{"id":8858,"date":"2020-10-14T13:59:22","date_gmt":"2020-10-14T13:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.childrensbureau.org\/?p=8858"},"modified":"2025-02-25T12:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T17:06:23","slug":"kris-corner-you-should-never-disrupt-a-placement-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fireflyin.org\/cnh\/resources\/news-library\/kris-corner-you-should-never-disrupt-a-placement-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Kris’ Corner – You should never disrupt a placement, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this \u201ctwo part series\u201d, we ended up disrupting two placements. And since this is clearly NOT what should happen, I want to discuss some ways I believe that at least one of these disruptions could have been avoided.<\/p>\n

Let me begin by saying this: The system being what it is, it is so difficult to know when you take a placement if you are going to be able to handle it. And to fully know what issues the child being placed with you truly has\u2026because when a child is new into care, DCS and your agency (Children\u2019s Bureau) are not going to have all the facts. There is simply no way that they could. They give you all the details they have at their disposal, but honestly it is sometimes a stab in the dark for the foster parent on whether the placement is going to assimilate well into the household.<\/p>\n

I know that might not be the encouragement you may be seeking. But I tell you this to know that no placement is 100% guaranteed to go well. Every placement will have difficulties, be it the child, the caseworker, the visit supervisor, the biological parents, or even the foster parents themselves getting in the way of things.<\/p>\n

For our first placement, I am willing to admit that part of the issue was my inability to understand that we needed to change some of how our household operated. I didn\u2019t fully understand how difficult it would be for the children to simply assimilate into our mold. I don\u2019t believe this is uncommon, especially with first placements, but I let my frustration get to the point of disruption.<\/p>\n

In hindsight, I could have given the girls more one-on-one time, by planning activities for my boys to do outside the home for a while. We are a homeschool family, so this would not necessarily have been ideal, but we could have done it in an effort to preserve the placement. In addition, I could have sent the girls to public school instead of trying to teach them at home. I didn\u2019t understand how that would be so stressful to them in a time already fraught with stress and anxiety. Keeping them in their same school would have meant that we would have to transport them about 45 minutes one way to school each day, but it would have given them some comfort by virtue of the fact that it was familiar, and they could be with the same teacher and friends.<\/p>\n

Other techniques for trying to retain a placement include, but are not limited to, such things:<\/p>\n