“Spec” Training February 14, 2011

On tuesday we are going to an all day training at our agency. The training is about caring for Specialized children in Foster Care. In Illinois DCFS and private agencies call therapeutic homes specialized foster homes, or a “spec” home. When children come into care that have physical or behavioral condition then the agency would place the children into a spec home. Sweetie was in a spec home. She was had emotional issues that qualified her as needing more attention and care.

To become a specialize home you need to have your basic license with DCFS, be CPR First Aid certified and have additional training. We have our license and certification, and now we are going to go to the training on Tuesday. The agency also reviews your home study to see if you would be suitable to become a spec home. Our agency reviewed our home study and now is wanting us to take the training. Our Licensing worker will be there along with many other case workers. I am excited because this will give us a chance to talke with her about placements.

Why would we want to become a spec home you ask? Well to be honest we don’t know yet. We want to go to the training to see if this is something we want to do. If we decide not to then that will be ok. We still get the credit for training. Also, I think our agency is in need of spec homes and they do get children that are harder to place. We will stick with our age range if we decide to do this. That is 0-6yrs old.

We only had Sweetie for ten days but we loved her being here. She was basically in the honeymoon phase but I know if we could have kept her then we would have been fine. Her needs seemed mild on the spectrum. When we do get a call then we can always decide if we would accept the placement. We do not feel comfortable going over six years old.

If we do become a spec home then we have some advantages. First we do not have any children in the home. That way we could provide the child with one on one attention. Second, we have a great support system and would be able to utilize that in times of need. Third, Ryans aunt works for the schools and if we get a child that needs therapy through school then we can get the child what they need.

I really am excited about the training. I do fear that when we are done that we might think, “WTF” we couldn’t do that. If that is the case then we would have to simply say no to becoming a spec home. But we will see how it goes. So I will keep you posted. Until next time…..