Foster placement

Abstract

For children who require placement, individual assessment can reveal whether return to the parents, termination of parental rights and adoption, relative placement, transfer of guardianship, or innovative placement and open adoption arrangements, such as the neighborhood program of the Center for Family Life, represents the least harmful option for the child. Nevertheless, certain guiding principles should prevail: psychological continuity of at least one significant nurturing protective adult and decisions based on the least detrimental alternative, according to the child's sense of time.