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Though the experiences of individual non-professional stakeholders involved with dependency courts overseeing child protective services cases have been documented, this article provides a unique comparison across four non-professional stakeholder groups. Through analysis of focus groups and individual interviews, we compare the perspectives of birth parents (n=6), kinship caregivers (n=14), young adults removed from their homes as children (n=15), and foster parents (n=57) involved with the dependency courts in Maryland. Despite their different roles, the experiences of all groups are characterized by common themes including time, consistency, role, voice, and what is best under the broader context of feeling valued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a synopsis of Linda-Jeanne Mack's remarks from the Daniel Thursz Uneasy Alignments: The Mental Health Turn in the American Legal System Symposium in March of 2022. A theoretical framework of Ambiguous Loss and the 7 Core Issues of Permanency explains the unique challenges that caregivers and children experience when separated through the child welfare system. The author discusses how mandated therapeutic services are then used to guide decision making in reunifying families or terminating parental rights. A case study from the author's former practice illustrates the use of mental health services to determine a family's ability to reunify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal and relational permanence have long been viewed as a central outcome of child welfare services. Timely termination of parental rights (TPR) has been a cornerstone of these permanency efforts because TPRs facilitate permanency through adoption. Yet the number of adoption plans that are not finalized or sustained are not trivial. Over 2,000 youth emancipate from foster care each year and many more leave earlier but not before a TPR has occurred. Some states have passed legislation to allow reinstatements of parental rights. This paper reviews the range of factors state legislation includes, reviews scant existing literature on how TPRs may effect youth, and proposes several options for ways that unproductive TPRs can be reduced, and timely reinstatements increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]