Question

Photo of DJ Grick

0

foster Children

1

We have several families from our church who foster children. How do other churches deal with records when a foster child goes moves back with their parents? Right now they are inactive but still show up as part of the family. The one family asked that we delete all records of them but that's really not an option. 

  • Photo of Jeremy Hoff

    1

    Hey DJ,

    Just curious, why isn't it an option?

    As one of those foster families (we've also adopted) I had to run the scenarios a couple times.  What we've come up with is the following:

    1. While the child is in the family, leave them as a "Child".  
    2. Should the time come when the family is no longer fostering the child, move the child to a new family...
    3. Setup a Relationship of "Foster" and link the parents to the foster'd child
    4. Edit the child's record to be without contact information, moving contact info to a note

    Ergo the only remaining details are the family's connection to the child and the child's relationship with the church.  We'd keep this /only/ for the purpose of someone coming around to ask questions so that we're in a good place to respond should an agency have questions about the foster family.  I.E. "did so and so bring the child to church."  Keep in mind, for example, foster parents CAN take the child to church, but CANNOT allow the child to be baptized.

    I hope that helps,

    • DJ Grick

      DJ Grick

      Thanks Jeremy, This was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I wanted to create a separation without loosing everything. This will work well.


      Also thanks for living out our mandate to care for the orphans! Getting positioned to be able to foster is on mine and my wife's long-term goal list. :-)