Taking picture of foster kids?

Here in MA they are very strict about NO FCs pics on FB or other social media sites. They are not to be online. Period. They are not to be in the newspaper or have their picture used for school promotion, etc (usually you have to fill out a form allowing that anyway and in the case of foster kids you have to check no). Other than that, we can and are encouraged to take pictures of our foster kids and include those pictures in life books, etc.

I'm in CA (Riverside county). In class we were told to take pictures and be sure to have their pics on the walls just like our bio kids because they need to feel like part of the family. Where it gets "sticky" is sharing the pics outside your home. We were told that we absolutely could not post on FB (even if its private), could not mail pics of the kids or e-mail pics due to privacy issues.

We were told that it was alright to take pictures (Georgia) but we could not post them. We were also asked to send copies of the pictures on visits with the children. For seveal of our "long termers" we made photo scrap books that they were able to take home with them after RU. Guess it depends on the rules in your county.

just wanted to add to my already too long post. If I had FB, I wouldn't put pics up. FB just isn't anonymous like my blog is. So I wouldn't even put up the pics I have on my blog (and THOSE pics are already pretty anonymous).

MomInCorazon reminds me that, no, of course we can't post their photos online. I have two photos of the back of Little Miss This on FB, but they literally could be any baby in the world, completely unidentifiable, so I feel OK about it. I always refer to our babies online as the names you see in my sig. . .some of my RL friends didn't know our foster babies' names until well after they'd been placed with us!There was a little brouhaha in our area office about a holiday card one foster family sent out which included a family photo w/ the foster kiddos in it. That was a no-no, but I think given that the foster parents' hearts were in the right place (including the fosters as part of their family), they only got a gentle "don't do that again," reminder as a result.

Here the parents have to consent to allowing their children's pictures to be taken. I may get flamed for this, but whatever, I totally think that is wrong. I had one fs who was NOT allowed to have his picture taken. I took them. HE DESERVED HIS PICTURE TAKEN. His prior siblings all were TPR-ed. It is HIS right. I hear way too many stories of older foster kids with no baby pictures and that is a travesty. I didnt share the pics with anyone and told my caseworker we have them if ever he wants them when he is older. The mom later did allow pictures taken, when he was first put into care, his dad said no, but then mom resurfaced and she said yes. Its funny how one parent's yes trumps the no. Our bio dad signed consent to have pictures published. So I do post pics. He's friends with me on FB, ect and I tag the kids as him. He posts pics of them and tags them as me. Edited to add, our relationship with the bio dad is totally not the norm for foster to adopt situations. He is our family now. He has the boys two sisters in his care and we are both committed to the siblings growing up as siblings.

Not only are we allowed, but they expect us to keep an updated scrapbook for thekids. They check to make sure we are taking pictures and building their "lifebook."

I am wondering what people do about group photos like class photos or team photos? You would want kids to have those for memories, but you would not necessarily want everyone to have the foster child's photo going home with a bunch of kids...?

Same for me.

We are not only allowed to take photos, but encouraged to do so. And it is EXPECTED that we always buy school pictures and yearbooks. Group pictures at school are fine. We are not allowed to authorize media release (I got lucky at one event, birth mom was with us, and they wanted to use #1's picture for publicity, so she was there to tell them "Sure.") It was a bummer for #1 because she missed out on a special in school visitor because they were filming it for the news. I still think that was wrong. I tried to get the CW to sign the release but she was worthless. So, #1 had to be ostracized and sent to another room while they filmed, so she not only missed out on the event, but made to feel inferior to the other kids. We are not, although some parents don't read the rules, to post any identifiable information or pictures on social sites, or emails. My closest friends know the girls' names and a friend out of town got a few pictures via email. On FB, they are FD1 and FD2. When next foster daughter comes, she will be FD3. Even FD1 knew I meant her when she would read my entries.I did post an arm picture once when I was asking "what the heck is this?" for her, but just that part of her arm. It is amusing, my colleague, who has followed the story in person and the tidbits I post on FB, one day in person I was talking about them and using their names and she was so confused because she only knew them as FD1 and FD2. I do like the convention used here though so next time I might call them like Princess (FD1) and Monkey (FD2) but not sure, because I actually would call FD2 "Monkey" and so did her father, as ironic as that would be. Personally, I see it both ways, from the birth parent perspective and the foster perspective about wanting to share them. Especially someone like me who had them for two years. It is a hard thing to deal with. I even asked my worker if I could share them on my FB profile I created just for the birth dad and his family, meaning nobody else is there, and she said no, the rules just haven't caught up with the social sites yet. There is some talk about asking bios to sign a release for this stuff in my area.Personally, I think having a locked down site like that would be good for the birth parents because they could keep up with the goings on for the kids. The problem, as with most things, is that people would end up abusing it and not following the rules. :-(ETA: Oh yea, and I got professional pictures done both Christmas's I had them and gave pictures to the entire family. Last year I even made up picture albums for all of the grandparents so that they had pictures of the girls from all the time they were in care. Bio mom's mom was so touched, she cried and said it was the best present she ever got. Bio mom proceeds to set her collage picture (I had bought the special frame last year so this year just gave her the replacement photo) on the table and proceeded to pile stuff on top of it, not even protecting it. Even FD1 commented about that when we were driving home. She said "well, I guess mom doesn't care so much about having pictures of us." And I was like, why do you say that? "Because after she looked at the picture, she didn't even put it back in the envelope to protect it, just threw it on the table and piled stuff on top of it." She is a smart girl.

I think the rules are different by jurisdiction as well as the interpretation can vary between agencies and workers. I've fostered for many years and we've always been encouraged to take picutes of the children to add to their life book. We have never been told that we can not post their pictures online although I'm cautious of doing so mainly due to advice from this website. The way it has been explained to me is, you can take a picture of the child and share them with close friends and relatives, unless you have been given a specific rule prohibiting you from posting them online like FB or e-mail then that could be acceptable as long as your profile is private and they can only be viewed by your friends and relatives. What you can NOT do under any circumstances wether it is online or in person is to say "This is Jane Doe, my foster daughter, she is in care because she was sexually abused by her step-father, her parents are drug addicts and facing criminal charges". Its not the face so much as the confidentiality issue so that others can not identify them or their family of orgin. Again, I stress that every agency and even every worker can have their own interpretation of the rules so its best to clarify with your worker and your agency what their guidelines are. Some will just say don't post pictures at all to avoid having to research the rules, others will say just respect the confidentiality of the case, the child and the family.

My dh had a website where he posts pictures of various family & friends & then out of town friends & relatives could follow various goings ons. We were told could not post pics of L there at all. Keep in mind its a relative placement & both parents were in favor so they could keep up with daily happenings. I asked if bios could sign some sort of consent & was told that bios are not even allowed to post pics of their own kids online while the state of IL has custody. Totally ticks me off every time bio mom posts his pic on her fb (especially since she has made zero effort to contact him in 6 months) but other of her family members text her pics & online they go. Cw is just documenting it as another case of non compliance, but still irks me that we can't share pics with his healthy, concerned out-of-town relatives, but she can post them to her druggie circle of friends.

Thank you for all the responses! I am relieved that for the most part photographs are encouraged! It would be nearly (if not) impossible to not take pictures for the kids. I am clicker happy. I love the idea of the lifebooks and making copies for bios. I will definitely stick with nicknames for FB. I love posting pics of my fam and I can just picture a cute walking away from the camera shot. But for sure, no face photos on FB. I got a lot of great ideas and advice. Thank you guys! :)

Here we are suppose to take pictures for their lifebook. We have pictures up of all our former foster children. We actually had on fs whose mother got upset when she found out we took pictures of her son who was only 4mths old. She said we were not allowed to take his picture. Our cw told us to continue doing as we had just dont let herknow because lifebooks are a requirement. He was moved to a relative and we sent an album with his pictures in. We get professional pictures taken all the time. Every year we get our family picture done at christmas and our foster children are always a part of it. We usually get a picture of any fosters done by themselves too so we can give it to bp. pictures or even their name are not to be used online at all. We are not even allowed to email cw with childs name in it.

What about a LAW regarding this? There is nothing I can find that makes taking pictures of foster kids illegal. I am wondering because I only see about agreements and policies, but nothing concrete and legal. I know of people who do post their foster children online without ever getting in trouble for it, those who don't post them online and those who post photos with their faces blurred or covered with an emoji. My children are also in karate with foster children who've had their pictures posted on the website many times with and without their foster parents, but no one has said anything.Nowhere do I see an actual law stating one way or another.The laws I did find only protect private places and the Supreme Court has upheld that anyone or anything viewable from a public place has no reasonable expectation of privacy and may be photographed. Those photos are the sole property of the taker (unless they choose to sell) and can be shared, printed, posted online, etc with no permission needed by anyone in those photos.Ryan in Massachusetts