Understanding and participating in the permanency process can be overwhelming for youth and families. These resources provide guidance and support to help youth and birth, foster, kinship, adoptive, and guardianship parents better understand their unique roles in the permanency process.
- For parents seeking reunification
- For kinship, guardianship, and adoptive parents
- For foster parents
- For immigrant families
- For youth
For parents seeking reunification
The Parents' Get Real Guide to Getting Your Kids Back (PDF - 5,622 KB)
Leggins, Randall, Cox, & Wolf (2012)
Be Strong Families & Strengthening Families Illinois
Provides information written by parents who have been reunited with their children for parents who have had their children removed by child welfare.
The Parents' Get Real Guide to Keeping Your Kids Home (PDF - 16,180 KB)
Cox, Neely, Randall, & Wolf (2011)
Be Strong Families
Supports parents by providing strategies and tips for keeping their children at home after returning from foster or kinship care. Helps parents to keep their children from returning to the child welfare system by improving confidence and competency in parenting.
| Series Title | Factsheets |
| Author(s) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 393KB) Order (Free) |
| Disponibilidad | Ver Versión para imprimir (PDF - 397KB) Ordene (Gratis) |
| Year Published | 2013 |
My Family Connections Booklet (PDF - 3,486 KB)
Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association
Presents a keepsake booklet birth parents can complete for their child to help ease their child's transition into a foster home. The booklet includes pages for family photos, a family tree, contact information for the special people in the child's life, medical and educational information, a page for the parent to personally engage with the child, and more.
Resource Center
The Center for Rights of Parents With Disabilities
Provides information for Colorado parents with disabilities about various permanency issues, such as strategies to being reunited with children placed in foster care and a description of the dependency and neglect case processes.
Rise Magazine
Educates parents involved with child welfare about their rights and demonstrates the steps parents can take to reunite with their children and strengthen their parenting.
For kinship, guardianship, and adoptive parents
| Series Title | Factsheets for Families |
| Author(s) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 575KB) Order (Free) |
| Disponibilidad | Ver Versión para imprimir (PDF - 580KB) |
| Year Published | 2016 |
| Titulo de la Colección | Hojas Informativas Para las Familias (Factsheets for Families) |
| Autor(es) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Disponibilidad | Ver Versión para imprimir (PDF - 580KB) |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 575KB) Order (Free) |
| Año Publicado | 2012 |
Helps kinship caregivers—including grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other relatives caring for children—work effectively with the child welfare system. This factsheet addresses topics such as the different types of kinship care, how the child welfare system becomes involved in kinship care, what to expect from the child welfare system, available services, the involvement of the courts, and finding permanent families for children.
Making the Adoption/Guardianship Decision (PDF - 525 KB)
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (2009)
Provides basic information about adoption and guardianship as permanency options, including a comparison between adoption and guardianship, answers to commonly asked questions, and family considerations in decision making.
For foster parents
Building Bridges Together: Bridge Resource Families: Strengthening Families, Helping Children Stay Connected (PDF - 234 KB)
Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Children and Family Services Division (2008)
Describes requirements and expectations for being a Bridge Resource Family in Oklahoma's Bridge Family program, which is designed to provide a placement resource committed to working with a child's birth family toward the goal of reunification, or, if reunification fails, to raising/parenting the child.
Foster Parents and the Courts: A Guide for Foster Parents on Being an Effective Advocate in Court for Children in Foster Care (PDF - 384 KB)
Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association (2013)
Helps foster parents understand the court process, including their rights and responsibilities, the role of key participants, and how to advocate for the best interests of children in their care.
Foster Parents Speak: Crossing Bridges and Fostering Change: Discussion and Resource Guide (PDF - 78 KB)
New York State Citizens' Coalition for Children (2009)
Offers a companion guide for use with a video in which 10 foster parents relate challenges they have faced in developing shared parenting relationships with birth families and professionals to benefit the children in their care. The video is available for purchase.
| Series Title | Factsheets for Families |
| Author(s) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 255KB) Order (Free) |
| Year Published | 2012 |
| Series Title | Factsheets for Families |
| Author(s) | Child Welfare Information Gateway |
| Availability | View Download (PDF - 512KB) Order (Free) |
| Year Published | 2012 |
Touchpoints: Preparing Children for Transitions (PDF - 666 KB)
Coalition for Children, Youth & Families (2014)
Provides instructions for people who are involved in key transition points for a child in out-of-home care such as ongoing workers, foster parents, relative caregivers, adoption workers, CASA volunteers, therapists, and Tribal workers.
Ways to Build and Maintain Sibling Connections When Placed Separately (PDF - 2,007 KB)
Iowa Foster & Adoptive Parents Association (2013)
Marshall County Support Group Newsletter, 1(10)
Lists ways in which foster parents can support sibling relationships when siblings are placed separately in foster care.
For immigrant families
Parental Rights: Toolkit & Educational Resources
Women's Refugee Commission
Provides step-by-step instructions and resources to help migrant parents protect and maintain their parental rights and make well-informed, critical decisions regarding the care and welfare of their children in immigration cases.