Writing for Teenagers in Foster Care about their Legal Rights

Teenagers in foster care need to know what rights they have. Writing for teenagers in foster care about those rights is, to say the least, challenging. The writer must be thoroughly familiar with the law, be succinct, and be deeply in touch with the gamut of emotional aspects of the lives of their audience. The successful writer cannot be judgmental or patronizing and must be keenly aware that teenagers are in constant motion – alternating between feeling vulnerable and invincible, inconsequential and essential. The perspective needs to be honest and real-life. It is no easy task to convey adult information and wisdom. It requires the writer ...

Supervised Visitation and the Role of Human Service Departments

Supervised child visitation can be indicated in cases involving custody; shared parenting; grandparent custody or visitation; divorce; legal separation; post-decree matters; emergency custody situations; abuse/neglect/dependency cases; concerns about parental abduction; and, reintroduction of a parent after a long absence.

Child visitation can be restricted or denied if a court finds that allowing regular visitation would endanger a child's physical or emotional health. In numerous situations, courts may order child visitation by stipulating how often visits are to occur, with whom, and whether the visits are to be supervised by a human services employee or some other responsible adult. If there are protection and safety concerns the visits are supervised.

Such supervised visits also provide an opportunity for workers to observe and document parent-child interactions.

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Emerging Adults as Foster Parents

In New Jersey, you can be a foster parent before you’re able to buy a cigarette. The minimum age to be buy cigarettes–19; the minimum age to be a foster parent–18. In Alabama, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, and New Jersey, you can be a foster parent before being able to purchase alcohol. The Child Welfare Information Gateway, in its document, The Home Study Requirements for Prospective Foster Parents (2010) reports that, “Adults of any profession and background may apply to be foster parents. In approximately 35 States and the District of Columbia, the foster parent applicants must be at least age 21. ¹ In four States, the applicant must be at least age 18. ² In Alabama and Nebraska, the parent must be at least age 19 (p.2).” Foster parents are the primary care providers for the vast majority of children in state custody. While acknowledging that available foster placements have not kept pace with demand, is there any hesitation in tapping young adults to be foster parents?

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Coercion and Child Protective Services Investigations

Knock, knock. Child protective services. The key role of the child protective services (CPS) investigator is to determine if a child is at risk of harm. When a child is in immediate danger, CPS and/or law enforcement work to ensure the child's safety. Often a safety plan is developed which will keep a child safe at home. When that is not possible the child may be taken into protective supervision. If the unequivocal assessment indicates a high risk of danger everyone agrees that the child may be removed on an emergency basis. When that determination is not so certain, and the evidence is not incontrovertible, the investigator may nonetheless believe ...

Calculating Damages in Negligence Lawsuits against Departments of Human Services

[raw] Governments, be they city, county, state, tribal or federal, administer a wide range of social welfare services and have a duty to properly discharge those obligations. Professionals hired by government agencies, regardless of the tasks they do, are expected to exercise a reasonable degree of skill and care in their work. When a department of human services is legally negligent in delivering or overseeing those services, our tort system is designed in some cases to allow victims to make claims against it. Of course, negligence is a technical legal concept; not every failure or error made by a department worker will be negligent. There are ...

Emergency removal of a foster child – the foster parents’ rights

With 1,200 children entering foster care each day (Children’s Defense Fund, 2010, p. xv) 1 , it’s bound to happen—seemingly, the foster home and the foster child are just not a good match for each other. Let’s envision three scenarios: The foster parents notice that the foster child appears to have an unusual fascination with fire. The medical needs of the foster child are far more demanding than the foster parents feel they can handle. The foster parents think there may be sexual activity between the foster child and their biological children. In the above situations, if the foster parents request the emerge...

Contacting former spouses as part of the adoption and foster home study process

Selecting an adoptive or foster placement for a child is a major decision that has lifelong ramifications. There are numerous factors an agency must consider before approving the suitability of the placement. A comprehensive assessment of the applicant will include the applicant’s strengths, skills, training needs, areas for improvement, and family circumstances.During the home study process personal inquiries are made, many of which may seem intrusive. One possible inquiry is: Should, may, or must the former spouse of a prospective adoptive or foster parent be contacted by the agency as part of the home study process? Researchers estimate that ...

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