Abstract
This chapter provides a review and analysis of the “best interests of the child” standard in foster care policy and practice. Specifically, we discuss whether and how the “best interests” standard is applied to decisions about whether children enter foster care, where they are placed, and how they exit foster care. We assess concerns about the subjectivity of the “best interests” standard and provide examples of how policy has created barriers to acting in children’s best interests. In doing so, we highlight the distinction between policies and practices that benefit the typical or average foster child versus decision making that accounts for the needs and circumstances of individual children.
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Notes
- 1.
According to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System data, 15.3% of foster care entries in FY2000 appeared to be solely due to child behavior, child substance use, or child disability (i.e., no child maltreatment-related reasons were identified); in 2017, these reasons accounted for only 6.8% of entries. In some states, these types of entries continue to account for upwards of 20% of all removals. The extent to which these children differ in their needs, experiences, and outcomes is not clear—some studies, such as the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), do not include them at all. Other studies using state administrative data or other surveys of foster youth do not differentiate between youth entering for reasons of maltreatment and youth entering for other reasons.
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Font, S.A., Gershoff, E.T. (2020). Current Use of the “Best Interests of the Child” Standard in Foster Care Policy and Practice. In: Foster Care and Best Interests of the Child. SpringerBriefs in Psychology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41146-6_2
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