What Does That Mean?

Welcome back to Taylor Talks!

The first thing that I thought I should do, before blogging about all of my experiences with foster care, would be to explain what certain terms mean. Words that are part of my everyday vocabulary are often things that people have never heard of before. Here’s a list of the foster care terms I think you should know for the future, along with my personal definitions of them…

• foster care: the system in which children are taken from their homes due to imminent danger and placed into a foster home where other people will care for them until their parents regain custody
• imminent: immediate; children are only removed from a home when they are in imminent danger
• OTC: order of temporary custody; the case is taken to court within days of the child being pulled from the home, and if the judge finds that there is good reason for the child’s removal, they will grant the OTC for the foster family
• custody: the legal rights to be the parent or guardian of a child
• caseworker: an employee of the state who works for CPS or DSS; they either bring the child to the foster home (CPS) or work with the biological parents and foster parents to obtain the best possible outcome for the child, having monthly meetings to check up on the foster child (DSS)
• CPS: Child Protective Services; the state agency who check on calls about a child being in danger and remove the child from the home, bringing them to a foster home
• DSS: Department of Social Services; the state agency who proceed with the case from the time the child is legally placed into foster care until the time the child is either returned home to the biological parents or put through to the adoption process
• permanency hearing: a court hearing in which the permanent placement of the child is considered; there may be more than one of these in a case, as these decide whether the child will eventually return to their biological parents or be put up for adoption
• TPR: termination of parental rights; if the biological parents have not cooperated with the judge’s demands and cannot get their children back, then a TPR is put into effect and the biological parents are no longer considered the parents of the child

Well, that’s all I can think of for now. Hopefully these terms will help you understand any topics I discuss in the future. I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.

Thanks!
Taylor