All Winnebago County foster parents are required to complete at least 12 hours of ongoing training per calendar year. Foster parents can also earn training credit from reading books or watching videos that are relevant and directly related to foster care. Foster parents can earn up to a total of two training hours for reading books (1/2 hour of training credit per book) or watching videos (1 hour of training credit per video) and must submit a brief summary describing what they learned from the book or video and how they can apply that to the care they provide.
Although foster parents may not be required to participate in any training beyond the minimum requirements, Winnebago County Human Services strongly encourages all foster parents to participate in as much training as possible to increase their overall knowledge and skill level. Foster parenting has become an increasingly more complex and demanding responsibility and in order to meet these challenges foster parents must increase their knowledge and skills to adequately care for the children placed in their home.