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Resources and information about out-of-home care (also called foster care), including family foster care, kinship care, treatment foster care, and residential and group care. Includes information on working with children and youth in out-of-home care; working with birth families; recruiting, preparing, and supporting resource families (i.e., foster, adoptive, and kinship families); independent living services; placement decisions and stability; and systemwide issues.

Overview
A brief overview of out-of-home care, related resources, and frequently asked questions.

Types of out-of-home care
Family foster care, kinship or relative care, treatment foster care, residential and group care, emergency foster care, shared family care, and APPLA and LTFC.

Casework practice in out-of-home care
Resources and information about working with children and youth in out-of-home care and their birth families, including infants and toddlers, older children and youth, sibling groups, children from minority groups, and others. Other topics include mental and physical health, education, casework practice with birth families, and parent-child visits.

Resource families
Recruiting, preparing, and supporting foster/adoptive parents, foster parents, and kinship/relative caregivers. Information on becoming a foster parent.

Independent living
Independent living programs, services, and recommendations; postemancipation programs, services, and recommendations; outcomes for emancipated youth; resources for youth; and youth perspectives on out-of-home care.

Placement decisions
Initial placements into out-of-home care, placement stability and disruption, and interjurisdictional placements.

Updated on February 24, 2010