Foster Care Terms A - C

Foster Care Terms D - I

Judicial Review: When the progress of the parents and the child is reviewed by the court to decide the safest place for the child to live. Within 12 - 18 months of the child entering foster care there must be a Judicial Review.

Juvenile Court: Is a district court system that only handles matters that affect children under the age of 18.

Life Book: Kind of like a baby book that geared towards older children. It is a place to keep all her milestones, events, pictures, medical information, etc. about his or her time in foster care. In some states or area child welfare and/or the court system requires the foster child to have a life book.

Notice of Hearings: This is a notice telling everyone involved when and where the hearing will take place (includes people like parents, attorneys, GALs and your caseworker).
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Permanency Planning: A caseworker coordinates services for the youth and family to fix the problems that has caused the child to be placed into foster care. Finding a long term placement is the goal, which may include returned the care of biological parents, being placed up for adoption or long term foster care.

Respite Care: Is temporary care for foster children, kind of like babysitting but with all the guidelines, background checks, etc.

Reunification: Is a plan to reunite the family back together after the biological parents address the problems that caused their children to be place into foster care. In most case this is the first goal when removing children.

Surrogate Parent: More or less a foster parent. In school settings this is the label that foster parents are referred to. In the school setting a surrogate parent can make educational decisions for the foster child. Some therapy may have you sign paperwork other than using the title foster parent.

Termination of Parental Rights (TPR): When family reunification has been failed then Child Welfare may petition the court for termination of parents’ rights to the child or children. When rights are terminated by the court then the child is free for adoption and the biological parents have no more legal rights to the child.

I think this covers the terms used in foster care. If I think of some more I will post them at that time. Hopefully addressing the terms that are thrown around the foster care system will help you understand what is going on and keep you on the same page with the caseworkers.