ABSTRACT
This chapter explores policy and program design issues with respect to family reunification, adoption, and guardianship for children of different ages. The Fostering Connections Act includes a number of important provisions that are intended to shape state-subsidized guardianship policies. After a long hiatus in trying to develop adoption preservation services, new efforts to improve post-permanency outcomes are emerging. Family Finders is an intensive relative search model with the ultimate goals of achieving permanency and supporting enduring family connections for children in the foster care system. Permanency planning legislation provides grounds to free many children for adoption, but agencies have been slow to implement the specifics of the legislation, and many barriers to placement and permanence remain. The child welfare services response to the parents has often been to test them beyond their limits by returning their children home without significant after-care services or to terminate their parental rights and forever sever their family bonds.
