Quality Parenting Initiative
Louisiana's state plan for diligent recruitment of foster families discusses the state's Quality Parenting Initiative (QPI). QPI is an approach that envisions an entire team – birth parents, foster parents, case workers, state and local child services agency officials, doctors, therapists and judicial workers – all working to create the most stability, the best environment and most of all, the best possible parenting, for the children. QPI recognizes that no one-size-fits-all parent exists. QPI embraces five principles.
Principle 1: Excellent parenting is the most important service to provide to children and youth in care. Children need families, not beds.
Principle 2: Child development and trauma research indicates that children need constant, consistent, effective parenting to grow and reach their full potential.
Principle 3: Each community must define excellent parenting for itself.
Principle 4: Policy and practice must be changed to align with the community definition of excellent parenting.
Principle 5: Participants in the system are in the best position to recommend and implement that change.