All efforts should be made to help you return home to your parents. If you cannot return home, you are entitled to be placed in the least restrictive, most family-like setting available. This can include adoption and placement with relatives.
As you get older, you may be placed in a Transitional Living Placement (TLP) or a Supervised Independent Living (SIL) placement. In these placements you get more responsibility and freedom and a greater chance to practice your independent living skills. If you are 16 or older, you should ask your caseworker and your lawyer about these types of placements to see if they are right for you.
YES. You should always let your case worker, lawyer, judge, and anyone else involved in your case know where you want to be placed and what type of placement you think is best for you. You might know about someone who you can live with that no one else does, like a godparent or family friend. Your voice counts!
If you are being mistreated in your placement, you should tell someone immediately. Wherever you are placed, you should always be treated with respect and you should always feel safe. If you are not, you must let someone know so that things can change for the better. Youth should never be verbally or physically abused in their placements.
If you feel like your placement is not right for you or that you would do better in another type of placement, you should let someone know. Sometimes your placement can be changed.
There are many requirements to being a foster parent. Foster parents must submit to criminal background checks, yearly home inspections, evaluations and training. Most importantly, foster parents must be able to provide a caring and nurturing environment for youth. They must make sure the youth’s health, mental health, independent living, and educational needs are met.
The money foster parents receive should be used for your housing, food, clothes and activities. In some situations, it may be used for your allowance—but that is up to the county and the foster parent.
YES. These facilities must be licensed.To be licensed, these facilities must have enough qualified staff, meet requirements about safety and submit to yearly inspections. Staff must treat you with respect and cannot physically discipline you. They must provide for your treatment, educational, and safety needs in addition to providing you a place to live.
Last updated: Summer 2007
