Overview

Services provided to children and their families may include counseling and treatment, daycare, medical, education, employment, family planning, independent living, housing, respite care, legal, socialization, and recreation services. Independent living services are services provided to older foster children to prepare them for transition into adulthood.

To achieve permanency for children in foster care the welfare of the child is of paramount interest and children have the right to a safe, stable, and permanent home. Children have a right to be reared by their families when their parents and relatives are able to do so in an adequate manner. Recognizing that some families are unable or unwilling to resume their parenting responsibilities, services should be provided to ensure a safe, stable, and permanent home.

This should be done by placement of the child with relatives accompanied by a transfer of legal custody, adoption, or by placement in a permanent foster home. When selecting a foster or adoptive family for a child, cultural, ethnic, and racial background may be considered as one of a number of factors in determining the best interest of the child.

Federal and State law requires that reasonable efforts are made to prevent or eliminate the need for the removal of the child from the home and to make it possible for the child to be returned home. Reasonable efforts are efforts to provide services to children and their families utilizing community resources with the goal of preserving family unity. 

They include efforts to prevent or eliminate the need for the removal of a child from their home and to reunite the child with their family. At the time of the initial court hearing to commit a child to the custody of the agency, a judicial determination must be made as to whether reasonable efforts have been made.

After an agency receives custody of a child they must document reasonable efforts to reunify the child and family or achieve a permanent placement for the child. 

During the temporary placement in foster care, a range of services is offered to children and parents designed to improve conditions and return the child home or identify other permanency options for the child such as relative placement or adoption.

Exceptions to the requirement to make a reasonable effort to reunite children with a parent are when:

• The parental rights of a sibling of the child in foster care have been previously involuntarily terminated.
• The parent has been convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter, or a felony attempt, conspiracy, or solicitation to commit such an offense against a child of the parent, a child with whom the parent resided, or the other parent of the child.
• The parent has been convicted of felony assault or bodily wounding resulting in serious bodily injury or felony sexual assault of a child of the parent or a child living with the parent. Serious bodily injury means bodily injury resulting in a substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted or obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of a bodily member, organ, or faculty.

For additional information, please use our Request More Information form or contact Kaishanta Hernandez at 757-385-3737 or Laurie Huresky at 757-385-3529.