The rich and exacting role of the social worker in family foster care

This article is about the role of the professional social worker in a child placing agency. It emphasizes the worker's central role in coordinating or managing the various facets of family foster care.Many aspects of family foster care are discussed, with emphasis upon permanence and the tasks of the social worker with the respective participants. The article briefly examines these activities, such as working with the child, the birth parents and the foster parents, within the contexts of the primary mission which is to restore family relationships or to help the child to find and build new ones.Mr. Terpstra is employed by the U.S. Children's Bureau where he serves as a specialist in family foster care, child care insittutions and licensing of children's services.