30:4C-53.1 Findings, declarations.

1. The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the public interest, whereby the safety of children shall be of paramount concern, to afford every child placed outside the child's home by the Division of Child Protection and Permanency in the Department of Children and Families with permanency through return to the child's own home, if the child can be returned home without endangering the child's health or safety; through adoption, if family reunification is not possible; or through an alternative permanent placement, if termination of parental rights is not appropriate:

a. Due to the severity of health and social problems such as AIDS, drug abuse, and homelessness, the division often works with families over a period of many years, and the children of these families often spend a majority of their young lives in resource family care; and

b. Research has shown that the longer children remain in the resource family care system, the greater number of placements they experience. As a result of these multiple placements, from birth family to resource family home, and from one resource family home to another resource family home, children develop emotional and psychological problems, making it more difficult for them to develop a positive self-image; and

c. (Deleted by amendment, P.L.2004, c.130).

d. The obligation of the State to recognize and protect the rights of children in the child welfare system should be fulfilled in the context of a clear and consistent policy which limits the repeated placement of children in resource family care and promotes the eventual placement of these children in stable and safe permanent homes.

L.1991, c.448, s.1; amended 1999, c.53, s.40; 2004, c.130, s.84; 2006, c.47, s.142; 2012, c.16, s.108.