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Out of Home Placements
The placement of children outside of their homes is a tremendously complex issue that spans multiple needs of children and families, numerous service delivery systems, and a wide array of public policies and family laws.
In general, out of home placement refers to situations where children under the age of eighteen are removed from their homes and placed in another setting for a period of time. The time span varies widely, from a night in detention or emergency shelter care, to years in treatment facilities or foster care. In the most extreme cases, the legal rights of the parents are terminated and the child is permanently removed, and a new, permanent home must be found. Determining why, how and when children should be removed, what should be done to meet their needs once they are outside of their homes, and whether or not to work toward reuniting them with their families or seek new places for them to live are issues at the heart of this matter.
The range of residential placements includes mental health or developmental treatment facilities, group homes, foster homes, detention centers, kinship care (with relatives), correctional facilities, specialized foster homes, and other options.
The Consortium released a policy brief on out of home placement.
University of Minnesota
Resources Related to Out of Home Placements
College
of Education and Human Development/Center for Early Education and Development
Family
Preservation Services--An Alternative to Foster Care
College of Human
Ecology — School of Social Work
Center
for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare
"A
Social Justice Framework for Child Welfare: The Agenda For
the New Century"
Children
in the Shadows: The Fate of Children in Neglecting Families,
edited
by
Esther Wattenberg.
Proceedings of the conference held April 15th, 1994 at the University
of Minnesota
College
of Human Ecology — School of Social Work
Center
for Rural Sociology and Community Analysis
Out
Of Home Placements: Assessing the Needs and Assets of Children,
by Darío Menanteau, Ronald L. Pitzer, Susan S. Meyers and
Brian K. Rabe.
Summary
This research study in four rural Minnesota counties was funded
by the Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth project in the Family
Service Collaboratives of Sibley, Blue Earth, Nicollet and LeSueur
counties. The belief underlying the research was that a better understanding
of the needs, assets and factors that predict positive and negative
outcomes for youth is a necessary condition to seek solutions through
prevention programs and services.
Center
for Urban and Regional Studies (CURA)
A
Study of Family Preservation Integration Projects for High-Risk,
School-Age Children and Their Families in Minnesota, by
Esther Wattenberg, and others.
This
study of family preservation integration projects was initiated
in order to have a clearer understanding of the way in which local
agencies collaborate to help families maintain a nurturing home
and avoid out-of-home placement for their children, and how school-age
children are helped to remain in their homes and communities.
Recent
Reports on Out of Home Placements
Juvenile
Out-of-Home Placement Task Force Report (2001)
(Commissioner,
Minnesota Department of Corrections and Commissioner, Minnesota
Department of Human Services)
Juvenile
Out-of-Home Placement
(Minnesota
Legislative Auditor’s Report (1999)
Children
in Out of Home Care reports
Children
in Out-of-Home Placements by Joyce A. Ladner
Children's
Roundtable Report #4–September 2000
Resources
from Minnesota State Departments
DHS
Foster Care and OHP
Fact
Sheet: Foster care and out-of-home placement in Minnesota
Children
need foster families to provide stability, nurturing
Other
Out of Home Placement Links
Foster
Care: A Guide to Who Controls Federal Programs, Policies & Purse
Strings, Special Report #14, 2000
The
Federal Role in Helping Young People Transition from Foster Care:
The Independent Living Program and More (Transcript of a July
23, 1999 IEL Policy Exchange seminar), Special Report #13, 1999.
Study
of Vermont Respite Care Program Shows Reductions in Out-of-Home
Placements
The
Tragedy of Custody Relinquishment
Protecting
Children from Abuse and Neglect (Spring, 98)
The
Characteristics of Mothers Separated from a Young Child
Generations
of Hope
Generations of Hope began in 1994 to enhance the
well-being of foster children by providing long-term support to
nurturing, permanent families within a caring, intergenerational
community. It was spearheaded by Brenda Krause Eheart, a faculty
member at the University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, who continues
as its director. Hope Meadows is the first intergenerational
"planned neighborhood" of Generations of Hope, utilizing
housing on a decommissioned military base. The long-term goal of
Generations of Hope is to become a model for policy, legislation,
and practice regarding the establishment of diverse, intergenerational
neighborhoods which enfold our country's most endangered children
into networks of caring, long-term relationships.
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