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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

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