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Concurrent Planning
WHAT IS CONCURRENT PLANNING?
Brief Description
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Developed and introduced by the Federal government to address the large number of children without permanent plans living in out-of-home placements.
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Mandated by Federal Assembly Bill 1544.
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Implemented by the Federal government in 1998.
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Requires child protection agencies to support reunification between children and their parents, while at the same time developing permanent plans for the children in case reunification efforts fail.
Concurrent Planning
Concurrent planning means that some dependent children are identified as probable candidates for adoption and are placed in permanent homes as early as possible, even though the children are still dependents of the Juvenile Court.
Children may be placed with concurrent planning families when reunification with their biological parents appears unlikely, yet the legal timelines for reunification have not been completely fulfilled.
Sometimes children are placed with concurrent planning families when there are no reunification services offered to the biological families or when reunification efforts have failed.
The benefit of concurrent planning is that children may be placed in concurrent planning families at a much earlier point in the legal process. This allows children to become part of their new adoptive families as soon as possible and aids in the development of their attachments.
Concurrent Planning Families
Concurrent planning families (previously referred to as fos-adopt families):
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Are both licensed foster homes and approved adoptive homes.
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Must be willing to support reunification efforts until such time that the child’s biological parents demonstrate to the court that they have failed to comply with the reunification plan.
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Work with adoption social workers to determine the degree of legal risk they are willing to accept.
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May be asked to accept placements with only minimal information about the children and their birth families.
Concurrent Planning Families Are Needed
The Social Services Agency needs concurrent planning families.
There is also a critical need for adoptive families willing to accept sibling sets, older children, and children with special medical or developmental needs.
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