This legislation makes sure that all agencies give the foster parents consideration as an adoptive resource if the child has been with them for six months. As many of you know, there are times when the children that are in our care move to adoption with out the foster parents being a resource.
This has negative consequences on the children who feel as if they are part of the family, along with the foster parents losing someone from their family that they have grown to love. Although this legislation does not guarantee that the foster parent will be the adopted resource, it is a giant step forward to make sure that they are considered during the adoption process. On behalf of all the Resource Families and 20,000 foster children; we would like to thank all the parties involved in supporting this legislation.
A special thanks to all the members of the General assembly for passing this with a vote of 198-0 and to the Senate that passed it 50-0. We would also like to thank the Department of public Welfare for their continued support to make this bill become a reality.
On November 16, 2005 the Governor signed this piece of legislation into law. The following is an overview of the bill that is now law, the Foster Parent Consideration Act (Act 68).
(1) In cases where a foster family care agency places a child in the care of a foster family, the child's goal has been changed to adoption and the child has resided with that approved foster family for six months or more, the foster parent or parents shall have the right to an interview with the foster family care agency in the event that the foster parent or parents are interested in becoming an adoptive resource for the foster child.
(2) The foster family care agency shall convey the information obtained from the interview of the foster family, in addition to information obtained from the interviews of other prospective adoptive families, to the county children and youth agency for its consideration when making a determination as to placement of the child.
(b) Consideration of other individuals.--If the county agency decides to consider other individuals as potential adoptive parents for the child, the county agency shall document the reasons for such consideration in the child's case record.
(c) Certain concerns not to be considered.--No foster parent shall be denied consideration as an adoptive parent for a child, solely because of concerns regarding an inability to access that individual as a foster parent for other children in the future.
Foster Parent Consideration Act
