February 2022

Quick Facts

• Foster children may use all the privacy and security options on the Requirements page for name, address, and birth date. This includes using a first name only, a January 1 placeholder birth date, or a caseworker's address instead of their own current address.
• Foster parents may opt to automatically filter the internet for children aged 13-17

Procedure

1. Name

   The patron may use a first name only, partial name, or other ways to keep their name private. The full name does not need to be entered into the account at all. 

2. Residential address

   If the patron or foster parent wants to use the caseworker's address instead of the current place of residence, enter the caseworker's office address in the Address field. This does not need to be noted in a History field.

3. Birth date

   The patron may use a placeholder birth date of January 1 and their birth year.

4. Changes in filtering levels

   Foster parents may follow the procedures for changing internet filtering levels in Filtering of Internet use.

5. Clearing blocked accounts

If a foster child's account is blocked from use, follow the clear bills/fees guidelines and add a HISTORY note (exp: CLR_PATRON $54.00 EES/CC 10/27/2021). Patrons, foster parents, caseworkers and library staff can call the Contact Center at 503-988-5123 for assistance with larger fees or clearing fees multiple times.

Policy

To ensure foster family confidentiality of personal information, a foster child may use a partial or other name, a placeholder birth date, and a caseworker's or other address as the residential address in the account.

A foster parent who is not the child's legal guardian may set the filtering level of the foster child's internet access. Any disputes about internet filtering will be referred to the child's caseworker for decision.

A foster child may not always have control of their library card or materials and may need to have fees cleared multiple times.

Rationale

Foster children may require extra assistance because they do not always have control of library cards or materials.

Foster families have specific concerns about library use, especially concerning privacy of records, fees due from past use of a library card and internet filtering.

Every effort should be made to help foster children use their library cards.  When children change homes, their education is also disrupted.

A foster child is allowed to use a partial name, place holder birth date, and a caseworker's address in place of residential address to keep foster family personal information, such as address and telephone number, private.

Foster parents are not the legal guardians of the child, but must be able to make decisions for the child's safety and well being, including filtering of internet use.