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March 2019Vol. 20, No. 2Quality Parenting Initiative

The Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI) is a strategy of the Youth Law Center that focuses on improving foster care by emphasizing excellent parenting, supporting caregivers, and using caregiver experience and input as the best means to implement change and improve the foster care system. Since its launch 2008 in Florida, QPI has been implemented in over 75 jurisdictions in 10 states (California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin).

QPI centers on five core principles:

  • Excellent parenting is key to providing children with the best care to ensure their well-being.
  • Children need constant, consistent, and effective parenting to grow and reach their full potential.
  • Each community must define excellent parenting for itself.
  • Policy and practice must be changed to align with that definition.
  • Participants in the system are in the best position to recommend and implement change.

Implementation of QPI includes holding listening sessions with various sectors of the community, including youth, birth and foster families, child welfare staff, courts, and community partners. Through these sessions, participants aim to increase the percentage of children living in family-type situations; increase placement stability and permanency; help ensure foster parents and birth parents maintain a relationship with each other after permanency is achieved; help ensure children maintain relationships with significant adults, such as foster and birth parents; and help ensure siblings maintain continuous meaningful contact.

To learn more about QPI and to access additional QPI resources, visit http://www.qpi4kids.org/.