Welcome to Session 7!
Continuing Family Relationships
“Parking Lot”
Are there any questions from
previous sessions that we
can answer now?
Make-Up Dates
If you’ve missed any of these classes, here are the
upcoming training dates for Morris County:
• Tuesdays and Thursdays in September, 6PM-9PM
– September 6th, 8th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 22nd, 27th and 29th
•Mondays and Wednesdays* in November, 6PM-9PM
– November 7th, 9th, 15th, 17th, 21st, 23rd, 28th and 30th
(*Note that the 15th and 17th are Tuesday and Thursday)
There may be dates available in other counties. Check with your
assigned Resource Family Support caseworker for details.
Remember the Core Competencies of PRIDE:
1. Protecting and Nurturing Children
2. Meeting Children’s Developmental Needs and
Addressing Developmental Delays
3. Supporting Relationships Between Children
and Their Families
4. Connecting Children to Safe, Nurturing
Relationships Intended to Last a Lifetime
5. Working as a Member of a Professional
Team
Supplemental Handouts for This Session
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In-class exercise: Help Wanted
Adoption Subsidy Program
Kinship Legal Guardianship (KLG) White Paper
Sample DYFS Part B
Phone list
The Two Jobs of DYFS …
• Intervening in families where there is risk
of abuse or neglect, and providing
services to ensure that children are safe
• To ensure that children have permanent
families
Permanency Means
• Having a sense of one’s past
• Having a legal and social status that
comes from being a family member
• Having safe, nurturing relationships meant
to last a lifetime
Permanency Means
• Connections
The relationships that will give children a
sense of belonging and security
• Continuity
The ability of children to keep connections
to people from their past and to know that
the connections that sustain them today
will be there for them in the future
Importance of Permanent Connections
• Did you feel a sense of belonging to a family while
you were growing up?
• What three words come to mind when you think
about belonging to a family?
• What was the most important contribution to your
development that resulted from belonging to a
family?
• Did you ever worry, while you were growing up,
about who would take care of you?
• Who are the people in your life whom you believe
will be there for you if something happens: if you are
in trouble, get sick or need emotional support?
Importance of Permanent Connections
• Most people take for granted belonging to a family and
being connected to people who will support them.
• Most people assume that their parents would take care
of them.
• A feeling of belonging gives people a sense of history,
roots and culture. It, also, provides us with a feeling of
caring and being cared for, and a sense of identity and
self-esteem.
• The need for people on whom we can rely is not
something that ends in childhood. Most adults continue
to need permanent connections.
The Child’s Clock
• An important value of permanency
practice is that it should be determined by
the “child’s clock” because the child’s
sense of time is different than an adult’s.
• Not only is time experienced differently,
but the same time frame in an adult’s life
has a very different meaning in terms of
development than it does for a child.
The Child’s Clock
18
0
1
17
2
16
3
15
4
5
14
13
6
12
7
11
10
9
8
Think about what it was like
to wait for something exciting
to happen when you were six!
Time seemed to drag on
forever!
The Child’s Clock
Normal Development
- Learning about social relationships
- Learning academic subjects
- Learning job & social skills
- Learning to make good choices
- Learning life skills (driving)
- Forming important attachments
- Experiencing world for 1st time
- Learning to walk & talk
- Learning to trust
18
0
1
17
2
16
3
15
4
5
14
13
6
12
7
11
10
9
8
- Going to school
- Learning to ride a two-wheeler
- Learning to read and write
- Learning to get along w/others
- Learning values
The Child’s Clock
Impact of Placement
18
0
1
17
2
16
Child enters “temporary” care
- Should be developing vocabulary,
social skills, sense of identity
and culture, and exploring
surroundings
3
15
Child achieves permanency
4
5
14
13
6
12
7
11
10
9
8
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
• Federal legislation enacted in 1997
• NJ implementation defined by law
(N.J.S.A. 30:4C-11.1)
• Expands the provisions of the Adoption
Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980
– States must demonstrate commitment to prevention
and reunifications services
• Ensuring a child’s health, safety and timely
permanency are DYFS’ paramount concern
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
• DYFS must demonstrate that reasonable efforts
were made to prevent a placement or state why
they were not possible
• Permanency options include safe return home,
adoption, or “alternative” plan
• When a child is in placement for 15 of 22 months
(about a year), DYFS must present a permanent
plan, which must include termination of parental
rights (TPR) or a statement of why TPR is not
appropriate, if reunification is not likely
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
• In order to terminate parental rights, a
judge must be satisfied that DYFS has met
four specific standards, “based on the
preponderance of the evidence presented”
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
1. The child's safety, health or development has
been or will continue to be endangered by the
parental relationship.
2. The parent is unwilling or unable to eliminate
the harm facing the child or is unable or
unwilling to provide a safe and stable home for
the child and the delay of permanent placement
will add to the harm. Such harm may include
evidence that separating the child from his
foster parents would cause serious and
enduring emotional or psychological harm to
the child.
Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
3. The Division has made reasonable efforts to
provide services to help the parent correct the
circumstances which led to the child's
placement outside the home and the court has
considered alternatives to termination of
parental rights.
4. Termination of parental rights will not do more
harm than good.
Concurrent Planning
• While continuing efforts to reunify a family,
DYFS may explore and prepare for an
alternative plan, such as adoption
• This is called “concurrent planning”
• Concurrent planning is encouraged by
ASFA, which identifies this as a means by
which to achieve “early permanence”
Concurrent Planning Families
• A family that can commit to provide a
permanent home while being able to
support reunification
• This is a family that is committed to the
goal of permanence for the child
Possible Permanency Outcomes
• Return Home is appropriate when children can safely be
returned to the care of their parents.
• Adoption is selected when a termination of parental
rights is achieved, either voluntarily or by trial, and the
child is appropriate for adoption.
• Guardianship with Kin is selected when children can
live permanently with relatives or family friends and
maintain a relationship with their birth family. In NJ, this
is called Kinship Legal Guardianship, and may only be
considered when adoption has been ruled out.
• Alternative Permanent Living Arrangement is utilized
for children with extreme behavioral problems that
prevent them from thriving in a family setting and require
an institutional placement.
Termination of Parental Rights
• Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) can be achieved in
one of two ways:
– As a result of a TPR or “Guardianship” trial, a Family Court
Judge determines that DYFS has met its burden of proof by
satisfying all four ASFA standards, and ORDERS that parental
rights be terminated. In cases where parents are continually
absent from court proceedings and they are not represented by
counsel, a just can terminate and their parental rights by entering
a “default” order.
– Parents can voluntarily surrender their parental rights, and a
judge must ACCEPT their surrender at a court hearing. Parents
can also enter an “identified” surrender, where they identify a
specific caregiver to become the adoptive parent. In the event
that the caregiver is unable to adopt the child(ren) after rights are
terminated, rights are restored, guardianship reverts back to
DYFS and a TPR trial or some other court order must be
obtained before the children can be adopted by another party.
Help Wanted – Resource Parent!
Using the blank paper provided, take a few
moments to design a
“Help Wanted” ad for resource parents.
Be sure to include the competencies
required to fulfill the job and include some
information about the children who would
be placed into their homes.
Remember not to scare people away!!!
Help Wanted – Resource Parent!
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Compare your ad to the “Help Wanted” ad
PRIDEBook Page 250
Why is it necessary to understand this Job
Description for being a resource parent?
What kinds of specific things must a resource
parent do?
What are some challenges or difficulties a
resource parent might face in doing this part of
the job?
How can the resource family use other team
members to help with the task?
Foster Care
Adoption
KLG
Child remains in the custody of DYFS
Yes
No
No
Birth parents’ rights are terminated
No
Yes
No
Caregiving parents can make major decisions for child
No
Yes
Yes
Caregiving parents are financially responsible for child*
No
Yes
Yes
Child can have last name of the family
No
Yes
No
Child has inheritance rights
No
Yes
No
Child is covered by family’s insurance**
No
Yes
Yes
Legal Guardianship can be transferred (by will)
No
Yes
No
Permanency can be challenged by birth parents***
Yes
No
Yes
* Adoption subsidy may be available for certain children considered “hard to place” and continues the
foster care board rate and clothing allowance until the child is 18 (or 21 if attending school). KLG
may include a monthly kinship care subsidy until the child is 18.
** Children in subsidized adoptions and KLG continue to receive Medicaid benefits until age 18 (or 21).
*** Excluding rights of appeal.
One Definition of Adoption
Adoption is a means of meeting the
developmental needs of a child by legally
transferring ongoing parental responsibilities
for that child from the birth parents to
adoptive parents, recognizing that in the
process, a new kinship network is created
that forever links those two families together
through the child.
Adoption Definition
• Did you agree or disagree with the
definition?
• What aspects of the definition did you
agree with?
• What aspects did you disagree with?
Adopted children may have questions.
Do you have the answers?
• Who are my birth parents? Do I have brothers
and sisters? Who are they?
• What do I have in common with my birth family
(appearance, genetic background, talents,
behaviors, good/ bad traits)?
• Why didn’t I grow up with my birth family like
most other kids?
• Am I secure in this family or will my birth family
come someday and take me back?
• Will I ever be able to meet my birth family?
“Parking Lot”
Are there any questions left
unanswered from today’s
session?
CLOSURE
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Review Key Points, PRIDEBook Pages 253-267
Review You Need to Know!, PRIDEBook Pages 268-276
Read Birth Parent’s Perspective, PRIDEBook Page 277
Complete the PRIDE Connection exercise on
PRIDEBook Pages 278-280 (copy in packet)
• Read Making A Difference!, PRIDEBook Page 281-282
• Session 8: Planning for Change
• Session 9: Making an Informed Decision