FOSTER
CHILD BILL OF RIGHTS
Ratified in Congress Hall,
Saturday, the Twenty-eighth of April, Nineteen Hundred and Seventy Three
Reaffirmed during the National Focus on Foster Care Conference,
Wednesday, the Fourth of May, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Three
Even more than for
other children, society has a responsibility, along with parents, for the
well-being of children in foster care. Citizens are responsible for acting to
insure their welfare.
Every child in foster care is endowed with the rights inherently belonging to
all children. In addition, because of the temporary or permanent separation
from, and loss of, parents and other family members, the child requires special
safeguards, resources, and care.
EVERY CHILD IN FOSTER CARE HAS THE INHERENT
RIGHT:
• Article the first
....to be cherished by a family of his own, either his family helped by readily
available services and supports to resume his care, or an adoptive family or,
by plan, a continuing foster family.
• Article the second
....to be nurtured by foster parents who have been selected to meet his
individual needs, and who are provided services and supports, including
specialized education, so that they can grow in their ability to enable the
child to reach his potentiality.
• Article the third
....to receive sensitive, continuing help in understanding and accepting the
reasons for his own family's inability to take care of him, and in developing
confidence in his own self worth.
• Article the fourth
....to receive continuing loving care and respect as a unique human being...a
child growing in trust in himself and others.
• Article the fifth
....to grow up in freedom and dignity in a neighborhood of people who accept
him with understanding, respect and friendship.
• Article the sixth
....to receive help in overcoming deprivation or whatever distortion in his
emotional, physical, intellectual, social and spiritual growth may have
resulted from his early experiences.
• Article the seventh
....to receive education, training, and career guidance to prepare for a useful
and satisfying life.
• Article the eighth
....to receive preparation for citizenship and parenthood through interaction
with foster parents and other adults who are consistent role models.
• Article the ninth
....to be represented by an attorney-at-law in administrative or judicial
proceedings with access to fair hearings and court review of decisions, so that
his best interests are safeguarded.
• Article the tenth
....to receive a high quality of child welfare services, including involvement
of the natural parents and his own involvement in major decisions that affect
his life.