ABSTRACT
Infants with verified drug exposure presented with significantly more health and caregiving needs, had fewer biological parent visits, and were more frequently placed with relatives after family foster care. The experience of a large, metropolitan foster family agency in caring for infants from 1990 through 1997 suggests that family foster care in the next century may be impacted in several ways. Requiring the biological parents and relatives of the child in family foster care to accompany their child to medical or diagnostic appointments and to intervention programs may also increase involvement and visits. Although infants with verified drug exposure did not score significantly better or worse in cognitive functioning than other infants in family foster care, the group as a whole scored in a range that placed them at heightened risk of later significant developmental delay. Cocaine was predominate as the drug affecting infants placed in family foster care.
