Policy Agenda 2010

PROTECTING BONDS BETWEEN MOTHERS AND CHILDREN

The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) almost always requires a foster care agency to file a petition to terminate parental rights if a child has been in foster care for 15 of the last 22 months—and has a disproportionate and devastating impact on incarcerated parents and their children.

The ASFA Expanded Discretion Bill grants foster care agencies the discretion to delay, if necessary, filing papers to terminate parental rights when a parent’s incarceration or treatment program participation is a significant factor in why the child remains in foster care. This expanded discretion will give foster care agencies, attorneys, courts, parents and their children a more fair opportunity to work toward reunification and safe permanency options that do not involve severing family bonds forever.

MORE INFO:

A Fair Chance, a slideshow about families seperated by prison [order a copy]

• Imprisonment and Families Fact Sheet [download]

• When "Free" Means Losing Your Mother: The Collision of Child Welfare and the Incarceration of Women in New York State [download] [request a copy]