Learn how safe parent, sibling, relative, and community connections may support children in foster care and how caregivers can manage boundaries.
Children in foster care may have meaningful relationships with parents, siblings, grandparents, extended relatives, former caregivers, schools, tribes, faith communities, and neighborhoods. Supporting safe connections can reduce unnecessary loss and help children maintain identity and belonging.
Contact must follow the child’s case plan, court orders, agency direction, safety needs, and developmental capacity.
Safe relationships may support:
Caregivers may be asked to:
Supporting contact does not require ignoring safety or boundaries.
Visits can bring joy, grief, confusion, anger, regression, or anxiety. These reactions do not automatically mean contact should stop.
Caregivers can:
Siblings may be placed apart. Agencies and caregivers should support contact when safe and permitted, including visits, calls, shared events, photos, and future contact information.
Relationships may continue after finalization. Plans should address safety, boundaries, transportation, privacy, missed visits, social media, and the child’s changing wishes.
Contact decisions should be individualized and guided by the child’s safety, case plan, court orders, and needs.
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