Enhanced Services and Stipends for Foster Parents

OVERVIEW

Enhanced services and stipends for foster parents are implemented to help achieve improvements in the foster care system, such as more stable foster care for children and fewer parents dropping out of foster care programs.  These services include monthly payment supplements (in addition to the reimbursements foster parents already receive) and additional support and training for foster parents in the form of group meeting sessions and telephone contacts.  An experimental evaluation of foster parents utilizing such services found that both the enhanced services and the increased payment only groups had lower dropout rates than those in the control condition.  Children in the enhanced services condition also had significantly more successful days in care and significantly greater drops in parent-reported child problem behaviors than either of the other two conditions.    

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target Population: Children in foster care

The intervention program consists of providing foster parents with two types of additional, enhanced services.  The first comprises parents attending, once a week, two-hour group meetings with other foster parents and a trained facilitator.  Group facilitators are former foster parents and have been trained in behavior management methods for conduct-disordered and aggressive children/teenagers.  Additionally, the facilitator is supervised by an experienced group therapist who acts as a clinical consultant.  By creating a supportive atmosphere of value and respect for foster parent efforts, participants are encouraged to discuss (based on experience) which techniques do and do not work to manage child behavior. Three types of behavior management methods are emphasized throughout the meetings: 1) nonphysical discipline methods that focus on teaching instead of punishing the child, 2) problem-solving strategies for dealing with problems created by children in foster homes, and 3) incentive systems for encouraging and teaching positive and appropriate child behaviors.  Within the first two months of group meetings, participants are given brief instructional sessions on each method, followed by a videotaped example.  In addition to the meetings, the group facilitator acts as a continuous consultant to parents to develop and utilize these methods.

Along with the group meetings, each foster family receives three telephone contacts per week from the group facilitator.  While these conversations are generally brief (5 to 10 minutes), the calls can be longer if a parent wants to discuss problems with the child or their family that are having an impact on the placement.  There are three main goals for each call: 1) to provide support to foster parents, 2) to trouble-shoot any problems that are occurring and help guide parents in using strategies discussed in group meetings, and 3) to collect data on the study child’s behavior adjustments during the previous 24 hours, using the Parent Daily Report checklist, which then informs the training agendas for future weekly meetings.     

In addition to the two supplemental services discussed above, parents receive an increased monthly payment of $70 to help cover increased time and expenses incurred as result of participation in these enhanced services.

EVALUATION OF PROGRAM

Evaluated population: A total of 72 children (ages 4 to 7) and their foster parents, from three counties in Oregon, were selected to participate in this study.  In order to be chosen for the study, children had to have been in foster care for a minimum of three months.  Sixty-one percent of the child sample was female and 86 percent was Caucasian.    

Approach: Participants were randomly assigned to either the enhanced support and training condition (N=31), the increased payment only condition (N=14), or the foster care as usual condition (N=27).  Foster parents in the increased payment only condition received the additional $70/month payment (to control for effects resulting from the extra resources afforded by the additional payment); those in the foster care as usual condition acted as a control group and did not receive any enhanced support/training, or extra compensation.  There were no significant differences between groups in terms of demographics at baseline.  However, the enhanced services condition had a substantially higher number of parent reports of child problem behaviors (which was above normal – normal was defined as an average of five daily problems) than the foster care as usual condition.  Foster mothers in the increased payment only group were also rated significantly better in terms of discipline practices, than those in the enhanced services group, at baseline.

To measure the effectiveness of the program, data were collected on the following: foster parent reports of child problems; dropout/retention rates; staff impressions of foster parents’ discipline and social skills, and foster mothers’ levels of personal strength; parent and caseworker perceptions of weekly training/support groups; and stability of children in foster care (whether a child left a foster home for any reason; “successful days” were the number of days a child stayed in their study foster home).  Data collection occurred at baseline, at a 3-month follow-up for the parent reports of child problem behavior, and were ongoing over the course of the two-year period for all other measures.     

Results: Over the course of the two-year study, both the enhanced services and increased payment only conditions had substantially lower foster parent dropout rates than those in the control group.  Children in the enhanced services condition also had significantly more successful days in care than children in either of the other two conditions.  Foster parents of children in the enhanced services condition also reported significantly greater drops in the number of child problem behaviors at the three-month follow-up.       

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Chamberlain, P., Moreland, S., & Reid, K. (1992). Enhanced services and stipends for foster parents: Effects on retention rates and outcomes for children. Child Welfare Journal, 71(5), 387-401.

KEYWORDS: Children, Males and Females (Co-ed), Clinic/Provider-Based, Parent or Family Component, Parent Training/Education, Case Management, Behavior Problems – Other

Program information last updated 12/21/11

© Child Trends 2003