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The article discusses the appellate case South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust versus C in which the appellant made an interim care order application against the trust which manages the foster care of his four children in Northern Ireland. Using the Children Order 1995, the trust sued the parents due to disputes over the frequency and structure of their parental contract. A district judge ruled that the appellant does not qualify under the Article 8 of the Order. But the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling of the district judge.

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 the nature of and the laws that govern adoption and foster care in the U.S. It presents an overview with regards to the sexual and gender orientation issues in adoption, and the statutory restrictions for children who are placed in the foster care system. It explains the respective roles of common laws and Safe Haven laws to provide the rights of the biological parents and guardians in child's care. It also discusses the laws that allow parents to relinquish the child custody in a designated center. It also poses the early adoption practice which was called the orphan train movement.

Using ecological theory and a mixed-methods approach, the authors examined family-court interactions for foster care decisions made in Virginia across three policy periods: 1980 to 1993, 1994 to 1997, and 1997 to present (N=95). For the first and last policy periods, quantitative analyses revealed significant differences in the rates at which parental rights were terminated. Differences also existed in termination rates for parents with mental health issues and limited IQs but not for parents with substance abuse issues or those with special-needs children. The best-interests-of-the-child standard and clear and convincing evidence were the primary legal principles used to determine whether to terminate parental rights or to reunify families. Suggestions were made to enhance the understanding of family professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1997, Congress enacted the Adoption and Safe Families Act to increase the rate at which states achieve permanent placements for children in foster care. Despite the Congressional mandate, the rate of permanent placements has lagged. This article discusses the development and implementation of the Post-Termination Project employed by the New Jersey Superior Court—Essex Vicinage to address the rate at which permanent placements are achieved. The Project, which relies upon a multi-agency approach overseen by a single judge, has been successful at increasing the permanent placement rate in the Essex Vicinage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the results of a research project that aimed to identify the criteria upon which a foster care intervention may be considered as having been successful. The aim was to confirm the existence of shared evaluation criteria among the different groups involved in foster care and, moreover, to investigate possible differences in the meaning given to the foster care experience by the different stakeholders. The data collected from six focus groups was analysed in two ways: first, the criteria necessary to evaluate foster care were derived; second, a textual analysis was undertaken to investigate the associations and the frequency of use of some significant terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the existing laws on adoption and foster care in the U.S. referencing issues on gender and sexuality. It presents an analysis on the common law rights of the biological parents and foster care providers and discusses the statutory restrictions involved in the process of placing a child under the foster care system. Moreover, it provides an overview on the difficulties faced by teenagers of different sexual orientation in the foster care institutions as well as the statutory limitations imposed on prospective foster parents on the basis of their sexual orientation. Furthermore, it discusses the provisions under the Safe Haven laws, its specific requirements, and its implication on unmarried biological fathers of the children.

The article focuses on issues surrounding foster care or adoption program in the U.S. The foster care program is created according to laws and upheld by each state. The Congress supplies funds to the program provided that the state abides by its features including disclosure restrictions, abuse reporting and foster home minimum health and safety standards. Certain issues are linked with the program which includes deficiency in the preparation of the children after leaving the program and sexual orientation. Furthermore, the limitations of the adoption program and the rights of biological parents are discussed.

The Adoption and Children Act 2002, due to come fully into force on 30 December 2005, effects a long-needed and radical reform of adoption law. The Act has had a very lengthy gestation and is widely regarded as being long overdue. After setting the reforms in a general historical and policy context, Caroline Ball examines, critically, the main provisions of the Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a pioneer exploration of the elder guardianship experience in Ontario under its new regime, as viewed from the narrow yet important perspective of Ontario's Consent and Capacity Board. Adult guardianship and the elderly; Guardianship law reform in Ontario; Establishment of Ontario's Consent and Capacity Board; Personal profile of the legally incapable.

Addresses issues related to international adoption. Establishment of Adoption Medicine; International adoption process within the U.S.; Medical health of international adoptees; Adoption dissolution and wrongful adoption; Outline of federal legislation addressing international adoption; State's responsibilities toward international adoptees.

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.

Discusses the history of Tennessee's adoption law, showing how certain events led to the enactment of legislation allowing adult adoptees increased access to adoption records. 'Doe v. Sundquist' case; Interests of the adoption triad; Commission to study the adoption laws of Tennessee; Operation of the amended statute.

Focuses on the importance of the 1999 Foster Care Independence Act on young people aging out of the foster care system in the United States. Provisions of the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program; Relevance of the Social Security Act in promoting independence among homeless youth; Effort made by the Covenant House National Advocacy Committee.

The article offers information on several regulations in Scotland concerning children care. Topics covered include the provisions of the Looked After Children Amendment Regulations of 2014 as well as foster care cases addressed by the government. Also mentioned is the case in which parents apply for legal aid for their children.

When a child welfare caseworker is deciding whether or not to remove a child from his or her biological parent or parents and to place the child in foster family care, the worker is making one of the most important decisions in both the parent's and the child's life. What is the foundation for this type of drastic intervention? This article reviews the scientific and clinical knowledge base developed to warrant professional intervention by the child welfare caseworker in this situation Intervention does not appear to have a sufficient scientific or clinical basis in the social work literature to suggest that this is a professional judgment that the child welfare caseworker should be called upon to make. At a minimum, court involvement in the decision-making process is required to provide sufficient justification for state involvement in family life until a firmer base for professional judgment can be demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that widespread planned destruction of client files is taking place in social service centers in the province of Quebec. The destruction of foster care files represents an abandonment of professional principles of social workers due to pressures arising from the increasingly juridical nature of child welfare work. Among the files being destroyed are those concerning family services, adult and elderly services, superior court services, social work services in hospital settings and foster care. Foster care services are provided within the context of child protection services.

The article discusses the suggestions for future research related to kinship care in the U.S. The number of children in foster home placements is increasing. However, not much research has been done in the field. Kinship care offers several potential benefits to children who must be placed. Placement with strangers in an unknown environment is avoided. Kinship care, however, has also raised several concerns. It is also thought that kinship providers are inadequately screened by public child welfare agencies and that the services provided to kinship families are often fewer compared to those provided by nonrelative foster families. From a legal perspective, it is clear that the governmental role and responsibility varies for these different groups of children.

The article discusses the foster care law of Romania. It describes the situation of children who are adopted internationally and those who are left behind. For those who are left behind, suggestions are made regarding how adoption agencies and other international organizations can use Romania's foster care and adoption laws to develop community-based alternatives to institutionalization. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections are prevalent in institutionalized Romanian children.

The article recommends constructive approaches that should be adopted by foster care homes while developing a framework for policies and procedures to respond to child abuse charges to avoid having negative impact on the foster family. Constructive approaches to foster families alleged to have been mistreating children should aim at promoting the prosperity of children in those families. It should strive at helping conserve valued foster home resources, and enhance the quality of foster care service delivery. Instead of focusing singly on examination of specific allegations, the agency's policy and related procedures should focus on all foster families' susceptibility to being reported.

This article concerns issues surrounding family preservation policy. Family preservation is a concept or value that has been stated and restated many times. Although there is no commonly accepted definition, there is general agreement that it means the provision of services to vulnerable families to prevent the out-of-home placement of children and the dissolution of families. There have been many well-intentioned plans to achieve these goals, including the provision of intensive professional assistance that is designed to preserve and strengthen families with children. A proposal emerging from U.S. President George W. Bush's administration, tied to family-preservation efforts, includes cutting funds for federal foster care programs and plowing some, but not all, savings back into programs for preventive services. The purpose is to reduce the need for foster care. The passage of right-to-work legislation was actively supported without noting that the timing of this bill coincided directly with legislation that required the hiring of women and ethnic minorities, thereby contributing to the last hired becoming the first hired. It is important to consider carefully the full implications of the family preservation policy without buying into the nostalgia for and mythology of families that are presented by an administration that has consistently undercut the goals of equality and social justice.

The article focuses on a report from the West German Federal Ministry for Youth, Family and Health Katharina Focke, in which she discussed the role of foster care programs in West Germany and the need for family care. Laws pertaining to youth services are addressed and the role of youth and family in society is examined.

The author examines litigation as a strategy for achieving systems reform and discusses, particularly, litigation related to foster care and the effects that it has had on current practice. She also discusses two theories of foster care litigation that have been advanced to find a basis for agency liability under the Civil Rights Act. Further, she views litigation as having the potential ultimately to assist administrators in securing the resources needed to bring about changes that are desperately needed in the foster care system.

• The presence of parents in their child's life and the possibilities of reunification with them are predicted by. • The quality of the parent–child relationship and the mobilization of parents. • The time factor. • Parents' pathologies and the consequences on their children. • Type of family and family relationship. • It is essential to work intensively with the parents at an early stage to maximise the possibilities of reunification. The aim of this article was to identify factors that may influence the presence of parents and the possibilities of reunification with their foster children. We find that there are 4 main areas that influence the presence of parents in their child's life and the possibilities of reunification with them. - The quality of the parent–child relationship and the mobilization of parents. - The time factor. - Parents' pathologies and the consequences on their children. - Type of family and family relationship. A majority of parents disengage in the first three years of the placement and especially in the first year. It is therefore essential to carry out intensive work with the parents as soon as possible in order to maximise the possibilities of family reunification or, if necessary, to develop a realistic and adapted project for all parties. Parents' drug addiction generates their absence from their child's life. The accumulation of problems among parents also increases their disengagement from their child's life. The work on parenting must include intensive support in solving the personal problems of the parents of children in care. It is therefore essential to work intensively with the parents at an early stag e to maximise the possibilities of reunification on the parents' personal problems and the quality of the parent–child relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a court cases involving care of children in England and Wales. Parents of a 15-year-old boy with severe autism and attention deficit hyperactive disease (ADHD) who has been provided with full-time placement in a residential school filed for a appeal for the looked after status of the boy by the local authority. In another case, a single mother appealed to be given permission to apply to see her son who has been placed for open adoption.

The article presents updates on family law cases in England and Wales. Particular focus is given to the Court of Appeal's ruling on a permission to appeal refusal of leave to oppose the adoption application. In the LB Richmond v. B & W & B & CB case, care orders were applied by the London Borough of Richmond for two children whose mother had a severe alcohol misuse history. The local authority of Plymouth is seeking long-term fostering and adoption for three children in the Plymouth CC v. G (Children) [2010] case.

The article discusses two court cases related to adoption and fostering in England and Wales. In Bury Metropolitan Borough Council versus D, Re unborn baby D, the High Court Family Division ruled that a local authority had no inherent jurisdiction to separate the unborn child of the defendant at birth on the basis of mental instability without notifying the mother. The House of Lords said in R versus the London Borough of Southwark that the homeless plaintiff needs education aside from accommodation under the Children Act 1989.

The article discusses two court cases on adoption and foster care in England and Wales. They include fostering allowance being sought by a woman from the Knowsley Borough Council in caring for her son's girlfriend who is living with them and a couple who denied of their request to adopt the stepsister of their adopted son in Newham, London.

A notable development in child welfare provision in recent decades has been growth in certain jurisdictions of formal kinship care as a type of placement for children needing 'out of home' care. This trend raises the question of why formal kinship care has emerged in such a marked way in this period in some contexts. This paper sets out to explore this issue by investigating the emergence and development of formal kinship care in two neighboring jurisdictions in Europe where it now accounts for a substantial proportion of all care placements in Scotland and Ireland. The paper sets out a conceptual framework that considers the emergence of formal kinship care against the backdrop of the overall care systems in both jurisdictions and the wider set of societal kinship care practices relating to children. It traces key policy developments in the evolution of formal kinship care in both systems. It reviews policy challenges and influences that may help to account for the emergence and current relative importance of formal kinship care. This comparative case study aims to contribute to international debates about the development of formal kinship care. • Formal kinship care (FKC) has emerged as a critical part of many care systems. • FKC is often 'first option' for children who can no longer live with parents. • One in four children in care in Ireland and one in three in Scotland lives in FKC. • Priority for FKC reflects a belief in the value of the child belonging to a wider family. • Policy and legal measures gradually consolidated FKC in Scotland and Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• How treatment foster parents and school agents can work together to promote better outcomes for children in foster care. • An overview of legislation promoting positive outcomes for children in foster care. • A conceptual depiction of how school-parent partnerships can be formed and maintained using Christenson and Sheridan's Four A's Contextual Process, 2001). The parent-school partnership serves as the foundation for attaining educational success for foster children with therapeutic needs. The authors adopt Christenson & Sheridan's 4 A's contextual process to present the conditions and actions required to launch effective partnerships. The school environment can be a haven for treatment foster children to build social connections, develop academic skills, and experience measures of achievement that promote confidence and efficacy. In order to attain better student outcomes; foster parents and school agents must value their respective roles and intentionally collaborate within the guidelines of federal policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Despite a preventive focus, the prevalence of infant placements is relatively high. • There prevalence of infant removal differ considerably across the Nordic countries. • Infant removal in Nordic countries has little attention in legislation and policy. • There is lack of research and guidelines for decisionmakers concerning infant removal. This descriptive policy analysis examines the position of infants' rights in the family service orientated child welfare systems of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden when being placed in out-of-home care. Its focus is on the contexts of, and legal procedures for, removing babies from home into public care. Children under the age of one year are taken into public care mainly through voluntary and emergency measures. Analysis of the development over a decade displays big intra-country differences in the prevalence of infant removal, varying from 2 per 1000 to 8 per 1000. The scant prevalence of public policy, practice guidelines and research indicates that infant removal is in some ways an anomaly, an unspoken leaf in the Nordic child welfare systems, whereas the Nordic welfare states otherwise extensively support families with young children through universal interventions. The findings invite to a re-examination of the rights of infants and their specific needs in the welfare states in order to establish responsive and efficient child protection systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents legal issues on adoption in Scotland as of Summer 2005. Details of the Adoption and Children Act 2002; Comments made by the Second Division of the Court of Session on the effect of contact rights awarded to a parent under section 11 of the Children Act 1995; Publication of the Family Law Bill.

Despite the importance of legal representation to foster youth, few studies have examined perceptions related to this representation. This study investigated foster parent (N = 792) perspectives about the legal representation of foster youth involved in dependency court proceedings. All participants hailed from one southeastern state. Variables of interest included the impact of legal representation of foster care experiences, quality of legal representation, and attorney-youth communication, among others. Findings indicate that participants perceived legal representation to be vitally important to shaping foster care experiences. However, participants expressed a level of neutrality when asked about attorney competence. As well, participants indicated that attorney-youth relationships and communication between attorneys and foster youth were inadequate. This paper discusses findings related to this study and delineates salient practice, policy, and research implications derived from the data. • Foster parents perceived that legal representation is vital the overall experience of foster youth. • Foster parents expressed a level of neutrality when asked about attorney competence. • Foster parents indicated that attorney-youth relationships and communication between attorneys and foster youth were inadequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]