NJ Foster Parent Rights: What the Resource Family Parent Bill of Rights Guarantees

Most people applying to become foster parents in New Jersey focus on what the state requires of them. Fewer know that New Jersey law grants resource family parents specific enforceable rights — rights that protect you when communication breaks down, when decisions are made about a child in your care without your input, and when you feel the system is not working the way it should.

Understanding what you are entitled to before you are in the middle of a difficult situation is far more useful than discovering it afterward.

The Resource Family Parent Bill of Rights

New Jersey's Resource Family Parent Bill of Rights establishes a set of protections for licensed resource family parents. These are not informal guidelines — they are codified rights that CP&P is required to uphold. Key provisions include:

Right to be treated with dignity and respect. You are a professional member of the child welfare team. CP&P staff must treat you as such. Dismissiveness, non-responsiveness, or condescension from a caseworker is a violation of this standard — and something you can document and escalate.

Right to participate in case planning. You have the right to be included in meetings about the child in your care and to contribute your observations about the child's needs, behaviors, and progress. You are not a passive recipient of decisions made by others — you are a team member whose daily experience with the child is relevant to case planning.

Right to receive information about the child. You have the right to receive information about the child that is relevant to providing care. This includes information about the child's medical history, educational needs, behavioral challenges, and prior placement experiences to the extent that CP&P has this information.

Right to provide input to the court. New Jersey resource parents can provide input to the Family Court through the Resource Family Information Form (CN 10159). This form is submitted to the judge directly and allows you to share your observations about the child's adjustment, needs, and relationship with your household. Judges rely on resource parent input — it is not ceremonial.

Right to notice of hearings. You are entitled to notice of court hearings related to the child in your care and may attend as a participant, not just an observer.

Right to a fair licensing process. If CP&P takes adverse action against your license — suspension, revocation, or denial of renewal — you have appeal rights and the right to a hearing.

The "Reasonable and Prudent Parent" Standard

New Jersey's Normalcy Law (N.J.S.A. 30:4C-26c) establishes the Reasonable and Prudent Parent Standard, which has practical implications for your daily life as a resource family parent.

Under this standard, you have the authority to allow placed children to participate in age-appropriate activities — sports teams, school field trips, overnight visits with friends, extracurricular activities, social media — without obtaining prior caseworker approval for each activity. You assess the safety and maturity of the child, as any reasonable parent would, and make the decision.

This standard was created specifically because the prior requirement to get caseworker approval for every activity was causing placed children to miss normal childhood experiences. You do not need to call your RFSW before allowing a child to go to a birthday party.

The standard does not apply to major decisions — medical treatment, enrollment changes, significant travel — which still require appropriate authorization. But for routine age-appropriate activities, the authority is yours.

What to Do When Rights Are Violated

The most common rights violations reported by NJ resource families involve communication breakdowns: not being informed about court hearings, not being included in case planning meetings, not receiving medical information relevant to care, and going weeks without contact from an RFSW.

When this happens:

1. Document everything. Keep a log of every interaction with CP&P — dates, who you spoke with, what was discussed. If you were not informed of a hearing, note the date you found out and how.

2. Use the Resource Family Information Form (CN 10159) to communicate directly with the court if case planning decisions are being made without your input.

3. Contact Embrella (formerly NJ Foster and Adoptive Family Services). Embrella operates a statewide 1-800 support line and provides advocacy for resource families navigating disputes with CP&P.

4. Escalate within CP&P. Your RFSW has a supervisor. If communication is broken at the caseworker level, the supervisor is the appropriate next contact. Escalation is not adversarial — it is how the system is designed to work when front-line communication fails.

Your Responsibilities in Return

Rights come paired with responsibilities. As a resource family parent in New Jersey, you are required to:

• Support visitation with birth parents. This is mandatory. Visitation is essential to the reunification goal, and courts notice whether resource parents facilitate or obstruct it.
• Maintain confidentiality. You may not share identifying information about the child, the biological family, or the case on social media or with people outside the support network. This is both a legal requirement and a professional standard.
• Report concerns promptly. You have mandatory reporter obligations under New Jersey's child protection statutes.
• Notify CP&P of significant events. Hospitalizations, school changes, significant behavioral incidents, and changes in your household all must be reported to your RFSW.

Knowing your rights as a resource family parent in New Jersey is not about being adversarial with the system. It is about knowing when the system owes you something and how to claim it — professionally and effectively.

The New Jersey Foster Care Licensing Guide includes the Resource Family Information Form process, the Embrella advocacy resources, and a communication log template specifically designed for NJ resource families navigating the common challenge of caseworker unresponsiveness.

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