Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family member approved by the state. The placement of the child is normally arranged through the government or a social service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses unless with a family member.
International adoption is a type of adoption in which an individual or couple becomes the legal and permanent parent(s) of a child who is a national of a different country. In general, prospective adoptive parents must meet the legal adoption requirements of their country of residence and those of the country whose nationality the child holds.
The United States Children's Bureau is a federal agency organized under the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. Today, the bureau's operations involve improving child abuse prevention, foster care, and adoption. Historically, its work was much broader, as shown by the 1912 act which created and funded it:
The said bureau shall investigate and report to [the Department of Commerce and Labor] upon all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life among all classes of our people, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth-rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertion, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting children in the several states and territories.
In the United States, adoption is the process of creating a legal parent-child relationship between a child and a parent who was not automatically recognized as the child's parent at birth.
Boys & Girls Aid is a non-profit organization that provides services to children in crisis in the state of Oregon, United States.
The Adoption and Safe Families Act was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 19, 1997, after having been approved by the United States Congress earlier in the month.
Special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to describe individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. Guidelines for clinical diagnosis are given in both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International Classification of Diseases 9th edition. Special needs can range from people with autism, Asperger syndrome, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, dyslexia, dyspraxia, blindness, deafness, ADHD, and cystic fibrosis. They can also include cleft lips and missing limbs. The types of special needs vary in severity, and a student with a special need is classified as being a severe case when the student's IQ is between 20 and 35. These students typically need assistance in school, and have different services provided for them to succeed in a different setting.
The Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) of British Columbia, Canada is the child protection service across the province and is provided through 429 ministry offices in 5 regions and a number of delegated Aboriginal agencies. The child protection staff are supported by the provincial office of the Child Protection Division.
The wraparound process is an intensive, individualized care management process for youths with serious or complex needs. Wraparound was initially developed in the 1980s as a means for maintaining youth with the most serious emotional and behavioral problems in their home and community. During the wraparound process, a team of individuals who are relevant to the well-being of the child or youth collaboratively develop an individualized plan of care, implement this plan, and evaluate success over time. The wraparound plan typically includes formal services and interventions, together with community services and interpersonal support and assistance provided by friends, kin, and other people drawn from the family's social networks. The team convenes frequently to measure the plan's components against relevant indicators of success. Plan components and strategies are revised when outcomes are not being achieved.
Family preservation was the movement to help keep children at home with their families rather than in foster homes or institutions. This movement was a reaction to the earlier policy of family breakup, which pulled children out of unfit homes. Extreme poverty alone was seen as a justified reason to remove children. This new movement began in the 1890s, and in the 1909 White House Conference on Children it was the top ranked issue. In order to keep families together, the family would be given enough money so that the mother would not have to work a full-time job. The families that were given this assistance were usually headed by widows.
The Center for Development of Human Services (CDHS) was a sponsored nonprofit program of the Research Foundation of the State University of New York located at Buffalo State College. CDHS/ Research Foundation began in 1976 when a small group of Buffalo State College faculty was successful in obtaining a $100,000 social services training grant to provide instruction to those employed in the field of social work. The Social Services Training Project, as it was then called, evolved into CDHS/Research Foundation, now a nationally recognized provider of human services training. CDHS/Research Foundation used to manage over 30 human services training projects representing $50 million in grant-funded activities that serve the residents of New York State and was the largest such provider in the state. From 1999 to 2010, under the leadership of Robert Spaner, Project Director and Principal Investigator, CDHS expanded from a $16 million operation with under 100 staff to a $60 million Center with 400 staff and 40 separate projects. In April, 2010 Mr. Spaner retired. CDHS used to be headquartered in Buffalo, with satellite offices in Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, and New York City. A large number of CDHS staff worked with state and local government agencies statewide.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 was an Act of Congress in the United States signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 7, 2008. It was previously unanimously passed in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate. The law made numerous changes to the child welfare system, mostly to Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, which covers federal payments to states for foster care and adoption assistance. According to child welfare experts and advocates, the law made the most significant federal improvements to the child welfare system in over a decade.
Keeping Families Together is a program of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) that aims to provide supportive housing to vulnerable families in order to enhance children’s safety and help prevent foster care placement. It brings together affordable housing with other social services and city agencies to help families with issues like substance abuse, medication management, parenting skills and career counseling.
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in an institution, group home, or private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent". The placement of the child is usually arranged through the government or a social-service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is provided compensation for expenses.
Utah Foster Care (UFC), formerly "Utah Foster Care Foundation" is a non-profit organization that provides foster families for the State of Utah. Since its founding, UFC has played a role in caring for young children who have been subjected to abuse, neglect, and other hardships by their caretakers. As of 2013, at any given time in Utah, there are about 2,700 children experiencing crisis in the home who are in need of foster care. Nearly half of all cases involve substance abuse by biological parents. Given the difficult circumstances and special needs of these children, UFC's goal is to find and prepare foster parents to meet those needs.
KVC Health Systems, Inc. (KVC) is a private, nonprofit child welfare and behavioral healthcare organization. When Kansas became the first U.S. state to privatize its child welfare services in 1996, it selected KVC to be one of the service providers. As of 2018, KVC Kansas remains the only original contractor that is still providing these services. KVC has provided foster care case management services longer than any other private organization in the U.S.
Adoption in the Philippines is a process of granting social, emotional and legal family and kinship membership to an individual from the Philippines, usually a child. It involves a transfer of parental rights and obligations and provides family membership. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) defines adoption as a "socio-legal process of giving a permanent family to a child whose parents have voluntarily or involuntarily given up their parental rights."
The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act is a US bill that would address federal adoption incentives and would amend the Social Security Act (SSA) to require the state plan for foster care and adoption assistance to demonstrate that the state agency has developed policies and procedures with respect to the children it is working, and which are (possibly) a victim of sex trafficking or a severe form of trafficking in persons. The bill furthermore requires states to implement the 2008 UIFSA version, which is required so the 2007 Hague Maintenance Convention can be ratified by the US.
The New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) is a governmental agency that protects and promotes safety and well-being of New York City's children and families by providing child welfare, juvenile justice, and early care and education services.
The Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (AACWA) was enacted by the US Government on June 17, 1980. Its purpose is to establish a program of adoption assistance; strengthen the program of foster care assistance for needy and dependent children; and improve the child welfare, social services, and aid to families with dependent children programs. This act amended titles IV-B and XX of the Social Security Act.
