• 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.
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.