Panelists in our recent foster parent webinar reminded us of the federal requirement to either return foster children to their biological families within one year or terminate parental rights.
Unfortunately the substance abuse and mental health problems underlying many child removals frequently take longer than a year to resolve. This means workers are pressured to either send children back to situations that are unchanged, or permanently separate families before parents have time to address their issues. This particularly affects Black and Indigenous families that are disproportionately in the system.
The panelists explored ways to both reunify families and give biological parents more time to prepare for their children’s safe return. One example was to re-start whole family foster care, a program where parents and children move into foster placements together and receive support and coaching to facilitate a successful reunification.
Listen to this week’s blog post, as well as in-depth commentary, on this week’s podcast.