Get Involved in Your Permanency Plan

You have a right and a responsibility to share your thoughts with the adults in your life about where you want to live and the people you can go to for support. Watch these videos and visit these websites to learn how you can help decide what your plans are for life after foster care.

Most of these examples are from specific States, so the information may be different where you live. Ask your caseworker for help that is specific to your State or county.

Spotlight On

Youth Participation in Planning: Why It Matters
Research and Training Center at Portland State University
Offers a video in which youth describe, in their own words and with stories from their own lives, what it feels like not to have any say in the plans that are made for their treatment, care, education, and future.

Iowa's Blueprint for Forever Families (PDF - 213 KB)
Iowa Children's Justice State Council & Iowa Department of Human Services Child Welfare Advisory Committee (2011)
Describes a framework for achieving permanency for all foster youth, organized around five key areas: family and youth engagement, family preservation, placement and reunification, adoption and guardianship, and transitioning to adulthood.

Know Your Rights: Family Team Conferences (PDF - 30 KB)
The Legal Aid Society (New York, NY) (2010)
Explains how Family Team Conferences (FTCs) bring together youth, their families, and the people working with them to plan for the future. The brochure describes who can attend, what is discussed, when they take place, the permanency planning goal, and the rights and role of youth to participate in FTCs.

Need to Know Series: Adoption Rights for Foster Care Youth Who Are 14 Years Old and Older (PDF - 15452 KB)
New York State Foster Care Youth Leadership Advisory Team (2011)
Describes what adoption means for youth leaving foster care and provides some details on how the adoption process works.

Summit for Youth Permanency
Nebraska Children (2011)
Offers a video in which teens talk about what family and permanency mean to them.

A Teen's Legal Guide to Foster Care in Oregon (PDF - 275 KB)
Juvenile Rights Project, Inc. (2007)
Answers teens' questions about their legal rights in foster care and during court hearings. The brochure addresses teens' rights related to visitation, confidentiality, pregnancy, emancipation planning, money, religion, driving, and complaints about care.

Youth Checklists (PDF - 81 KB)
Alaska Court System, Alaska Office of Public Advocacy, Facing Foster Care in Alaska, & Alaska Office of Children's Services (2010)
Lists decisions that judges need to make and questions judges might ask teens during the following types of hearings: temporary custody, adjudication, disposition, permanency, adoption, legal guardianship, and youth exit or release of custody. These checklists are part of What Am I Doing Here? A Roadmap for Youth in the Alaska Child in Need of Aid System (PDF - 5990 KB)

Youth Rights: Permanency Plans for Youth in Care (PDF - 84 KB)
Juvenile Law Center (2010)
Reviews different permanency options for youth involved in the child welfare system, including adoption, subsidized and unsubsidized permanent legal custodianship, placement with relatives, another planned permanent living arrangement (APPLA) with a permanency resource, and more.