Describe the objectives of foster care.

If a single mother relinquishes her parental rights, the child is usually placed temporarily in foster care. Some single parents who are unsure about whether to give up parental rights may also place their child in foster care until they make a decision.

The goals of foster care are to protect the children, to rehabilitate the parents, and generally to return the children to their genetic parents as soon as it is feasible. Foster care is the temporary provision of substitute care for children whose parents are unable or unwilling to meet the child's needs in their own home. Except for emergency placement, legal custody of the child is usually transferred, by court action, from the child's parents to the agency responsible for foster placement. Foster parents face the difficult task of being expected to provide love and affection to foster children without becoming too emotionally attached. The placement is temporary, and separating is easier when strong emotional bonds have not been established between foster parents and foster children.