Senate Bill 1360 would allow adoptive parents and birth relatives the option of entering into a post-adoption contact agreement as part of the adoption decree so that a child's connection with siblings, grandparents, etc can be preserved. About ten years ago the federal government asked states to amend their adoption statute to authorize voluntary post-adoption contact agreements in an effort to promote further adoption from foster care. This is because many youth in foster care resist adoption out of fear of losing all contact with birth relatives once the parental rights of their parents are severed. This is an option that families have in 23 states.
The Children in Foster Care Act – HB 2338 – offers Pennsylvania a unique opportunity to improve the services provided to children in foster care, with no new state costs. The Act takes steps to ensure that children and their caregivers are fully informed by providing easy-to-understand information detailing the protections in place for children as well as a common grievance procedure.
RECOMMENDATION 1:
Require county children and youth agencies to engage in family finding efforts — the diligent search and recruitment of relatives and extended kin including both maternal and paternal family members in order to keep children safely in their family networks. |
RECOMMENDATION 2:
Assure that all families involved in the child welfare system have the opportunity to engage in family conferencing — a process that helps families identify resources, identify challenges, and develop action plans to address the underlying reasons the family has become known to the child welfare system or reason the child is not safe. |
RECOMMENDATION 3:
Enact child welfare financing that increases funding for in-home and community-based services and provides financial incentives to improve child and family safety, permanency and well-being outcomes. |
RECOMMENDATION 4:
Create a legal means to establish formal and enforceable post-adoption contact agreements between birth and adoptive families in cases deemed appropriate by the courts. |
RECOMMENDATION 5:
Allow the courts to reverse the termination of parental rights for a child who remains in foster care without another permanent family for three or more years when deemed appropriate and when will aid in successful reunification with the birth family. |
RECOMMENDATION 6:
Assure that children in foster care and their birth parents receive appropriate legal representation: |
RECOMMENDATION 7:
Require a minimum of three-month permanency review hearings by the courts for all children in foster care. |
RECOMMENDATION 8:
Establish a foster care bill of rights for children including: |
RECOMMENDATION 9:
Increase the use of reunification, adoption and legal guardianship as permanency goals for children in foster care and create criteria which limit and decrease reliance on the permanency goals of emancipation and long-term foster care (Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement). |
RECOMMENDATION 10:
Require county children and youth agencies to collect and annually report information on the race and ethnicity of children and families at the point of referral, investigation and acceptance for child welfare services. |
