A challenging time in fostering children is during the transition home period. Usually, if the children have been in foster care for at least quite a few months, then extended visitation usually precedes the return home. The children will begin by spending a night or two over the weekend with their parents. The foster parent still has the major portion of responsibility for the children. If the children are in school, then the foster parent will continue to make sure they attend and do their homework. Foster parents will continue to make appointments for the children and take them... more

As strange as it may sound, even foster children are given goals in the reunification plan. The foster children, like their parents, are expected to make progress towards their assigned goals. Their progress is reviewed every 90 days by the court at the review hearings. The goals for the children vary depending on their ages, developmental levels, and needs. It is up to the foster parents and caseworkers involved in the case to assist foster children in achieving most of their assigned goals. This is because most foster children do not have a car or a driver’s... more

Once a child has entered the foster care system a review hearing must be held every 90 days. Information must be submitted to the court at these review hearings about the parents’ progress towards the reunification goals. The reunification goals are established at the beginning of the case, usually when a foster care worker is assigned to the case, after the adjudication hearing. I will cover reunification goals more thoroughly tomorrow in another blog. The child has goals established to achieve while in foster care, as well. The child’s progress towards those goals is reviewed... more

If you have provided foster care for children then you already know that every 90 days the case progress has to be reviewed by the court. If the children remain in care for 12 months then the case progresses to permanency planning status, for the children’s long-term goals. This is because regular foster care is meant to be a short-term answer to family crisis. Many studies have proven that children, who just age out of foster care without either being adopted or returned home, do not fare well in adult society. The courts, in their wisdom, have concluded that within 12 months a family... more

For the public to understand the foster care system and the need for foster care, they must understand the abuse and lives these children have lived. The abuse of children is an ugly and uncomfortable thing to talk about or think about for a lot of people. Some of these things these foster children have endured is unimaginable.

It is a difficult thing for us wrap our minds around that a biological parent would harm and allow others to harm their children. Just because it would be hard for us or uncomfortable for us does not mean thousands of children on a... more

Would foster children be better off left with their biological parents, or other situations that they are removed from, than being placed into foster care? This is a question that everyone hears time to time and one that I have been asked as a foster parent. I am sure that there are a few cases when children have been removed where the biological parents could have possibly received services to address the concerns. For the most part, when foster children are removed there is a just reason for it.

Any child living with a drug addicted biological... more

This is a reply to a comment left here concerning how I, or other foster parents would know that biological parents were not working their plans.

Biological parents not working their plans are not in most cases a top secret thing from the foster parents or other people involved with the foster children. Yes, there are confidentiality rules that people not involved with the case knowing the information. No, for the record I know this information because I hear it from the biological parents mouths as do most other foster parents.

Case... more

Struggling With The Foster Care System

At times trying to deal with stress and issues which comes along with being a foster parent or adopting from foster care can seem like a lot to bear. On occasion, it is natural to wonder why we as foster parents keep enduring all the headaches and stress of dealing with Child Welfare being a daily part of our lives.

If my family had given up when we suffered our first... more

My next few posts will be addressing comments and questions that I have also received through emails. Some questions are a little harder to answer because every state has different laws, every foster care situation is different, and everyone has different thoughts and views.

Reader bjc commmeted: I feel your frustration about how everyone else's rights are served before that child's (and as a foster mom, I have less than zero rights evidently.)... more

Studies are proving that children do better in a foster care setting versus an orphanage or institutional. Really, is this such shocking news. Granted this may go against some people’s views of the desire to do away with foster care and adoption. Children were removed from institutional settings and placed into foster care where once the children were in care, great improvement was seen across the board with the children’s development. The children’s language, social, reasoning, and... more