Foster & Kinship Care Education

The Foster and Kinship Care Education Program (F&KCE) provides free parenting classes for foster, kinship and adoptive parents as well as interested non-foster parents and professionals working with at-risk youth. Merced College is proud to offer these classes on a rotating basis each year to fulfill the State's mandated training requirements.

Our mission is to provide quality education and support opportunities to caregivers of children and youth in out-of-home care so that these providers may meet the educational, emotional, behavioral and developmental needs of children and youth in the foster care system.

Foster Care Education classes have been available to California foster parents since 1985 through the community college system. California Community Colleges that participate in the Foster and Kinship Care Education Program are funded through the Chancellor's Office. The Chancellor's Office receives its funds from the State and Federal government.