Step Seven: Reviewing the placement
Once a child moves into foster care, the advocacy role of ACS recedes. Not all placements work out: Children run away, fight with their foster families or stop going to school, so sometimes ACS must find a new home for a child. Children can remain in foster care until they are 21 but may choose to leave at 18.
All foster care placements require regular review by ACS. In cases where the child's family does not contest the removal, the process ends here.
In other cases, where a family seeks the child's return or ACS wants to terminate parental rights and put the child up for adoption, the case moves into Family Court.
Photo by J. Murphy/Caption by Helen Zelon
