Court Process and Legal Rights Guide For Foster Caregivers

This guide is to be used to learn more about Child in Need of Care (“CINC”) cases.

It is for foster parents, relatives, fictive kin (individuals connected to a child or family through bonds of affection, concern, obligation, and/or responsibility), and pre-adoptive parents with whom a child is living on a provisional (i.e., short-term) basis while a CINC case is being resolved. In this guide, foster parents, relatives, fictive kin, and pre-adoptive parents are referred to as foster caregivers.