Foster Care - When a disruption occurs within a foster care placement - the foster family notifies their case manager or social worker and lets them know that the placement is not going well. That means the family has 'served notice.' Each state and agency handles these situations differently but based on the amount of time the child has lived in the home often determines how much notice is served. Usually, it is a 30 day notice, meaning the foster child has to be moved within 30 days to another foster or group home.
Adoption - A disruption can also occur within an adoption, when an adoptive placement fails or ends before being legal and final in court. The child is then placed back into foster care or in another adoptive home. If the disruption occurs after the adoption is final in court, the child could be placed in another relative's home, or within a group home, but the adoptive parents still have their parental rights. When the adoptive parents seek to end their parental ties to the child, it is called a dissolution.
