1. A federally funded child-welfare program providing substitute care for abused and neglected children who have been removed by court order from their parents’ or guardians’ care or for children voluntarily placed by their parents in the temporary care of the state because of a family crisis. 42 USCA §§ 670–679a. • The state welfare agency selects, trains, supervises, and pays those who serve as foster parents. [Cases: Infants 226. C.J.S. Adoption of Persons §§ 10–12.]
long-term foster care. The placing of a child in foster care for extended periods, perhaps even for the child’s entire minority, in lieu of family reunification, termination and adoption, or guardianship. • Although most courts do not generally find this arrangement to be in a child’s best interests, sometimes it is the only possibility, as when the child, because of age or disability, is unlikely to be adopted or when, although the parent cannot be permanently reunited with the child, limited contact with the parent would serve the child’s best interests. Under the Adoption and Safe Families Act, long-term foster care is the permanent placement of last resort.
2. The area of social services concerned with meeting the needs of children who participate in these types of programs. [Cases: Infants 17. C.J.S. Infants §§ 8–9.]
