Tuscarawas County Job & Family Services - Adoption & Foster Care

When children are at risk with their birth parents, TCJFS first looks for safe relative/kinship placement. When a relative/kinship placement is not available, TCJFS makes every effort to place children in a substitute care placement that best meets the needs of the children, but yet is in the same community/school district. Speedier reunification of the children with their birth family can occur when children are placed in close geographic proximity to the birth family. TCJFS also recognizes the importance of the sibling bond. Therefore, TCJFS makes every effort to place siblings with the same caregiver, unless there is a compelling reason to separate the siblings. If siblings must be separated, continuous effort is made to reunite the siblings. When siblings are placed separately, arrangements for frequent visitation between siblings are a routine part of case planning. Reunification with the birth family is the goal for children who come into care. Most of our children in foster care are successfully reunited with their primary family or extended family members known as kinship placements. Therefore, we need foster parents who can: understand the importance of birth families in the lives of all children, who will support a reunification plan, and have the capacity to deal with the reality of saying good-bye to children leaving foster care (for whom they have grown to love). Removal from birth families is a difficult journey for our children. Dedicated, skilled, and compassionate foster/adoptive families are needed to help our children through this experience.