Carinthia state officials meet foster parents to improve school support

State Councilor Peter Reichmann and other officials met with more than 100 foster parents and children in Velden, Austria, to discuss support systems for children in foster care.

The provincial government aims to recruit more people to become foster parents, offering them a compensation payment for their work. During the meeting, Reichmann explained that officials conduct regular talks with children to monitor their development and needs without their foster parents present.

These sessions occur four times a year, with three of them being mandatory. Participants also discussed the specific challenges foster children face in school. Andrea Primoschitz, a teacher and foster mother, noted that these children often carry complex personal histories that can cause them to act differently or feel insecure. She argued that teachers need better training because foster care dynamics are rarely covered in standard teacher education.

The group emphasized that schools must account for the unique family situations of these children, who often maintain contact with their biological families while remaining under the care of the youth welfare office.