CWEL Permanency Planning and Adoption 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which federal law provides financial incentives to states to increase the number of children adopted from foster care?
- Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)
- Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) (Correct answer)
- Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act
- Foster Care Independence Act
Correct answer: Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA)
ASFA created adoption incentive payments to states for increasing adoptions of children from public foster care above a baseline number.
Question 2: What is a Post-Adoption Support Service (PASS) primarily designed to do?
- Monitor adoptive families for compliance with court orders
- Provide financial assistance to adoptive parents for educational expenses
- Offer counseling, respite care, and resources to stabilize adoptive placements (Correct answer)
- Facilitate contact between adopted children and birth families
Correct answer: Offer counseling, respite care, and resources to stabilize adoptive placements
Post-adoption support services provide ongoing counseling, respite, and resources to help prevent adoption disruption and support long-term family stability.
Question 3: What is the difference between 'adoption disruption' and 'adoption dissolution'?
- Disruption occurs before finalization; dissolution occurs after finalization (Correct answer)
- Dissolution occurs before finalization; disruption occurs after finalization
- Both terms refer to the same process at different courts
- Disruption applies to foster care placements; dissolution applies to legal adoptions
Correct answer: Disruption occurs before finalization; dissolution occurs after finalization
Adoption disruption refers to a placement ending before legal finalization, while dissolution refers to a legal termination of an already-finalized adoption.
Question 4: Under the Multi-Ethnic Placement Act (MEPA), a child welfare agency is prohibited from doing which of the following?
- Placing a child across state lines
- Denying or delaying a placement based solely on the race, color, or national origin of the child or prospective parent (Correct answer)
- Placing a child with a family of a different religion
- Requiring background checks for prospective adoptive parents
Correct answer: Denying or delaying a placement based solely on the race, color, or national origin of the child or prospective parent
MEPA prohibits agencies from using race, color, or national origin as the sole basis for denying or delaying foster care or adoptive placements.
Question 5: A child welfare worker is developing a permanency plan for a 9-year-old child. Which principle should guide the selection of the permanency goal?
- The goal that is most cost-effective for the state
- The goal most likely to achieve safety, permanency, and well-being in the least restrictive setting (Correct answer)
- The goal preferred by the foster parents currently caring for the child
- The goal that minimizes contact with the birth family
Correct answer: The goal most likely to achieve safety, permanency, and well-being in the least restrictive setting
Permanency planning must be guided by the child's best interest, aiming for safety, permanency, and well-being while using the least restrictive appropriate setting.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'guardianship' as a permanency option?
- A temporary arrangement until the child can return home
- A legal relationship giving a caregiver parental rights without terminating birth parent rights (Correct answer)
- A process identical to adoption but with a different name
- A court-ordered placement in a group home
Correct answer: A legal relationship giving a caregiver parental rights without terminating birth parent rights
Guardianship is a legal permanency option that grants a caregiver parental authority while birth parents retain some residual legal rights, unlike adoption which fully terminates birth parent rights.
Question 7: The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act extended foster care eligibility to what age?
- 19
- 20
- 21 (Correct answer)
- 25
Correct answer: 21
The Fostering Connections Act allowed states to extend foster care and related services to youth up to age 21 to support successful transition to adulthood.
