Quick facts - Alberta’s foster care system

• Approximately 4,600 children and youth in provincial government care live in foster homes across Alberta.About 2,300 foster homes care for these children.

Screening

• All potential foster parents must be screened before children or youth can be placed in their home. A home study, criminal records check, child intervention system check, personal references, medical references, environmental safety check, and health and safety check are completed before a potential foster parent is permitted to accept children into their home.

Training

• Everyone interested in becoming a foster parent must attend caregiver orientation training, which consists of eight three-hour sessions that cover such topics as child development, special needs of children in care, and duties and responsibilities of a foster parent.
• All Level 1 foster parents must complete an additional nine hours of training each year.
• Foster parents must complete 12 hours of additional supplementary training each year to become Level 2. Level 2 foster parents typically care for children or youth with higher needs, such as disabilities or addictions and behavioural issues.

Placement Policies

• The number of foster children permitted in a foster home is governed by policy.
• Level 1 foster homes may have up to two children. No more than two children are allowed during the first year of a new foster home, without exception.
• Level 2 foster homes may have up to four children. Exceptions allowing more than four children are considered based on specific circumstances, such as keeping sibling groups together or so a child returning to the foster care system can be placed in a home they are familiar with and foster parents with whom they already have a relationship.

Foster Care Review

• A review to identify practices to strengthen the foster care system in the province was completed in 2008, led by a review board of members internal and external to the Government of Alberta. External members were Peter Dudding, Executive Director, Child Welfare League of Canada; Dr. Lionel Dibden, Medical Director, Child and Adolescent Protection Centre, Stollery Children’s Hospital; and Linda Hughes, Executive Director, McMan Youth, Family & Community Services Association, Calgary Region.
• The review committee found that the foster care system in the province was already strong, but made eight recommendations on how processes and practices could be continually improved. The government accepted all eight recommendations and they are being implemented.
• The review report can be found at www.child.alberta.ca/home/1145.cfm.

Children receiving child protective services who suffer injury or death

• Approximately 9,000 children and youth are in provincial government care in Alberta. Over the last four years, the percentage of children in care who suffer a serious injury resulting in hospitalization or death is 0.1 per cent, approximately four-and-a-half times lower than in the general child population in Alberta (Alberta Health and Wellness, Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research, Injury Database).
• The following chart shows the percentage of children receiving child intervention services who have suffered injury resulting in hospitalization or death from 2004-05 to 2007-08.