Student require views

You don't have to "put aside" your faith or values at all. Just don't prosletyze or indoctrinate. Be aware that even neutralized religious education under the age of 9 or 10 is, in real-world practice, indoctrination because non-fully-verbal children imprint the messages--that is, they do not have the full cognitive capacity to think objectively and abstractly about belief systems. Not many people neutralize their faith teachings, anyway. When was the last time a fundamentalist said, "some people say they believe that Jesus's mother was a virgin...."? Not often, I'm thinking. Anyway, if "living your faith" means stating your beliefs as absolute facts or forcing them upon others, especially those without the capacity for informed consent (that is, children), then, yes, I think you do have a problem. I do not believe such people should be matched with others' children unless the parents have made an informed and intentional decision to give their permission for such indoctrination.

I'm also concerned about foster families that put big demands on kids to conform to their belief systems. Little kids can't really say no. They know their well-being depends on pleasing the people taking care of them. So having a big religious education program for kids--not just in Sunday school, but in daily life--is not appropriate.As foster parents, we're acting as agents of the state. And according to the Constitution, the state can't compel anybody to subscribe to a particular religious belief. It's really important that we don't force kids to adhere to our religious beliefs, because it is unconstitutional.I know that if my son were taken into care, I would strenously object to him being placed with an evangelical family, or with any family whose religious belief system emphasized conversion. We have our own beliefs, and I would be very upset to hear he was being given any form of religious indoctrination. It would be a serious violation of his First Amendment rights, and my Fourteenth Amendment rights as a parent.

I'm in the process of becoming a foster parent, and this is something that I have thought long and hard about.I am a Christian, and there are certain areas that I will not compromise on. We are a church going, vegetarian family who watch VegeTales...and that isn't going to change. This was one of the many reasons we decided to keep our age range low. Currently we are looking 0-5, but would prefer 0-3 (but we are willing to go as high as 8 or 9 if part of a young sib set). My chances of having to deal with requests for pork chops or bacon are MUCH smaller with a 3 year old then a 10 year old.I have no issue with making arrangments to take foster kids to other denominational services, if their parents request it. But there are most definately limits to the kinds of things I'm willing to do, or have happen in my home.It's a very fine line, and one that I think a lot of foster parents don't know how to walk very well.

I have read that you're not allowed to force foster children to follow a vegetarian diet...at least not in most states.

In NY, when I had my 2nd placement (1st placement only lasted a month), there was a nurse who came monthly. she asked about foods we ate. I'm not vegetarian so it wasn't a problem. But you should check with your foster care agency.

As long as they are eating a healthy and balanced diet, and they are offered a variety of food choices, I've been told it's not a problem. We are Lacto-ovo Veges, we eat eggs and dairy in small amounts. So really the diet of a 3 year old or even 5 year old wouldn't change horribly. Cereal & milk with fruit for breakfast, mac & cheese and peas for dinner etc etc etc. If we were strict Vegans I would told we would have issues...but we aren't :) Again, this is one of the reasons we have decided to stick with a younger age group. A 10 year old who is use to eating meat every day would have a much harder time adjusting then a child under 5 would. I'm a quasi-vege :) I eat kosher meats occasionally outside of the house. And that would be perfectly acceptable for foster kids to do too :)

When accepting foster placements, the family should be informed if the child is from a family with an opposing religious view. We all know there are widely different beliefs..... Christians, Muslims, Jews, Pagans, Wicca... and then some, and probably none of the above would want their children placed in any of the other homes. While in foster care, the children are NOT in the custody of the foster parents, and the foster parents are not to teach differing religious views, and they are NOT to teach them their religious views (the views of their family) are wrong. The parents that have not had their rights terminated are to be in charge of what religious instruction their child receives. By the way, if you haven't found it yet, check out the child information gateway website. It has a tremendous amount of information and statistics you may find extremely useful in your studies.

This is where that fine line is...I know of MANY situations where bio parents were told their children were in a religious home (not always Christian) and expressed no wishes about how their child should be handled in regards to it, and then they back a few months later and tried to raise a fuss.When ever possible I think it's important to place children in homes with similar religious views. I can't think of another way that children would feel so left out or different then having to go to respite every Saturday or Sunday while the people who are suppose to be their "family" all go and do other stuff together at church. That's kind of like the kid who's parents boycott the circus...they don't really understand why, but all of their other friends get to go, and they are left playing alone.When I sat down with my sister and we went through things that we could with, from age to special needs we also dealt with religious views. There were only 3 exceptions that we could think of that we just couldn't handle having in our home if the bios expected religous involvement. 2 hardly ever come into custody and the chances of being place would be a million to one...the 3rd isn't quite as rare, but still an unlikely placement in our area.I do know of foster parents who will not accept placements outside of their own belief system and others who finally gave up fostering because they felt they were having to compromise their own values and morals.It's all a balancing act on that fine line....