Placement Options

Once a child has been removed from home, it is the agency’s responsibility to temporarily place him or her in a safe environment. Many possible options may or many not work in specific cases.

Kinship Foster Care

Kinship care placement means, the child lives in a nurturing home environment with persons to whom a close relationship already exists. Kinship providers must become licensed foster parents, however, a child may be placed with a kinship caregiver while completing these requirements.

Kinship care is often preferable to foster care, because in addition to providing safety, it minimizes loss, by maintaining family connections and respecting cultural needs.

Foster Care

Foster care is full-time, temporary care provided by persons other than a child’s parents. Foster care is intended to offer children a supportive, caring environment, when their own parents cannot safely care for them. Children in foster care are generally placed in the custody of the Children and Youth agency by the courts.

Group Homes

An alternative to traditional in-home foster care, in a group home, children reside in an intimate, home-like setting where many unrelated children stay for varying periods of time. The caregivers may be a single set of house parents or a rotating staff of trained professionals. Specialized therapeutic or treatment group homes have specially-trained staff to assist children with emotional and behavioral difficulties. The make-up and staffing of the group home can be adapted to meet the unique needs of its residents.

Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) / Hospital

Residential Treatment or hospitalization is a placement resource for children in need of structured and therapeutic intervention. Children placed in an RTF/hospital setting may be experiencing social, behavioral, educational, and/or emotional problems, unable to function successfully in either a family or the community. Placement is focused on treatment with the hope that the child can transition to family or community care as soon as possible.