What you need to know about the foster system.

Children are often placed in the foster system after being separated from their parents because of allegations of neglect or abuse. The foster system includes placements with non-relatives, or in group homes and shelters. The vast majority of children in the foster system were not separated from their parents because of abuse, but because poverty is mistaken for neglect. 

When a child is in the foster system, the parent and child almost always have regular, on-going visitation and contact. This is because frequent, high-quality visits are understood to be highly beneficial for children in the system.

A common misconception is that the foster system saves children who would not otherwise have a family. This is not true. Most children in the system have a strong desire to return home and a family who is fighting to make that happen.

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What is the termination of parental rights?

After a child is in the foster system for 12 months, the system can move to terminate a parent’s rights. The termination of parental rights ends the legal relationship between a parent and child, allowing a child to be adopted without the consent of their parents. 

Many children whose parent's rights are terminated still have crucial emotional relationships with their parents. However, New York law operates under a fiction that terminating a parent’s legal rights also terminates the emotional relationship between a parent and a child.  Because New York law does not allow a court to order continuing contact, termination of parental rights can make it impossible for children to stay connected to their parents, communities, and culture.

The current law hurts children.

Family separation inflicts immeasurable and often irreparable harm on children. Experts relay that they see children processing family separation as profound grief, similar to processing the death of a loved one. The consequences of this grief can include anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

For children in the foster system, the right to regular visits with their parents can be a vital source of love, stability, and healing. These visits are a reminder to children that they are loved. Studies agree that children in the system fare much better when they are able to maintain these familial bonds. Yet, after a year - or more - of visits with their families, the involuntary termination of their parent's rights can abruptly deny children the right to contact, speak to, and see their parents.

When a child is adopted, failure to acknowledge a child’s bond to their parents can make that transition much more challenging. When a parent’s rights are involuntarily terminated, children may feel that their parents gave up, or did not love them enough to care for them.  This is rarely the case, as the majority of parents never stop fighting for their children.  However, by denying children the ability to contact their parents, the law denies children the ability to know that they are loved. This leaves children without reason to trust that the love they receive in their adoptive home will be permanent – as the only family they've ever known was taken from them.

Children impacted by the system are left without answers to the questions that form the foundations of personal identity: Where do I come from? Is my family of origin safe? Does my family of origin love me?

Parents who choose to fight the termination at trial and lose will have their parental rights involuntarily terminated. When rights are terminated, a child may immediately lose their right to contact their parent - and under current law, New York judges are not allowed to order contact between a child and their parent after the termination of parental rights - even if this is in the child's best interests. 

Many parents with excellent legal arguments against the termination of their rights will still choose to give up their rights in lieu of a trial because the only alternative is to risk the permanent loss of a relationship with their child. This threat effectively coerces many parents into giving up their rights.

Despite the life-altering impact of these outcomes, a child has no say in these decisions.

Preserving Family Bonds is about: