Do foster parents have any input regarding medications?

Case workers do not medicate kids, Doctors do.

I have had 100% discretion over what meds my foster kids are taking, including going to another Dr for a second opinion. If i want to live with a manic unmedicated bi-polar child they would allow me too, however some conditions DO need medication for the kid to function. I'm talking severe disorders not ADHD.

I do not believe that foster kids are ever used to test any medication!! A foster parent should be a spokesperson for the child ----and most all of them are! The directions are NOT mandated by the caseworker. SHE has nothing to do with it. Once the doctor prescribed the medication and APPROVAL has been sought and granted by the state person responsible for this approval -then the child must stay on it til the doctor says it's no longer needed and the state person agrees.

Yes, they can demand medication. However, if social services already has the kid on medication, they cannot remove them from it unless the doctor says so. The only way my fellow foster parent was able to get her foster son off the meds was by adopting him. Many kids are not released for adoption, so are stuck in the med cycle.

Yes, they do. The foster parent must however, fight the system and understand that children should not be medicated because they are kids (AD/HD over diagnosis being one culprit) They are also being prescribed adult meds that kids should not be given. Anti-sycotics should not be given to a child so they are comatose rather than just energetic. It makes me sad that a parent, foster or not cannot recognize the difference or maybe doesn't even care and wants a placid child.

not till they adopt them.