Permanency Planning and Adoption Flashcards

When conducting a permanency planning meeting, which party's voice is considered most essential to include?

Answer: The child, in an age-appropriate manner

Child-centered permanency planning requires that the child's own wishes and perspectives be included in a developmentally appropriate manner as a central component of decision-making.

Which of the following is a primary reason why sibling groups are kept together during permanency planning when possible?

Answer: Sibling relationships provide continuity, attachment, and emotional support

Maintaining sibling connections supports children's emotional well-being, identity, and attachment, which are critical to healthy development and adjustment to permanency.

What is an 'open adoption' arrangement?

Answer: An adoption in which adoptive and birth family members maintain some form of ongoing contact

Open adoption involves agreed-upon contact or communication between the adoptive family and the birth family after the adoption is finalized.

A child welfare worker learns that a child in foster care has lived with their current foster family for two years and has developed a strong attachment. According to best practice, how should this be weighted in permanency planning?

Answer: The child's attachment and established relationships should be considered as a significant factor in determining the permanency goal

Best practice in permanency planning requires considering the child's established attachments and relationships as significant factors alongside legal considerations and birth family reunification efforts.

What is the primary purpose of an Adoption Subsidy (also called Adoption Assistance)?

Answer: To help families adopt children with special needs who might otherwise remain in care

Adoption assistance programs provide financial and medical support to encourage families to adopt children with special needs, reducing barriers to permanency for harder-to-place children.

Which federal act established the framework requiring states to make 'reasonable efforts' both toward family reunification and toward finalizing a permanent placement?

Answer: Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)

ASFA clarified that 'reasonable efforts' apply both to preventing removal and achieving reunification, and also to finalizing an alternative permanent placement when reunification is not possible.

During a permanency review, a judge determines that returning a child home is not possible and adoption is the goal. What is the child welfare worker's next required step?

Answer: File a petition for termination of parental rights if not already filed

Once adoption is established as the permanency goal and reunification is ruled out, the worker must ensure a TPR petition is filed to free the child legally for adoption.