Permanency refers to a child exiting from DFPS care into a safe, appropriate, and permanent setting. Planning for permanency begins the moment DFPS makes contact with a child and family. DFPS constantly assesses the family, requests information, and acknowledges members of the child’s and family’s support network in order to engage them in permanency planning. The family’s support network will have valuable information to assist DFPS in making careful and realistic case and permanency plans. Engaging the family and support network may also generate an array of permanent placement options for the child if they cannot return home and is an important part of concurrent planning. The process does not end until a child exits DFPS conservatorship, preferably to a permanent family setting. 

Positive permanency is the philosophy that guides DFPS in permanency planning for children in DFPS conservatorship. Positive permanency means that DFPS seeks an outcome in which the child exits DFPS care into a permanent setting that includes a legal relationship to a family. Positive permanency is achieved when children are reunified, adopted, or permanent custody is given to another individual. 

Every child needs a permanent and stable home, preferably with their family or fictive kin. There is no adequate substitute for stable, permanent family ties. Family ties provide the child with a sense of belonging and connection to the community. When a child cannot return home safely, positive permanency underscores the need for DFPS to actively seek another permanent family setting for the child. If DFPS cannot achieve positive permanency for a child or youth, DFPS must identify, develop, and support connections to caring adults who agree to provide support to the child once they leave foster care. 

DFPS must actively work toward a primary permanency plan and a concurrent permanency plan. Because things can quickly change during a DFPS case, it is DFPS’s responsibility to develop a permanency plan from the beginning and identify permanency options in the event the primary plan is not achieved. Accordingly, staff must continuously engage the family (including parents, relatives, fictive kin, and the current caregivers and their families). DFPS should actively seek to involve relatives and fictive kin in the life of the child regardless of whether the relative and fictive kin are the planned permanent caregiver.

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