PRIDE Training in North Dakota: What to Expect Before You Start

Plenty of families start the North Dakota foster care process without realizing that there are 27 hours of mandatory training standing between them and a license. PRIDE — Parents Resource for Information Development and Education — is the pre-service training curriculum used by every state in the country, but the way North Dakota delivers it, and the specific local realities it covers, make it worth understanding before you commit.

Here's what the training actually involves, how to find a cohort that works for your schedule, and what happens if you're a kinship caregiver who doesn't have time for the full sequence.

What PRIDE Is and Who Runs It

PRIDE is a nationally standardized curriculum designed to help prospective foster and adoptive parents understand what they're actually taking on — not just procedurally, but emotionally and practically. It was developed by the Child Welfare League of America and has been adapted by individual states.

In North Dakota, PRIDE training is coordinated by the UND Children and Family Services Training Center (CFSTC), based in Grand Forks. The CFSTC doesn't just run training for foster families — it manages continuing education for the state's child welfare workforce — so it has a broad reach and a consistent curriculum.

The training is free for prospective foster parents. There is no cost to complete PRIDE in North Dakota. The state covers the curriculum because it needs licensed families, and removing financial barriers is one way to avoid losing good candidates.

The Nine Sessions: What You'll Cover

The standard North Dakota PRIDE course is structured as nine sessions of three hours each — 27 hours total. Sessions are typically held weekly or bi-weekly, though the schedule varies by cohort and location.

The nine sessions address the following competency areas:

1. Protecting and Nurturing Children — The foster parent's core responsibility and what "safety" means in a child welfare context
2. Meeting Developmental Needs and Addressing Developmental Delays — How trauma affects development, and what you might see in a child who's been in care
3. Supporting Family Relationships — Why birth family contact is a priority, not an afterthought
4. Connecting Children to Lifetime Relationships — Permanency planning, the team approach, and concurrent planning
5. Working as a Member of a Professional Team — Collaborating with case managers, courts, and biological family
6. Loss and Attachment — Arguably the most emotionally demanding session; covers grief, attachment theory, and the layers of loss foster children carry
7. Cultural Competency and Identity — Particularly important in North Dakota given the state's Native American child population
8. Discipline Without Corporal Punishment — North Dakota prohibits physical discipline for foster children; this session covers what alternatives look like
9. Documentation and the Child's Life Book — Practical record-keeping and why it matters for the child's future

The Loss and Attachment session tends to be the one families find most confronting. North Dakota's research on applicant dropout rates shows that families who are unprepared for the emotional weight of this content sometimes disengage from the process. Going in knowing it's coming makes a difference.

Finding a Cohort in Your Area

North Dakota's geography creates real logistics challenges. The state has eight Regional Human Service Centers — in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks, Minot, Jamestown, Dickinson, Devils Lake, and Williston — and PRIDE cohorts are typically tied to these regional hubs.

For families in the eastern corridor (Fargo, Grand Forks), in-person cohorts are frequent enough that scheduling is relatively straightforward. For families in western and central North Dakota, including the Bakken oil region around Williston and Dickinson, it's more complicated.

Virtual and hybrid options now exist. The CFSTC has expanded its virtual PRIDE offerings specifically to accommodate rural families and shift workers. If you're working a 14-days-on, 14-days-off rotation in the oil field, a virtual cohort that meets on a rolling schedule is more realistic than driving four hours to Minot on a Tuesday evening.

To find current cohort dates, check the CFSTC calendar at und.edu/cfstc or call 1-833-FST-HOME. A Recruitment and Retention Specialist can tell you which cohorts are available in your region and whether virtual options fit your schedule.

The Mandatory Information Meeting First

One thing that trips up some applicants: PRIDE training cannot begin until you've attended an Information Meeting (sometimes called an Orientation Panel). This is a separate, mandatory one-hour session — typically held monthly in a virtual format — where prospective foster parents hear from a panel of licensed foster parents and a licensing specialist.

The Information Meeting is not a screening. You can't be rejected at this stage. But it is a requirement, and starting PRIDE before completing the Information Meeting means you'll have to redo the process. Call the inquiry line first, complete the Information Meeting, then begin training.

Documentation After Completion

When you complete all nine PRIDE sessions, the CFSTC issues a training transcript. This document goes directly into your licensing file. If you miss a session — even one — you'll typically need to wait for the next cohort offering that specific module or arrange a makeup. There's no "test out" option for individual sessions.

This matters practically because North Dakota's licensing timeline is typically three to six months from inquiry to license. Missing a PRIDE session and waiting for the next cohort offering can easily add another four to six weeks to that timeline.

What Kinship Caregivers Do Instead

If you're a relative caregiver — a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or fictive kin who already has a child placed with you in a crisis situation — the state offers an Abbreviated PRIDE option. This is a three-hour version of the curriculum that covers the essentials needed for a kinship placement, rather than the full 27-hour course.

Abbreviated PRIDE is not a shortcut to full foster care licensure. If you want to accept unrelated foster placements in the future, you'll eventually need the full sequence. But for relatives who need to be licensed quickly so a child can remain in a family placement, the abbreviated version allows the process to move faster without the full time commitment.

After PRIDE: What Comes Next

PRIDE is one piece of the licensing process, not the whole thing. You'll also need to complete your background check (FBI fingerprinting plus North Dakota BCI and child abuse registry checks), submit your application forms, and go through the home study — a physical inspection of your home and a series of interviews with a CFS licensing specialist.

The full roadmap for becoming a licensed foster parent in North Dakota, from your first inquiry call through your first placement, is at /us/north-dakota/foster-care/.

PRIDE training is where most families first get a real, honest look at what fostering involves. Going in prepared makes it an education rather than a shock.

See more United States guides →