Postplacement Supervision Law and Legal Definition
Postplacement supervision is a part of the adoption process. It refers to the counseling and agency services provided to adoptive parents and adopted children after adoptive placement, but before the adoption is legally finalized in court. Such services are provided between the time that a child is placed in the home of his/her prospective adoptive parents, and the time that the child's adoption is finalized in court.
Ordinarily, the caseworker that is assigned to do the post-placement supervision of the adoptive parents will visit their home several times during this period, which will generally be somewhere between 6 and 12 months, depending upon the state’s legal requirements.
The postplacement supervision is to assure that the child is safe in the home, that his or her well-being needs are met, and that the adoptive family remains committed to and is able to provide a permanent home for the child. Postplacement supervision also helps in gathering the necessary information that will be required for the caseworker to prepare a written report to the court, addressing the issue of how the parents and the child are doing together, including a recommendation of whether the Petition to Adopt of the adoptive parents should be granted, thus allowing the child to be adopted, with this recommendation being based on what would be in the "best interests of the child."
