Kalispell foster care roundtable focused on family support

KALISPELL, Mont. — State leaders and local educators met at Flathead Valley Community College to talk about how Montana can better support families before and after children enter foster care.

The discussion centered on foster care awareness and ways to strengthen families across Montana. Educators, advocates and state leaders took part in the roundtable as they discussed challenges foster families were facing and what support children needed.

At the college in Kalispell, the conversation focused on how families could be connected with help earlier, before problems reached a crisis point.

Evergreen School District Superintendent Laurie Barron said school employees often noticed the first signs that a student needed support outside the classroom.

“Our teachers and staff are the ones who see it first. They're the ones who say, this student doesn't have shoes, or this student can use support over the holiday, or this student's family can't get him or her to school because they don't have transportation. That's where the heart of serving kids is, it’s at that classroom level,” Barron said.

Gov. Greg Gianforte said stronger communication between schools, churches and community organizations had already helped reduce the number of children in foster care across the state.

“Because of the work of the groups that were in this room, local churches, child Protective services, our adoptive tax credit to recruit, and get kids into permanent loving homes. We've been able to cut the number of kids in foster care in half since I came into office. And that means more kids have permanent, loving homes,” Gianforte said.

Officials said conversations like the one in Kalispell were intended to encourage more communities across Montana to get involved and support children and families in need.

Flathead Valley Community College [link] hosted the roundtable discussion as leaders looked at ways communities could respond earlier and connect families with resources.