Family preservation services
Family preservation services refers to services for children and families designed to protect children from harm and help families (including foster, adoptive, and extended families) at risk or in crisis, including (1) Preplacement preventive services programs, such as intensive family preservation programs, designed to help children at risk of foster care placement remain with their families, where possible; (2) Service programs designed to help children, where appropriate, return to families from which they have been removed; or be placed for adoption, with a legal guardian, or, if adoption or legal guardianship is determined not to be appropriate for a child, in some other planned, permanent living arrangement; (3) Service programs designed to provide follow-up care to families to whom a child has been returned after a foster care placement; (4) Respite care of children to provide temporary relief for parents and other caregivers (including foster parents); (5) Services designed to improve parenting skills (by reinforcing parents' confidence in their strengths, and helping them to identify where improvement is needed and to obtain assistance in improving those skills) with respect to matters such as child development, family budgeting, coping with stress, health, and nutrition; and (6) Case management services designed to stabilize families in crisis such as transportation, assistance with housing and utility payments, and access to adequate health care.