One year is a long time in the life of a child. ASFA’s guidelines to achieve permanence within “child time” are critical and should be followed.
Foster care is, or should be, temporary. Foster care must not be allowed to become a way of life. Extended foster care is damaging to children.
Get started immediately. Shorten to five days the time lapse between the removal of the child and a preliminary plan with specifics for the child’s return.
Inactivity on the part of the caseworker or the child’s parents is not acceptable. This perpetuates extended foster care.
Reunification and adoption are the only two roads to permanence. While ASFA allows for kinship care and “permanent” legal guardianship as alternate permanency plans, they are not permanent solutions.
Concurrent planning and cooperative adoption can help avoid delays in achieving permanence. Concurrent planning provides a backup plan. Cooperative adoption allows for voluntary terminations by creating the opportunity for post-adoption contact.
Older foster children are less likely to be adopted. New ways of recruiting permanent homes for children over 10 must be found. Instead of accessing the usual pool of potential adoptive parents, ask the child who he relates to. Then contact that person.
Bonding takes precedence over kinship. Strong relationships and potential lifetime commitments are more valuable to the child than are blood ties. The marriage bond is one good example of the precedence of bonding over kinship.
Foster parents who have had the child for a year or more should be given legal standing. They have the best 24/7 knowledge of the child and are the ones most likely to adopt. They should have a voice in the arena where decisions are made.
Every child has the right to a permanent home. As ASFA makes clear, the child’s rights are paramount. The primary consideration must not be the adult’s right to ownership but the right of the child to a permanent home.
Indefinite and unmonitored foster care can generate a nightmare of angry and saddened lives, producing children and adults who take out their instability on society. Or foster care can heal and improve the lives of children, presenting society with a gift, our hope for a better future. Having removed them from an abusive home, society is obliged to provide a better one. The welfare departments and courts must feel the urgency of children in vital need of safe and loving families to change ineffective laws and policies. Every child has the right to a permanent home.