The Importance of Religious Tolerance: A Module for Educating Foster Parents

Foster parents often have a different religion from that of their foster child or children. As part of a foster parent training program, a learning module was developed to help foster parents examine their religious beliefs and learn how they would respond to the different needs of foster children with respect to their religious beliefs. To date, little has been published about the religious practices of foster families and how the element of religion might affect the child in family foster care. The United States has few rules and regulations regarding religion in child placement, though the Child Welfare League of America has standards of practice that do go into some detail in this area CWLA 1995 . Religion often is not mentioned during the home study and licensing process of foster parents. When children are being placed permanently, kinship care is considered positively in part because the caregivers have a cultural and ethnic background similar to that of the child Prater 1992 , yet in nonpermanent placements, cultural needs are too seldom considered. Placements are frequently determined by availability, termed "administrative expediency" by child welfare workers Maas 1978; Schatz 1986 . Ethnic and cultural groups urge placement workers to look for foster families who can provide similar cultural experiences for children. In a study of biracial children, Folaron and Hess 1993 found that overlooking a child's social and cultural environment before placement could lead to an unsuccessful placement experience. "A color-blind approach to placement and service delivery perpetuates racism and hinders the development of children's positive racial identity" p. 124 . Because religion is usually part of one's culture, finding placements with families whose religion is compatible to the child's, or who will show religious tolerance, will help to decrease the level of placement trauma for children in care. The Role of Religion Religion is an important part of identity, both for the individual child and for the family as a unit. Often, religion is a factor in the decision to become a foster parent. According to Thomas and Cornwall 1990 , religion provides a belief system that produces a moral base, encourages family behavior, and discourages antifamily behavior. Thornton and Camburn 1989 suggest that religion is the source of moral prescriptions for many people, and that religious teaching is likely to contribute to the formation of individual attitudes, values, and decisions. Erikson 1992 suggests that parental religion is of little direct importance to adolescent religious development, but a recent study of Australian adults by Hayes and Pittekow 1993 indicates that "as adults, men and women are strongly influenced by the religious beliefs of their parents. " In particular, they suggest that the dominant influence is through the mother, but with a significant, albeit secondary, effect through the father. It seems likely, then, that some values held by foster parents would affect the foster child. Legally, however, the biological parents have the right to choose their children's religion or lack of religion. Through the training program presented here, foster parents become aware of the role of religion in foster parenting and how it can potentially affect the children for whom they are caring. The Program Religion & the Foster Home is a training program begun in Colorado in 1992. It considers how foster families can communicate with licensing agencies about their religious practices and how the foster parents can help create a comfortable home or match for the child needing temporary placement. The program is part of a large training program, Fostering Families, designed for foster parents, private provider agencies, and public social service caseworkers and support staff. …