Purpose of Foster Care within the Child Welfare System
Foster care serves several important purposes within the child welfare system, primarily focused on the safety, well-being, and permanency of children who cannot remain with their birth families. Foster care provides a safe and stable temporary living arrangement for children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect, or other safety concerns. It ensures that children are placed in environments where their immediate needs for shelter, food, clothing, and medical care can be met. Secondly, foster care serves as a temporary solution while efforts are made to address the issues that led to the child’s removal from their home (Royse & Griffiths, 2020). During this time, social workers and other professionals work with the child’s family to address challenges, provide support services, and create a plan for reunification or alternative permanency options. Subsequently, for children who cannot safely return to their birth families, foster care provides a bridge to permanency through adoption, guardianship, or other long-term placements (Royse & Griffiths, 2020). During their time in foster care, efforts are made to identify and assess potential permanent placements that meet the child’s needs for stability and continuity.
The question of how important it is for a child in foster care to keep in touch with their parents depends entirely on several factors. These factors include the circumstances of the child and their birth family, the quality of the parent-child relationship, the reasons for placement in foster care, and the specific goals of the child welfare plan. One must consider the potential benefits and risks of maintaining contact with birth parents on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the child’s safety, well-being, and best interests.
Further, the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 represents a significant positive shift in child welfare policy in the United States. The ASFA mandated that permanency hearings be conducted within specific timeframes after a child enters foster care (Royse & Griffiths, 2020). Specifically, it required that a permanency hearing be held within 12 months of a child entering out-of-home care. These hearings are essential because they provide an opportunity for the court to review the case, assess progress toward achieving permanency for the child, and make decisions regarding the child’s future placement and care. By establishing this requirement for timely permanency hearings, ASFA aimed to ensure that decisions about a child’s welfare and placement were made promptly and with due consideration for their long-term well-being (Royse & Griffiths, 2020). This provision reflects the Act’s overarching emphasis on expediting the permanency process and minimizing the time children spend in foster care.
Kinship care is when a child is placed in the foster care of a relative (blood or marriage) or an unrelated individual who happens to have a close relationship with the child or family that they can be considered family as well, also known as fictive kin. There are several reasons why kinship care is better than regular foster care. As Information Gateway (2022) notes, these include preserving cultural identity, promoting sibling ties, minimizing the trauma of being uprooted from one’s home, and increasing placement stability.
References
Information Gateway. (2022). Kinship care and the child welfare system. Child Welfare Information Gateway. https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/f_kinshi.pdf#page=2&view=Kinship%20care%20and%20the%20child%20welfare%20system
Royse, D. & Griffiths, A. (2020). Child welfare and child protection: An introduction. Cognella Academic Publishing.
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Question 
Discuss the purpose foster care serves within the child welfare system.
How important do you think it is for children in foster care to keep in touch with their birth parents? Why or why not?
Purpose of Foster Care within the Child Welfare System
What impact did the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 have on the child welfare system?
Define kinship care and how it may be preferable to regular foster care.