Permanency Planning for Foster Youth

Programs that help children in the child welfare system locate and maintain lifetime family connections. Permanence should bring physical, legal and emotional safety and security within the context of a family relationship and allow multiple relationships with a variety of caring adults while ensuring that youth in care have life skills for independence. Permanence can be the result of preservation of the family; reunification with birth family; or legal guardianship or adoption by kin, fictive kin, or other caring and committed adults. It also includes efforts to achieve and maintain other lifelong relationships such as with siblings, extended family members, mentors and childhood friends.