Taking a Break: Creating Foster, Adoptive and Kinship Respite in Your Community

This manual was produced as a collaborative effort of the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC), the National Foster Parent Association (NFPA), and the Collaboration to AdoptUsKids. It was produced with funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau. This is a comprehensive guide, covering everything needed to create and manage a respite program. The first three sections outline step-by-step guidelines for designing and implementing respite services: Exploring the Benefits of Respite, Exploring Respite Options, and Developing Your Respite Program. The final section, Forms, contains a large array of sample documents which may be freely adapted to meet the needs of local programs. The forms available include Respite Billing, Emergency Service Authorization, Parent Checklist, Event Evaluation, Respite Provider Agreement, and others.