Subject: The New Normal

Although this is a time of great uncertainty, children and youth in foster care with disabilities have a continuing right to the educational opportunities other students receive and to the services, supports, technology and consultation with caregivers needed to help them reach their goals. This webinar provides parents and caregivers information about the state of special education during COVID-19, with a focus on practical tips on how to communicate with schools about their child's needs and work with teachers and providers to implement services. Participants will leave with an understanding of their child's educational rights, the responsibilities . . .

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What resources are available to working families during the current public health crisis? Sharon Terman and Carole Vigne will discuss unemployment insurance, disability insurance and paid family leave programs, all of which have expanded understate and federal law to support families who may be unable to work while their children are home from school and local businesses are closed. Learn practical tips on how to access these resources, particularly for people who work in the gig economy, are self-employed, or are undocumented. Carole Vigne is the Director of the Wage Protection Program and Sharon Terman is the Director of . . .

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Families around the globe have “zoomed” into 2020, and this has brought up a number of challenges, including finding ways to establish and maintain social connection over a distance for children and families involved in the foster care system. This webinar focuses on supporting meaningful connections between parents/caregivers and children, emphasizing understanding how “shelter in place’ experiences might impact children of all ages and their caregivers, and strategies to promote relationships and resilience . . .

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Health care for kids in foster care goes well beyond COVID-19. Dr. Heather Forkey will share the best information from pediatric experts about coronavirus safety and treatment, and discuss how to work with your pediatric provider to keep kids healthy now and well beyond the pandemic. Heather C. Forkey, MD, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Division Director for the Child Protection Program and Foster Children Evaluation Service (FaCES) of the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center. In addition to her clinical work, she translates promising practices to address physical and . . .

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How can caring adults best support children who have experienced trauma during this crisis? Dr. Barbara Stroud will provide concrete research-based ideas for using the healing power of relationships to work with children while caring for yourself as well. Barbara Stroud, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with over three decades worth of culturally informed clinical practice in early childhood development and mental health. She is a founding organizer and inaugural president of the California Association for Infant Mental Health, a member of the Academy of ZERO TO THREE Fellows and holds prestigious endorsements as an Infant and Family Mental . . .

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Life can be difficult as a teenager in foster care, and COVID-19 has added huge new challenges that impact both youth and their resource families. Join QPI and a panel of California youth to learn how to partner with youth in your care to use technology and social media creatively to keep youth connected to family and community, and navigate some of the worries and concerns families may have about the online world . . .

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While sheltering at home, families will become more reliant than ever on “screens,” TV, computers, and other media. This webcast, also presented by Dr. Rachel Barr, will focus on how parents can navigate the digital media world with their toddlers and how media can be a useful tool for parents to support intellectual, educational and emotional development. Digital play, where adults and children interact around media is a way to build connections and avoid isolation . . .

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While in-person visitation is the best way to support families, it isn’t always possible during this emergency. Dr. Rachel Barr will share research on how to use remote and virtual communication to maintain and strengthen relationships. Dr. Barr is a professor at Georgetown University and has conducted research on media and young children for over 25 years. She has served as a consultant for Sesame Street on media and very young children. She partnered with the Youth Law Center to create a media-based intervention for incarcerated teen parents . . .

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Our first webcast The Power of Connection: How Resource Families Can Support Adolescents Through COVID-19 Crisis is a conversation between national adolescent development expert Dr. Ken Ginsburg, MD, MSEd, Co-Director of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and Jennifer Rodriguez, Executive Director of the Youth Law Center. Dr. Ginsburg will be sharing the science behind why resource and foster families are so important to adolescents during this national crisis, and practical tips and guidance for the best ways resource families (and all families) can support youth in foster care right now . . .

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