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This article examines the failure of the Permanency Bill of New York to address the needs of juvenile delinquents in foster care. It notes the inability of the legislation to adequately effectuate its goal of permanency for foster children while continuing to exclude juvenile delinquents from coverage. It compares the legislation and the permanency hearings of the past, revealing changes that have the potential to reduce the number of children aging out of the child welfare system. In addition, the article suggest solutions that would rectify the weaknesses of the legislation, including an amendment of the law to include juvenile delinquents.

The article discusses foster care reform in New York City. In the midst of the ebbs and flows of child foster care reform, the child is often lost. Politicians and waves of political rhetoric come and go, child advocates burn out, but the problems facing neglected and abused children remain. In response to the ever increasing number of children languishing in foster care, U.S. Congress has adopted two major pieces of legislation within the last twenty-five years: the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 and the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. New York City has also undertaken its own foster care reform. In the 1970s, a number of prominent child advocates raised concerns about the use of foster care as the first, rather than the last, alternative. A child rescue mentality drove many of the child welfare agencies at the time, which almost invariably translated into the removal of children from their homes and placement in foster care. Although well intentioned, this philosophy ignored both the psychological harm of separating children from their families and the fact that children removed from their homes often languished in foster care with little or no hope of being placed in a permanent home.