Full course description
Overview
“If a child with a complex family story walked into our school tomorrow, what would tell them – without words – that they belong here?” This is a question worth asking as schools are being asked to support students with increasingly complex needs – yet one major gap remains:
Most educators have never received professional learning on adoption, foster care, kinship care, and the lifelong impact of early loss and disrupted attachment.
The Adoption & Foster Friendly Schools Campaign is on a mission to close the gap – empowering schools with shared language, practical tools, and powerful family partnerships so every student feels seen, supported, and heard. Join this webinar to hear from Champions on how to empower your school to become an Adoption and Foster Friendly School.
Objectives
- Understand how to recognize early relational loss and disrupted attachment as part of a child’s learning context
- Discover ways to add adoption and foster-informed learning into professional development – especially for student services and leadership teams
- Increase use of adoption- and foster-competent practices by mental health support team
Registration and CE Information
- This listing is for those not needing CEs.
- Please see the CE version if you need CEs for this event
- The live webinar will be held February 24, 2026, from 12:00pm - 1:00pm
- Once registered, you will be able to access the course site to complete the Zoom registration to receive the link for the webinar.
Presenters
- Laura Adams, Founder and President, iCARE Adoptive and Foster Families
- Brenda Lindsey, Executive Director, Illinois Association of School Social Workers
- Jocelyn Fetting, MSW, iCARE Youth Champion
- Barbara Moore, Director, Center for Excellence in Child Welfare, School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign