|
Home > Glossary - F
Glossary - F
Many child welfare terms are subject to interpretation. The Glossary identifies commonly held definitions for terms that can be found on the Child Welfare Information Gateway website. It defines common acronyms and includes links to information on major Federal legislation and related child welfare terms. The Glossary will be updated as new terminology emerges in the field, as new legislation is enacted, and as child welfare terms take on new meaning.
family assessment (see comprehensive family assessment)
family-centered casework practice
Encompasses the range of activities designed to help families with children strengthen family functioning and address challenges that may threaten family stability. These activities include family-centered assessment and case planning; case management; specific interventions with families including counseling, education, and skill building; advocating for families; and connecting families with the supportive services and resources they need to improve their parenting abilities and achieve a nurturing and stable family environment.
family-centered practice
A way of working with families, both formally and informally, across service systems to enhance their capacity to care for and protect their children. It focuses on the needs and welfare of children within the context of their families and communities. Family-centered practice recognizes the strengths of family relationships and builds on these strengths to achieve optimal outcomes. Family is defined broadly to include birth, blended, kinship, and foster and adoptive families.
family group conferencing (see family group decision-making)
family group decision-making
A generic term that includes a number of approaches in which family members are brought together to make decisions about how to care for their children and develop a plan for services. Families are engaged and empowered by child welfare agencies to make decisions and develop plans that protect their children from experiencing further abuse and neglect. Different terms used for this type of intervention include "family group conferencing," "family team conferencing," "family team decision-making," "family team meetings," "family unity meetings," and "team decision-making." Approaches differ in various aspects, but most consist of several phases and employ a trained facilitator or coordinator.
family engagement
An approach to involving families in a respectful, collaborative process of identifying family strengths and determining family needs. The family is engaged as a partner in achieving goals and working toward identified outcomes.
Family Preservation and Support Services Program Act of 1993 (P.L. 103-66) (see Major Federal Legislation Concerned With Child Protection, Child Welfare, and Adoption)
family preservation services
Short-term, family-focused, and community-based services designed to help families cope with significant stresses or problems that interfere with their ability to nurture their children. The goal of family preservation services (FPS) is to maintain children with their families or to reunify the family, whenever it can be done safely. These services are most often provided to families who have come to the attention of the child welfare, mental health, or juvenile justice systems because of child abuse or neglect, child behavioral health challenges, delinquency, or serious parent-child conflict. These services are applicable to families at risk of disruption/out-of-home placement across systems and may be provided to different types of families—birth or biological families, kinship families, foster families, and adoptive families—to help them address major challenges, stabilize the family, and enhance family functioning. Also see intensive family preservation services.
family reunification
The process of reuniting children in foster care with their families and reinstating custody of the children to their parents/guardians. Reunification continues to be the preferred permanency option, when it can be done in a safe and timely manner.
family visitation (see visitation)
FAS (see fetal alcohol syndrome)
fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)
Refers to a set of physical and mental birth defects found in babies whose mothers drank alcohol regularly and heavily during pregnancy. Also see alcohol-related birth defects and prenatal substance exposure.
fictive kin
People not related by birth or marriage who have an emotionally significant relationship with an individual.
finalization
The final legal step in the adoption process by which an adoption becomes permanent and binding. Finalization involves a court hearing during which the judge orders that the adoptive parents become the child's legal parents.
foster care
A service for children who cannot live with their custodial parent(s) or guardian(s) for some period of time. Children in foster care may live with relatives, unrelated foster parents, or with families who plan to adopt them. Foster care is intended to be short-term, with the focus on returning children home as soon as possible or providing them with permanent families through adoption or guardianship. For purposes of Federal reporting and funding, the term also describes nonfamilial placement settings including group homes, residential care facilities, and supervised independent living.
foster care adoption
The adoption of a child from the foster care system after a determination has been made that the child cannot safely reunite with his/her birth family and the parental rights of the birth parents have been terminated.
Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 (see Major Federal Legislation Concerned With Child Protection, Child Welfare, and Adoption)
foster care review board
State boards made up of volunteer citizens who review foster care cases to ensure that quality services are provided to families. Foster care review boards often inform State policy and are typically established through State legislation.
foster child
Child who has been placed in the State's or county's legal custody because the child's custodial parents/guardians are unable to provide a safe family home due to abuse, neglect, or an inability to care for the child.
foster parent
State- or county-licensed adults who provide a temporary home and everyday nurturing and support for children who have been removed from their homes.
full disclosure
Information provided to the family by the child welfare agency regarding the steps in the intervention process, the requirements of the case plan, the expectations of the family, the consequences if the family does not fulfill the expectations, and the rights of the parents to ensure that the family completely understands the process.
|
