Prospective Resource Parents must complete a minimum of 12 hours of pre-approval training. Topics include but not limited to the following:

1. A Resource Family orientation 
2. Knowledge and skills relating to the reasonable and prudent parent standard
3. Options for permanency.
4. Birth parent relationships and safety issues regarding contact.
5. The importance of a Resource Family’s role in education, educational protections specific to children and nonminor dependents, and the rights and obligations of a Resource Family to access and maintain educational and health information.
6. The role of a Resource Family as a mandated reporter, including training on child abuse and neglect identification, and abuse and neglect reporting

Additional training include

• An overview of the child protective and probation systems.
• The effects of trauma, including grief and loss, and child abuse and neglect, on child development and behavior, and methods to behaviorally support children impacted by that trauma or child abuse and neglect.
• Positive discipline and the importance of self-esteem.
• Health issues in foster care.
• Accessing services and supports to address education needs, physical, mental, and behavioral health, and substance use disorders, including culturally relevant services.
• The rights of a child in foster care, and the Resource Family’s responsibility to safeguard those rights, including the right to have fair and equal access to all available services, placement, care, treatment, and benefits, and to not be subjected to discrimination or harassment on the basis of actual or perceived race, ethnic group identification, ancestry, national origin, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, mental or physical disability, or HIV status.
• Cultural needs of children, including instruction on cultural competency and sensitivity, and related best practices for providing adequate care for children or youth across diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, as well as children or youth identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
• Basic instruction on existing laws and procedures regarding the safety of foster youth at school; and ensuring a harassment and violence free school environment 
• Permanence, well-being, and education needs of children.
• Child and adolescent development, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression.
• The role of Resource Families, including working cooperatively with the child welfare or probation agency, the child’s family, and other service providers implementing the case plan.
• The role of a Resource Family on the child and family team.
• A Resource Family’s responsibility to act as a reasonable and prudent parent, and to provide a family setting that promotes normal childhood experiences and that serves the needs of the child.
• training on the importance of the caregiver’s role in education, educational protections specific to foster youth under state and federal law, and the rights and obligations of caregivers to access and maintain educational and health information
• The rights of youth and nonminor dependents in foster care to sexual and reproductive health care and information, to confidentiality of sensitive health information, and the reasonable and prudent parent standard.
• How to document sensitive health information, including, but not limited to, sexual and reproductive health issues, in a case plan.
• The duties and responsibilities of the assigned case management worker and the foster care provider in ensuring youth and nonminor dependents in foster care can obtain sexual and reproductive health services and information.
• Guidance about how to engage and talk with youth and nonminor dependents about healthy sexual development and reproductive and sexual health in a manner that is medically accurate, developmentally and age-appropriate, trauma-informed, and strengths-based.
• Information about current contraception methods and how to select and provide appropriate referral resources and materials for information and service delivery.

In regards to Reasonable and Prudent Parenting, foster parents must learn

• Reasonable and prudent parent standard for the participation of the child in age or developmentally appropriate activities, including knowledge and skills relating to the developmental stages of the cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral capacities of a child, and knowledge and skills relating to applying the standard to decisions such as whether to allow the child to engage in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities, including sports, field trips, and overnight activities lasting one or more days, and to decisions involving the signing of permission slips and arranging of transportation for the child to and from extracurricular, enrichment, and social activities.

The county or agency may also require that foster parents demonstrate an

1. Understanding how to use best practices for providing care and supervision to commercially sexually exploited children.
2. Understanding how to use best practices for providing care and supervision to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children.
3. Understanding the requirements and best practices regarding psychotropic medications, including, but not limited to, court authorization, benefits, uses, side effects, interactions, assistance with self-administration, misuse, documentation, storage, and metabolic monitoring of children prescribed psychotropic medications.
4. Understanding the federal Indian Child Welfare Act its historical significance, the rights of children covered by the act, and the best interests of Indian children, including the role of the caregiver in supporting culturally appropriate, child-centered practices that respect Native American history, culture, retention of tribal membership and connection to the tribal community and traditions.
5. Understanding how to use best practices for providing care and supervision to nonminor dependents.
6. Understanding how to use best practices for providing care and supervision to children with special health care needs.
7. Understanding the different permanency options and the services and benefits associated with the options.