Placement of a foster child in a foster home can take place in a:
Voluntary framework
The parents agree voluntarily to the indication ‘foster care’,
and retain the custody and power of decision concerning their child.
The parents have the right to return their child to their house again
when they want. If in such a situation a foster child has been living
in a foster home for longer than a year, the foster parents can invoke
a blocking right.
Legal framework
In the case of placing in public care, the least far-reaching measure,
the parents are restricted in their guardianship, because they have
to follow the instructions of the family supervisor (guardian). Parental
authority remains intact.
In the case of compulsory child care, based on judicial custody or
court decision, the parents have no more say over their child. This
is the case with relief of or dismissal from parental authority. The
responsibility for and control over the child is then vested in a
custody institution, which leaves the daily care and upbringing to
others, foster parents for example.
The stated measures become effective by means of a request by the
Child Care and Protection Board to the (juvenile) Court.
The blocking right
A blocking right is the right which foster parents can invoke in
order to prevent a foster child who has been living with them for
at least one year being taken away abruptly from the foster home by
the parents or the guardian. In short, a blocking right means that
a foster child who was placed in a foster home with the permission
of its parent(s) or guardian who had custody of the child, and who
remained there for a year or longer, cannot be taken from that foster
home without the permission of the foster parents. The blocking right
does not apply in the case of placement in compulsory care.
When foster parents invoke their blocking right, the parents can
turn to the court where the child has its domicile, with the request
to grant them permission to terminate the child’s residence with
the foster parents (replacement permission by the court). It is, by
the way, not necessary that the parent(s) take up the care and upbringing
themselves; they can also place the child in a different foster home.
The parent(s)’s request will come up in court as soon as possible
and is only rejected when there is a valid reason to fear that awarding
it will lead to negligence of the minor’s interests. When the
court grants the parent(s)’s request, which means that the juvenile
court grants the replacement permission, this means that the foster
parents are legally obliged to hand the child over to the parent(s).
