognize the issues related to trauma, grief, and loss for adopted children.  Participants will leave with resources to guide them in connecting with supports within and outside the department to assist in the creation of an adoptive family that encourages individual and family wellbeing.

Learning Objectives

Following the training, participants will be able to:

• Understand the adoption process and identify your ideals and goals as an adoptive parent
• Identify the impact of trauma, loss, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) on brain development
• Identify behaviors that are trauma based
• Understand the various types of attachment and how to work with you and your child’s attachment style
• Understand the resources available to adoptive parents and how to access supports for your family

This 3-hour in-service training will provide foster parents, caregivers, relatives and fictive kin with information about DLR/CPS and how DLR/CPS works with caregivers and the community to ensure child safety.  Participants will learn about mandated reporting, definitions and differences between allegations of abuse and/or neglect and licensing infractions, the flow of the investigative process when allegations are received, outcomes of investigations, and how caregivers can take steps to protect themselves in the process.

Registration is required. Need help? Call 1-866-577-1915 or email help@acwe.on.spiceworks.com
Please include your name, phone number or email, and the course title in your request for assistance.

Inscribirse para asistir a la clase es necesario.Call 1-866-577-1915 or email help@acwe.on.spiceworks.com
Si necesita ayuda favor de llamar al 1-866-577-1915 o mandar un correo electrónico a help@acwe.on.spiceworks.com l.

This 6 hour focused topic training for caregivers provides an in-depth exploration of Drug Impacted Infants and Toddlers. The training focuses on how to identify and address the impacts drugs have on infants and toddlers; how to recognize symptoms; set up a successful environment and work together with the team in providing care for the child. The takeaway from this training is feeling empowered to care for a drug impacted Infant as they grow through infancy, toddler and preschool

This 6 hour focused training for caregivers provides a foundation for understanding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and challenging or escalating behavior among children in out-of-home care.  The training provides specific behavior management skills for caregivers to deescalate and manage behavior including trauma informed caregiving, authoritative parenting, therapeutic environments, engagement, and more.  

This workshop will give caregivers practical tools to help manage behaviors such as:

• Oppositional defiance
• Property damage and juvenile delinquency
• Attention deficit hyperactivity
• Running away
• Power struggles and escalated tantrums
• Verbal and physical aggression

Caregiver Core Training (CCT) is the mandatory training for Washington State’s caregivers to become licensed. Caregiver Core Training can be taken two ways – online or in the classroom.

If you prefer to use a self-paced, online eLearning, please click this link to read more about general guidelines for online trainings to make sure it is a good fit for you, and to register for your online training.

If you prefer to take the course in a classroom (conducted at various locations around the state) please continue reading and register below.

Both the online and classroom training cover the same critical content.

Each participant must register separately: if a couple plans to attend together, each member must register individually.

CCT Classroom Version

The 24-hour Caregiver Core Training is made up of eight sessions (each three hours long) and a field experience.

Session 1: Introduction to the Child Welfare System
Session 2: Working as a Member of a Team
Session 3: Working with Birth Families
Session 4: Cultural Connections and Advocacy
Session 5: Growing Up with Trauma, Grief, and Loss
Session 6: Understanding and Managing Behavior
Session 7: Communication and Crisis Management
Session 8: Getting Ready and the Effects on the Caregiving Family

Field Experience: Participants learn outside the classroom by choosing an activity that will give them more awareness of the experience of children within the system or of the role of a caregiver for children in the system. The Field Experience will be approved if it occurs within one year prior to the participant beginning CCT, both in the classroom and on-line versions of Caregiver Core Training.

The sessions are designed to help you understand how the system works, what your role is as a member of the team, how to effectively work with birth families in order to best support the child, how caregiving may impact your own family, child development and the impact of trauma, all about attachment, how to incorporate and honor a child's culture into your own family, and more.  The sessions include the voices of former foster youth, current caregivers and birth parents who have been involved with the system.

The handouts that you need in class will be provided to you. Here are the handouts you will receive in class if you need them for future reference.

Here is the complete Participant Manual with resources and information. Feel free to save it to refer back to or to print it. If you do not have printer access and want a printed copy, let your trainer know that you will need a copy printed for you.

You have one year to complete the course including the online training, and field experience. We will let the Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) Licensing Division and the foster care Recruitment and Retention Contractors in your area know about your progress through the course so they can offer you additional support if needed.

Here are some testimonials from potential caregivers who completed Caregiver Core Training:

"I love the passion and the willingness of the trainers to share their stories. It helps to have them give so many examples and answer questions."

"I am a foster home licensor at a CPA in the community. I was also a CFWS social worker for 3 years. I was SO pleasantly surprised by how great this training was. Even though I knew most of the information, the trainers held my attention and gave real-life examples of the concepts. There is SO much to teach about working in child welfare, and for the most part, the trainings hit the highlights."

"This is, by far and away the best training course I have ever taken. The documentation was well thought out and easy to understand. Even though I usually hate them, the activities were fun! I really wish that they could take this on the road to local schools, businesses, non-profits, etc."

"This was by far one of the best training sessions I have had the privilege of attending in a long time. The course trainers did a fantastic job with knowledge and question answering. Most of this class should be taught to teachers in the education field. The trainer did a fantastic job presenting the topics and information and wanted feedback during the class."

"The knowledge level of the presenters was outstanding and their presentation skills were great.  They were interesting to listen to and made the information relevant. I began my classes in Wenatchee and then finished in Ellensburg. While the presenters had their own styles, the above remained true for all of them."

"I really appreciated the personal stories of the former foster youth and birth parents who had been involved in the system.  Their perspectives were important to hear.  Thank you for including them."

"I appreciated having the views and experiences of each of the trainers to help with understanding the needs I will have to meet for the children in my care."

This 6-hour in-service training for caregivers provides a foundation for caregiving and behavior management for children in out-of-home care who struggle with physically aggressive behaviors.  Participants will explore the potential impacts of trauma and maltreatment on attachment, behavior and development as well as the risk factors for violent behavior in children.  Participants will closely review the newest Washington Administrative Code (WAC) related to discipline and will contrast principles of positive discipline and punishment. Skill building will focus on creating a plan to prevent a crisis; the various forms aggression may take and how to look for signs of when a child is agitated or escalating; how to intervene during a crisis; and how to manage ongoing or explosive aggressive behaviors via teaching coping skills and Collaborative Problem Solving.  Local resources and supports for the youth as well as the caregiver are discussed.

Many children in foster or kinship care have a history of exposure to trauma. Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Workshop for Resource Parents (RPC) Session 1 is a 4 module, 6 hour focused topic training which includes nine case studies of representative foster children from the ages of eight months to 15 years, as well as cases of secondary traumatic stress in parents.

Many children in the foster care system have lived through traumatic experiences.  Understanding how trauma affects children can help you make sense of your child’s sometimes baffling behavior, feelings and attitudes.  Once you understand why your child behaves the way he or she does, you’ll be better prepared to help him or her cope with the effects of trauma.  In this workshop, you’ll improve your ability to communicate with your child, learn skills and techniques to influence your child’s behavior and attitudes, and learn ways to reduce the stress of parenting a traumatized child.  The goal of this workshop is to make you a more effective resource parent, and to enable you to have more of the positive experiences that make being a resource parent so worthwhile.

Session 1 is a 4 module, 6 hour training, including:

• Module 1: Intro on Trauma Informed Parenting
• Module 2: Trauma 101
• Module 3: Understanding Trauma’s Effects
• Module 4: Building a Safe Place

This 6 hour focused training for caregivers provides an in-depth exploration of secure attachment and challenges to attachment as well as building caregiver skills to enhance attachment with children in out of home care.  

Coaching sessions are utilized to address a caregiver's specific needs and build specific skills. Identified goals are created and progress towards those goals is measured by both the learner and the coach after the session.

This Coaching Session provides in-depth support around specific topics identified by the caregiver as needed. The topics covered may include a Positive Discipline response to any behavior identified in the Positive Discipline A-Z index. The intention of this coaching session is to help the participant apply the Positive Discipline lens and framework to issues that are currently coming up in their home.

Participants must have attended at least one session of Positive Discipline training in order to utilize the coaching option. See links in Registration Instructions below.

Coaching sessions are utilized to address a caregiver's specific needs and build specific skills. Identified goals are created and progress towards those goals is measured by both the learner and the coach after the session.

This Coaching Session for Caregivers builds upon information contained in Caregivers Core Training (CCT) and additional training around the importance of visitation. Caregivers will learn their role in visitation, including how they can support the child, and will more deeply understand the pivotal role that visitation plays in supporting children’s relationships with birth families. Participants will gain skills to successfully team with others involved in the child’s visitation, and will explore how to be a resource to birth families. This coaching session includes activities that allow the caregiver to assess the effects of visitation on the child(ren) in their care and create a plan to address any concerns which may arise in the future.

Would you like more compassion in your life? In your parenting? For you? For your children? This training is for you!

Discover what compassion really is, how it starts by being compassionate with ourselves and see the positive results with our families and others.

You’ll hear about and learn the roadblocks, hurdles and challenges that often prevent this kind of parenting and discover ways to move through them so you, and your children, win!

Topics include:

• Separating the children’s behavior from who they are
• How to not take what they do or say personally
• Being compassionate with ourselves supports positive results with our families
• Learn the roadblocks, hurdles, and challenges of this type of parenting and how to move through them.
• The role self-esteem plays in all of us

You’ll learn real world concepts that work!

Required training for all caregivers in First Aid/CPR, Blood borne pathogens/HIV training. Training made available in English- and Spanish-speaking participants.

The Alliance contracts with certified trainers to provide CPR, First Aid, and Blood-borne pathogens/HIV training.

Keep the Beat offers this class to all caregivers of foster children free of charge.  This includes grandparents, babysitters, etc.  Keep the Beat provides these classes statewide and free of charge whether or not you are licensed.

This is Section 1 of the 3-hour in-service level training for Social Workers that explores the principles of child development across the age ranges of birth to three years, three to five years, five to 11 years, and 11 to 17 years.  In each age range, factors that affect development across physical, social, emotional, cognitive and reproductive domains, as well as the developmental effects of abuse and neglect on those domains are examined through videos, worksheets, and case scenarios.  Information is provided about services and resources to support Social Workers and children in care.

Participants can view and get credit for completion of all or only specific sections of the elearning:

• Section 1: Foundational Concepts of Child Development (30 minutes)
• Section 2: Birth to Three Years (60 minutes)
• Section 3: Three to Five Years (30 minutes)
• Section 4: Five to 11 Years (30 minutes)
• Section 5: 11 to 17 Years (30 minutes)

This is Section 3 of the 3-hour in-service level training for Social Workers that explores the principles of child development across the age ranges of birth to three years, three to five years, five to 11 years, and 11 to 17 years.  In each age range, factors that affect development across physical, social, emotional, cognitive and reproductive domains, as well as the developmental effects of abuse and neglect on those domains are examined through videos, worksheets, and case scenarios.  Information is provided about services and resources to support Social Workers and children in care.

Participants can view and get credit for completion of all or only specific sections of the elearning:

• Section 1: Foundational Concepts of Child Development (30 minutes)
• Section 2: Birth to Three Years (60 minutes)
• Section 3: Three to Five Years (30 minutes)
• Section 4: Five to 11 Years (30 minutes)
• Section 5: 11 to 17 Years (30 minutes)

This is Section 5 of the 3-hour in-service level training for Social Workers that explores the principles of child development across the age ranges of birth to three years, three to five years, five to 11 years, and 11 to 17 years.  In each age range, factors that affect development across physical, social, emotional, cognitive and reproductive domains, as well as the developmental effects of abuse and neglect on those domains are examined through videos, worksheets, and case scenarios.  Information is provided about services and resources to support Social Workers and children in care.

Participants can view and get credit for completion of all or only specific sections of the elearning:

• Section 1: Foundational Concepts of Child Development (30 minutes)
• Section 2: Birth to Three Years (60 minutes)
• Section 3: Three to Five Years (30 minutes)
• Section 4: Five to 11 Years (30 minutes)
• Section 5: 11 to 17 Years (30 minutes)

Grief for children is the disruption of a bond, and in any foster situation, significant bonds have been disrupted or broken. This makes foster children more emotionally vulnerable when other losses occur. A friend may move, a pet dies, or a teacher goes on maternity leave. All these events placed the foster child in a very precarious position. This training will help you to understand that a lot more is on their emotional plate then on other children. You will learn how to address and support the child in a time of transition.

This training will cover:

• The stages of grief
• A condensed developmental understanding of how children grieve at different ages and understandings.
• How to communicate with children
• How transition, grief and loss might trigger old feelings for the child and caregiver
• Developing a plan and skills to support children in times of transition.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This 1 hour class covers the following:

• How brains are built. An enormous amount of brain development occurs in the first five years.
• Early childhood experiences shape the physical development of the brain.
• The strength of connections formed in a child’s brain depends, to a certain extent, on the frequencies of experiences they have in their lives.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following key points:

• From the first day of life, children watch others and imitate their actions to learn about the physical world and their culture.
• As they grow older, they can remember actions for longer (deferred imitation), and use them to navigate situations (generalizations).
• Children’s brains seem ready to imitate-studies have found similar changes in infants’ brain activity whether they are doing an activity or just watching it.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• Language learning begins before birth. A young brain is particularly ready to learn language.
• When listening to language, infants engage in statistical learning. This helps them become sensitive to the specific sounds of their native language.
• Face-to-face interactions are critical for language learning. In the first year of life, social interactions expose children to language. They also prepare the infant brain for speaking.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• Attachment is a dyadic relationship. This means that an attachment relationship depends on both the adult and the child.
• Attachment security is on a continuum. Children’s attachment behavior can be more or less secure. Their behavior depends on the caregiving they receive.
• A child is more likely to form a secure attachment when her caregiver provides consistent and sensitive care.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• Babies begin making vowel-like sounds soon after birth. They soon add consonant sounds. Then they transition to syllables, words, and finally sentences. This pattern is similar across different cultures and languages.
• Children use different strategies to learn words and word combinations. During the process of learning, they sometimes make errors in word or sentence use. As they hear more language, their use of words and sentences becomes more adult-like.
• Language learning begins at birth! Those children who hear more language and experience more high quality interactions tend to produce more words and longer sentences.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• Babies are born with different temperaments or ways they approach everyday events and challenges. Biology helps determine temperament, but environment and experiences also influence a child’s temperament and development.
• Temperament consists of three dimensions: positive reactivity; negative reactivity; and attention, soothability, and regulation. Each dimension is a continuum, meaning a child can show more or less of a behavior.
• You cannot change a child’s temperament, but you can adapt your behavior and environment to meet the child’s needs. This is creating goodness of fit between your expectations and a child’s temperament.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• Race is meaningful in our social world and racism still exists today.
• Our actions matter - what parents do – or don’t do – is a strong indicator of children’s attitudes about race.
• Our words matter too! Research suggests that not talking about race with kids increases racist thinking and racism. But talking about race can be one of the best ways to counteract racism.
• Kids are aware of race, form racial identities and observe and integrate ideas about race from those around them and reflect it in their own attitudes and behaviors.
• Preventative and Reactionary ‘race chats’ are an effective way to discuss race and racism with children. These conversations with evolve and change over time, as a child grows.
• We do not need to have all the answers to have effective ‘race chats’ with children. We just need to be open, and be able to offer a safe space to talk.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• Spoken language skills serve as the foundation for literacy development. Literacy involves years of systematic instruction and practice.
• Children may enter kindergarten with a range of pre-literacy skills. It is important for teachers to provide a rich literacy environment for all children. Reading to and with children is a great way to boost pre-literacy skills.
• The brain is not born to read. With practice, our brains learn to recognize words, match words with sounds, and associate those words with meaning.
• Some people have more difficulty learning to read than others. But this does not mean that they won’t ever learn how or that they are less intelligent. Many different factors contribute to a child’s pre-literacy skills.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The team at I-LABS creates new and effective ways to bridge the gap between the science and the practice of learning by disseminating the latest science of child development. Our team shares the latest scientific discoveries in relevant and actionable ways with those who can best put it into practice: early learning professionals, parents, and policymakers. Partners use cutting-edge research to create evidence-based policies, practices, and programs that grow the next generation of lifelong learners.

This hour long class covers the following points:

• In the first year of life, babies already start to make predictions about what things are causes and what are effects.  By the time they are in preschool, children are proficient causal learners, ready to engage in and learn from causal lessons.
• Children of all ages learn how to make things happen on their own from watching what other people do.  They do this even if the people they are watching make mistakes or things don’t work perfectly.
• Cause-and-effect relations also occur between living things. Figuring out how to cause people to change their behavior is important for children’s social development.  
• Lessons about cause-and-effect happen at home and in the classroom all the time, with little or no need for special tools, toys, or preparation.

All children deserve the best start in life and new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how to create the best environments for children. The Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington (I-LABS) is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to discovering the fundamental principles of human learning, with a special emphasis on early learning and brain development.

The Alliance for Child Welfare Excellence is excited to partner with the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences in order to offer the I-LABS online training modules to caregivers for training credit. These I-LABS are available in Spanish, Somali, Vietnamese, or English.

Each I-LAB module explores a particular topic in child development, such as brain development, language acquisition, or imitation. Modules share evidence-based information about how young children learn. The modules are useful for understanding everyday interactions with children and for informing systems-level programs and policies.

Currently there are 18 online modules ranging from 20-25 minutes and covering a variety of relevant topics such as a child’s first days, early interactions, learning, emotions, language, attachment, temperament, race and equality, music, literacy and more.

• Know the legal definition of commercial sexual exploitation of children
• Understand how commercial sexual exploitation might happen to a youth
• Understand how experiencing commercial sexual exploitation may impact a youth
• Be able to spot signs that youth are at risk for becoming (or are) commercially sexually exploited
• Have strategies for caring for youth who are at risk for becoming (or have been) commercially sexually exploited

Participants learn about infant communication, safe sleep environments, and the shaken baby syndrome to better care for infants placed in their homes.  Equipped with the information, participants are able to be responsive and provide safe care to the infant.  Participants will become familiar with the Period of Purple Crying as a strategy to help infants in their foster home.

An Introduction to Positive Discipline is a 2-hour in-service level training for foster, kinship and suitable adult caregivers.  This introductory training will help caregivers learn the basic parenting approach of the Positive Discipline model by providing several group activities and discussions based in real life scenarios.  Positive Discipline focuses on teaching valuable social and life skills to children instead of using any form of punishment, rewards, praise, permissiveness or logical consequences.  Positive Discipline focuses on helping participants learn how to use effective discipline that is kind and firm, creates connection before correction, is empowering and encouraging to children to believe in their own capability, and keeps the joy in caregiving.

In addition to this introductory course, the Alliance invites caregivers to attend the full 15-hour Parenting the Positive Discipline Way training series.

Additional Resources

Click one of the images below to hear about Positive Discipline from Dr. Jane Nelsen (author and co-founder of Positive Discipline), and Darcey Hancock (Statewide Administrator of the Division of Licensed Resources in Washington).  You will hear them discuss some of the foundational concepts of Positive Discipline; and how WA State Law around discipline fits with Positive Discipline techniques.

Registration is required.Need help? Call 1-866-577-1915 or email help@acwe.on.spiceworks.com
Please include your name, phone number or email, and the course title in your request for assistance.

Inscribirse para asistir a la clase es necesario.Si necesita ayuda favor de llamar al 1-866-577-1915 o mandar un correo electrónico a help@acwe.on.spiceworks.com
Por favor incluya su nombre, número de teléfono o dirección de su correo electrónico y agregue el nombre de la clase por la que está solicitando ayuda.

The financial, legal, and emotional issues of raising a relative’s child can be challenging. Services and support when raising a relative’s child can be a lifesaver.  Kinship caregiving in all of its forms is becoming increasingly common.  Recent WA State child welfare data (Partners for Our Children-1/1/2015)   show that 41 percent of children in out of home care are living with a relative.  Many more children are living with relatives or other close family friends informally, without the ongoing supervision of the state’s foster care system. 

Often kinship caregivers do not access the benefits which are available to them. This class will address the issues that Kinship Caregivers struggle with most:

1. Financial Needs
2. Legal Challenges
3. Navigating public service systems
4. Needing more social services
5. Information about resources/caregiving

This 2.5 hour in-service class is designed for licensed and unlicensed caregivers caring for children currently or previously involved in the dependency system.  Caregiver Core Training (CCT) is not a prerequisite. However, this course is supplemental to CCT for kinship caregivers, and can be a field experience during CCT.

This 6-hour focused topic training for caregivers provides an in-depth exploration of the emotional trauma that children in out-of-home care have been through and how it can impact them.  The training focuses on strategic and practical skill building for caregivers to foster healing and resiliency in the children for whom they care. The takeaway from this training is how to identify and address the emotional wounds of the children in your care so healing can begin.

Luanne Hawley has been a licensed foster parent for 25 years, as well as a relative care provider and adoptive parent. She has been an advocate for Foster Parents and Care Providers having provided support services through the FIRST (Foster Intervention and Retention Support Team) program for many years

This eLearning for caregivers covers the correct way to administer, log, store, and dispose of medications.

This training focuses on a law that mandates that race, culture, or ethnicity may not be used to prevent a child from being placed in a particular home, nor can it be used to delay the placement of a child.

To remember an idea, you might write it down. At an event, you might take a picture. As a caregiver, you are the custodian of the milestones and memories of a child’s life for the whole welfare team, so understanding how and why to document elements of that is crucial.

This 1.5-hour webinar training will cover best practices for documentation to prepare and support you and others involved in the child’s life, with the ultimate goal of sharing information, concerns and progress. Focused learnings around why documentation matters are central to the course – specific scenarios help translate ideas to real-life examples. You also will leave with an individualized plan for what, when and how to document, based on the process that will work best for you.

This 3 hour eLearning provides Caregivers with an introduction to the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), tribal sovereignty and the impacts on foster parenting.  The Indian Child Welfare Act obliges child welfare agencies and caregivers to take certain steps to protect and preserve the rights and cultural and familial connections of children covered by the act.  For non-Federally recognized tribes (and in other circumstances), Washington State enacted policy related to Local Indian Child Welfare Advisory Committees (LICWACs) to staff tribal cases and these impacts and supports are also discussed.  This training explores the legal, historical, and social biases which have impacted and continue to have a disproportionate impact on Native American children and families.  Caregivers will review basic information and skills needed to work with families and children who are covered under ICWA and LICWAC.  The State of Washington’s legal and policy guidelines around placement and permanency preferences for children covered by ICWA and LICWAC are explored, as well as the various manners in which Tribes can take jurisdiction or chose to otherwise be involved in Child Welfare cases.  Skills and resources are also discussed to help caregivers support and develop a child’s cultural identity and tribal connection.

Parenting the Positive Discipline Way is a series of six in-service level series of trainings for foster and kinship caregivers which explores tools to teach valuable social and life skills to children instead of using any form of punishment, rewards, praise, permissiveness or logical consequences.  This six-part Positive Discipline series will help foster parents and kinship care providers to better understand why discipline with abused and neglected children is different from the discipline that typically works with children who have not been abused or neglected.  Participants will learn how to use effective discipline that is kind and firm, creates connection before correction, is empowering and encouraging to children to believe in their own capability, and keeps the joy in caregiving.  Participants will gain practice with experiential exercises, group discussions, and handouts to develop skills for getting into the child’s world to understand the belief behind behavior in order to motivate change.  Topics and techniques apply to all ages and many settings.

The six sessions are each 2.5 hours and may be taken individually or in any order. 

Session 1: What Do You Want For Your Children? Session 1 explores what you want for your children, curiosity questions, hugs for connection, and the introduction to Positive Discipline tool cards.

The Alliance also offers An Introduction to Positive Discipline for those who are interested in experiencing a 2 hour sample of Positive Discipline training around techniques and principles for your home.

In addition, the Alliance offers individual coaching sessions around implementing Positive Discipline techniques.  The coaching session requires that a participant has completed at least one of the sessions of Positive Discipline.

Additional Resources

Click one of the images below to hear about Positive Discipline from Dr. Jane Nelsen (author and co-founder of Positive Discipline), and Darcey Hancock (Statewide Administrator of the Division of Licensed Resources in Washington).  You will hear them discuss some of the foundational concepts of Positive Discipline, and how WA State Law around discipline fits with Positive Discipline techniques.

Parenting the Positive Discipline Way is a series of six in-service level series of trainings for foster and kinship caregivers which explores tools to teach valuable social and life skills to children instead of using any form of punishment, rewards, praise, permissiveness or logical consequences.  This six-part Positive Discipline series will help foster parents and kinship care providers to better understand why discipline with abused and neglected children is different from the discipline that typically works with children who have not been abused or neglected.  Participants will learn how to use effective discipline that is kind and firm, creates connection before correction, is empowering and encouraging to children to believe in their own capability, and keeps the joy in caregiving.  Participants will gain practice with experiential exercises, group discussions, and handouts to develop skills for getting into the child’s world to understand the belief behind behavior in order to motivate change.  Topics and techniques apply to all ages and many settings.

The six sessions are each 2.5 hours and may be taken individually or in any order. 

Session 3: Not So Perfect Parenting. Session 3 explores the belief behind the behavior, the idea that it is not your job to make your children happy, and sibling rivalry and birth order.

The Alliance also offers An Introduction to Positive Discipline for those who are interested in experiencing a 2 hour sample of Positive Discipline training around techniques and principles for your home.

In addition, the Alliance offers individual coaching sessions around implementing Positive Discipline techniques.  The coaching session requires that a participant has completed at least one of the sessions of Positive Discipline.

Additional Resources

Click one of the images below to hear about Positive Discipline from Dr. Jane Nelsen (author and co-founder of Positive Discipline), and Darcey Hancock (Statewide Administrator of the Division of Licensed Resources in Washington).  You will hear them discuss some of the foundational concepts of Positive Discipline, and how WA State Law around discipline fits with Positive Discipline techniques.

Parenting the Positive Discipline Way is a series of six in-service level series of trainings for foster and kinship caregivers which explores tools to teach valuable social and life skills to children instead of using any form of punishment, rewards, praise, permissiveness or logical consequences.  This six-part Positive Discipline series will help foster parents and kinship care providers to better understand why discipline with abused and neglected children is different from the discipline that typically works with children who have not been abused or neglected.  Participants will learn how to use effective discipline that is kind and firm, creates connection before correction, is empowering and encouraging to children to believe in their own capability, and keeps the joy in caregiving.  Participants will gain practice with experiential exercises, group discussions, and handouts to develop skills for getting into the child’s world to understand the belief behind behavior in order to motivate change.  Topics and techniques apply to all ages and many settings.

The six sessions are each 2.5 hours and may be taken individually or in any order. 

Session 5: Connection Before Correction. Session 5 explores connection before correction, encouragement versus praise, and the wheel of choice.

The Alliance also offers An Introduction to Positive Discipline for those who are interested in experiencing a 2 hour sample of Positive Discipline training around techniques and principles for your home.

In addition, the Alliance offers individual coaching sessions around implementing Positive Discipline techniques.  The coaching session requires that a participant has completed at least one of the sessions of Positive Discipline.

Additional Resources

Click one of the images below to hear about Positive Discipline from Dr. Jane Nelsen (author and co-founder of Positive Discipline), and Darcey Hancock (Statewide Administrator of the Division of Licensed Resources in Washington).  You will hear them discuss some of the foundational concepts of Positive Discipline, and how WA State Law around discipline fits with Positive Discipline techniques.

Participants will learn how to identify the challenges of collaboration. This training provides Social Workers and Foster Parents/Relative Caregivers an opportunity to view teamwork from each other’s perspectives while encouraging reflection regarding the features and values of effective teaming. 

Training participants will:

• learn how to identify barriers to effective teaming,
• explore solutions to these barriers, and
• develop tailored approaches and practices that facilitate teamwork.

This eLearning focuses on how caregivers can best support and care for pregnant and parenting youth (and their children) who are living in foster care. Participants will identify their roles and responsibilities and determine what they are able and willing to do. They will also gather information about supports, resources and partnering with the other members of the child welfare team.

When a child is in need of out-of-home care, the Department should be actively seeking placement of children with relatives. The goal of this training is to help Caregivers understand the process as it impacts placements and long-term permanency.