AND AFTER-CARE OF 
 DEPENDENT CHILDREN 
 
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 Standards of Placing-Out, Supervision and After-Care 
 
 I. STANDARDS OF PLACING-OUT 
 
 1. What constitutes an adequate investigation of a home? 
 
 2. Must an adequate investigation include a personal visit to the 
 home by a personal representative of the placing-out agency? 
 
 3. What are the things which such a personal visit, if necessary, 
 should include in the way of inspection and inquiry? 
 
 1, 2 and 3. An adequate investigation should be made before a child 
 is placed in any home. It should include: 
 
 (a) The filling out by the applicant of a blank to be signed 
 by both husband and wife, application stating the essential facts 
 in regard to the proposed home and foster parents; 
 
 (b) Written reports from the references given by the applicant 
 and usually from independent references, and 
 
 (c) A personal visit by a representative of the placing-out 
 agency to the home of the applicant. A personal interview should 
 be held with the foster mother and with the foster father. 
 
 The facts collected by the investigator should include the sex, age, 
 character, habits, health, temperament and occupation of each member of 
 the family, general standards of the home and neighborhood, distance 
 to school and to church, living conditions, such as sleeping arrangements, 
 sanitation, ventilation, cleanliness and comfort; the financial status of 
 the family, including the approximate amount of the annual income and 
 its sources, opportunities for advancement, savings, insurance, etc.; the 
 family’s social connections and amusements; their moral and religious 
 standards; motive in taking a child and their attitude toward discipline 
 of a child and the possibilities for recreation. At least three references, 
 people who have known the family intimately for a period of at least 
 three years, should be visited. 
 
 4. Should references be required in addition to those given by the 
 applicant? 
 
 Unless the information about the home, as gained by personal visits 
 to it and to the references given by the family, is unquestionably satis¬ 
 factory in every respect, references known independently to be reliable 
 and of good standing, in addition to those given by the applicant, should 
 be had when possible. Whenever any substantial doubt is suggested in 
 the course of an investigation, the matter should be pursued until the 
 doubt is removed or the undesirability of the home is established. 
 
 5. Should references be seen in person in every case, or is corre¬ 
 spondence with the references sufficient? 
 
 The references given by the applicant, or independent references, or 
 other persons of standing in the community should always be seen per¬ 
 sonally. 
 
 6. Assuming that an adequate system of investigation is established 
 and thereby the true facts in regard to the homes secured, what are to 
 be considered minimum standards by which homes are accepted or re¬ 
 jected, from the point of view of: 
 
 (a) Income 
 
 A family must have sufficient income to enable its head to 
 provide adequate housing and living conditions. 
 
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(b) Intelligence 
 
 (Including the education of foster parents and also the educational oppor¬ 
 tunities likely to be offered to the child.) 
 
 No definite amount of education should be demanded. The 
 families should be sufficiently intelligent to appreciate the value 
 of regular mental and vocational training, to teach the child prac¬ 
 tical, every day matters of decent living and to give the child moral 
 protection. Decided preference should be given to families of 
 some degree of natural refinement. 
 
 (c) Moral Standards 
 
 1. Honesty in business and personal relation is essential. 
 
 2. No home should be accepted where any member of the family 
 is not living in accordance with the usual American standards of 
 social and personal morality. 
 
 3. Profanity alone (unless indulged in habitually and in the 
 home) does not necessarily make a home unusable. If it indicates 
 vulgarity and a generally low moral standard, the home should be 
 rejected. A home should be rejected in which there is an habitual 
 use of profanity and vulgarity. 
 
 (d) Religious Training 
 
 Children should be placed with individuals of the same religious 
 faith as the parents of the child, unless for compelling reasons 
 this is found to be impracticable. Opportunity for religious train¬ 
 ing should always be required. 
 
 7. Should standards higher than the minimum be required in regard 
 to homes for certain classes of children? If so, what classes of children, 
 and what standards? 
 
 For a child of general marked promise, a home should be selected 
 where more than the minimum amount of required education will be 
 given the child, and where he will be surrounded by refinement and 
 culture. Children with a talent of any kind should be placed where that 
 talent can best be developed. For a child needing special physical care 
 a home which is especially equipped to meet the need should be selected. 
 A difficult child requiring expert training needs a home where the person 
 in charge of the child has had some special training or is temperamentally 
 fitted to deal intelligently and sympathetically with him. 
 
 8. How far should inquiries be pushed in regard to the parentage and 
 family connections of children who are to be offered to foster parents? 
 
 The investigation of the family history of a child should include all 
 the data which can be obtained in regard to the parents, brothers, 
 sisters and grandparents of the child. Honest and earnest effort should 
 be made by personal visit and by correspondence to secure this informa¬ 
 tion. There should also be secured such facts as may be readily obtain¬ 
 able in regard to aunts, uncles and other relatives. 
 
 In regard to the child’s immediate family, i. e., parents, brothers, 
 sisters and grandparents, the facts should, whenever possible, include 
 the following: the name, former and last known address, with date; 
 whether living or dead; if dead, date and cause of death; nationality; 
 race; religion; occupation; health; mentality; habits; moral character; 
 prominent traits; personal description; social and moral standards of the 
 family, etc. Any indications of abnormality should be noted. The hous¬ 
 ing and neighborhood conditions and the standards of home life should 
 be recorded, as well as the child’s characteristics and personal history. 
 The sources of information should be given with full name and address, 
 
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and if an official, the title of the person from whom the information is 
 secured. 
 
 9. What must we require of the children in the way of: 
 
 (a) Health 
 
 A placing-out society should be fully informed by a competent 
 physician concerning the physical condition of each child who 
 is to be placed. No child suffering from an infectious or conta¬ 
 gious disease, which would endanger others, should be placed. 
 Children suffering from a physical defect, who are not a menace 
 to the community, may be placed in specially chosen homes. 
 
 ( b ) Mentality 
 
 No child should be deprived of an opportunity for family life 
 merely because of the fact that he is peculiar, backward, retarded 
 in school, or mentally slower than the ordinary child of his age. 
 Border-line and doubtful cases of mental ability should be placed 
 in boarding homes rather than free homes, and under special 
 supervision, pending determination of their mental status. Chil¬ 
 dren pronounced by competent authorities to be definitely feeble¬ 
 minded, should be placed in suitable institutions, except in cases 
 where adequate supervision is assured in accordance with the laws 
 of the state of Oregon. 
 
 (c) Character and Disposition 
 
 No child should be deprived of a trial in a family home because 
 of an undesirable disposition or unfortunate habits, unless such 
 disposition and habits constitute a source of actual danger to 
 himself or to others in the community, which can not be overcome 
 by home life under ordinary conditions. A child whose conduct 
 may be an actual danger to others, under the ordinary conditions 
 of family life, should either be placed in a family home selected 
 for its ability to afford special supervision, or in a reformatory 
 institution. Border-line and doubtful cases should be under special 
 supervision, both by the family and by the placing-out agency, 
 pending determination of the necessity of commitment. 
 
 ( d) Heredity 
 
 A child, both of whose parents are feeble-minded, should not be 
 placed in a free family home for adoption or otherwise. 
 
 A child, one of whose parents is epileptic, insane, or of weak 
 or degenerate stock, or of doubtful mentality, should not be placed 
 in a free home for adoption, or otherwise, until such time as he has 
 reached an age at which his mental, moral and physical status 
 can be determined. He then should be dealt with on the basis 
 of his individual capacity and not on the basis of his heredity. 
 
 The incestuous child should not be placed for adoption under the 
 age of three years, and then not unless a reputable physician certi¬ 
 fies in writing that such child is mentally and physically normal 
 and will probably continue to be so. 
 
 A child who is physically deformed should not be placed for 
 adoption unless the prospective foster parents are able and willing 
 to furnish medical and surgical aid, and further, that a reputable 
 physician, in writing, certifies that such child with ordinary care 
 and treatment can become self-supporting by the time he reaches 
 his majority. 
 
 3 
 
10. What should be required as to legal custody, commitment, sur¬ 
 render, etc.? 
 
 A child who is to be placed in a free home with a view of permanence, 
 should either have been— 
 
 (a) Legally surrendered by the parents or surviving parent, or 
 
 (b) Removed from their custody as improper guardians by 
 an order of the court, coming under perview of Subsections 2 or 3 
 of Section 3, Chapter 405, Acts of 1919. 
 
 11. When a placed-out child, not legally adopted, is returned to the 
 placing-out agency, who is responsible for its support? 
 
 The institution to which it has been legally committed until such time * 
 as the child becomes of legal age, or is committed to some other institu¬ 
 tion by subsequent order of the court, or the original order of commitment 
 has been set aside; in which latter case the parent or parents if living, 
 become responsible for its maintenance, or if they are dead, have deserted « 
 
 or are incompetent, the county. 
 
 II. STANDARDS OF SUPERVISION 
 
 1. What should supervision include in the nature of: 
 
 (a) Personal visits by responsible trained agents. How often? 
 
 Personal visits by responsible trained agents should be made 
 
 as a rule at least twice a year. In cases where there is discontent 
 on either side, or doubt as to the desirability of the home, they 
 should be made as often as necessary. 
 
 (b) Correspondence with the foster parents or the child? 
 
 Friendly, and in some cases, instructive correspondence should 
 
 be carried on with the foster parents. If the child is placed in a 
 home when from six to twelve years of age, friendly correspondence 
 may be useful. In the case of a child placed when twelve years 
 of age or older, correspondence with the child should always be 
 maintained. 
 
 (c) Correspondence with school teachers? 
 
 Correspondence with school teachers of children of school age 
 is desirable, unless in exceptionally good homes where families 
 prefer not to have the teacher know that the child is not their 
 own. The school report should give a record of the child’s formal 
 school progress, his attendance and general position in the 
 community. 
 
 (d) Visits by or correspondence with local volunteers? 
 
 Visits by or correspondence with local volunteers is helpful in 
 
 special cases, but under ordinary circumstances it is best not to 
 emphasize the fact that the child is not in its natural home. 
 
 2. What should be the character of a visit of supervision? 
 
 Before visiting a child the agent should review the child’s his¬ 
 tory, and also the original investigation of the home, noting any * 
 
 points suggesting further inquiry. When a child is visited, the 
 agent should observe carefully the condition of the child, his health, 
 his clothing, his attitude toward the foster parents, whether or not 
 the child is happy, the amount of work he does, his progress in 
 education, where and with whom he sleeps, his opportunities for 
 play and possibilities for social life. The agent should also note 
 the condition of the home, particularly as to cleanliness, order, 
 comfort, the foster parents’ attitude toward the child, their method 
 of discipline, their plans for the child’s future. Any changes in 
 
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the home or home life should be noted. Agents should be instructed 
 not only to gather information, but to give constructive advice to 
 the family and child. Any child over eight years of age when 
 placed should be interviewed alone. If any question arises as to 
 the home or the child, some responsible person in the community 
 familiar with conditions in the home should be interviewed. 
 
 3. How long should such responsible supervision continue in regard to: 
 
 (a) Children who are not legally adopted? 
 
 Supervision should be continued until the children reach the age 
 of twenty-one, unless by reason of the exceptionally satisfactory 
 g character of a home and exceptionally close relation between foster 
 
 parents and the child it becomes evident at an earlier date that 
 further supervision can serve no useful purpose. The form and 
 purpose of supervision gradually changes as the child grows older, 
 
 ^ involving more and more, as time passes, of friendly advice and 
 
 counsel to the child in regard to matters of education and occupa¬ 
 tion. If the supervision is skilfully done, it gradually passes over 
 from control to friendly counsel, as it does between parent and 
 child. 
 
 When a child has been in a home for a period of five years or 
 more, and conditions of the home and the development of the child 
 have been satisfactory, an annual visit may be sufficient, or in a 
 few cases in which conditions are similar to legal adoption, the 
 supervision may consist of correspondence only. 
 
 Supervision in the case of older children should always include 
 a consideration of the training of the child in regard to earning 
 and spending money. If the child was placed in the home when ten 
 or twelve years of age, some compensation for his labor may 
 reasonably be suggested to the foster parents after he reaches the 
 age of sixteen or seventeen, provided he is not attending school. 
 Due allowance should be made for the period of time the child has 
 been in the home, and the amount of expenditure the foster parents 
 have necessarily incurred in his behalf. 
 
 As to children placed out when less than twelve years of age, 
 the wisdom of the foster parents granting a small allowance of 
 spending money to be used by the child in his discretion, with 
 friendly advice, may well be suggested. 
 
 (b) Children who are legally adopted? 
 
 Responsible supervision, of course, stops when legal adoption 
 takes place. It is desirable, however, that placing-out agencies . 
 should, when practicable, and when it can be done without danger 
 t of disturbing the relations between the child and the foster parents 
 
 or the community, secure information, from time to time, as to the 
 subsequent careers of children who are legally adopted, both for 
 the practical reason of being able to answer criticisms as to what 
 } finally becomes of such children, and for the scientific reason of 
 
 being able to form an increasingly wise judgment as time passes 
 as to the operations of heredity and environment. Placing-out 
 agencies should therefore be careful to place on record all informa¬ 
 tion which comes to them in the ordinary course of events concern¬ 
 ing children who have been legally adopted, and also, in so far as it 
 is practicable for them to do so, with the consent and approval of 
 the foster parents, to keep informed by correspondence with the 
 foster parents or others, as to the welfare of the child until it 
 reaches majority, or even subsequently. Naturally, very great 
 
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care must be taken to see that this is not done in such a way as 
 to cause embarrassment either to the child or the foster parents. 
 
 4. Standards of adoption. 
 
 (a) How long a time should elapse after placing-out before an 
 application for legal adoption will be considered? 
 
 At least six months should elapse before consent for legal 
 adoption is considered. Some agencies require one year; in some 
 instances a longer period of time will be found advisable. 
 
 (b) What children, if any, should not be legally adopted? 
 
 It is wise to delay permission for legal adoption of children in 
 whose family stock, on one or both sides, there is clear evidence i 
 of mental defect. However, if the foster parents, having been 
 fully informed of the child’s history and being sufficiently intelli¬ 
 gent to realize the responsibility they are assuming, still desire to 
 adopt the child and are willing that the placing-out agency should • 
 keep in sufficiently close touch with the child to be able to suggest 
 and assist in securing custodial care for the child, should mental 
 deficiency develop, consent for adoption may be given. Special 
 effort should be made in such cases to keep informed as to the 
 welfare of the child during minority. 
 
 (c) What standards should be required as to families to which 
 consent for legal adoption will be given? 
 
 The standards required as to families to which consent for 
 legal adoption should be given are not materially different from 
 those which should be required in case of the original placing-out. 
 Consideration of permission for adoption should, however, include 
 careful inquiry as to whether subsequent events have fully con¬ 
 firmed the judgment which approved the home originally. Consent 
 for adoption may appropriately be delayed or withheld, if there 
 is lack of sufficient intelligence or income in the family to give 
 reasonable assurance of the maintenance of high standards of 
 training and education without supervision from the placing-out 
 agency, or if there is any doubt as to the sincerity of affection for 
 the child, or the unselfishness of the motives for adopting. The 
 fact that the parties desiring to adopt have expended considerable 
 sums in maintaining a child over a period of time should not be 
 considered in determining the fitness of such persons to become 
 foster parents. Such persons have no right to detain a child by 
 reason of having bestowed such care and support. 
 
 III. STANDARDS OF AFTER-CARE 
 
 It is assumed that after definite, formal supervision is finished there 
 will be, in some cases at least, an opportunity, and in others, perhaps, a 
 necessity for after-care. How far should this be carried out by a society 
 which has placed-out children in families in the following respects: 
 
 (a) In seeking information as to the subsequent progress of 
 children who have been legally adopted? 
 
 By consent of foster parents supervision after adoption is desir¬ 
 able for both scientific and practical purposes, as in this way com¬ 
 plete records of the child’s development can be kept, and a study of 
 these helps in making it possible to revise present methods of work 
 in dealing with children who are placed and those who are to be 
 selected for placing. 
 
 (b) If this should be done at all, how should it be done, how 
 often, and until the child reaches what age? 
 
 6 
 
It should be done by correspondence and, when convenient, by 
 friendly personal visits, but care should be taken that the fact of 
 the adoption is not disclosed nor emphasized. Such visits every 
 second year are sufficient until the child is of age and self- 
 supporting or married. If after adoption is completed there is a 
 radical change in the family life, such as the death of one of the 
 foster parents, or if the child has developed in any way abnormally, 
 regular supervision should be maintained. 
 
 (c) In the case of children who have not been legally adopted, 
 but who are especially promising in some line, how far should the 
 society go in securing opportunities for special education, training 
 or care in those lines? 
 
 As much as possible should be done in securing opportunities 
 for special training for promising children, even after formal 
 ^ supervision has stopped. 
 
 (d) In the case of children no longer under definite formal su¬ 
 pervision, but who have developed weaknesses or tendencies to go 
 wrong, how far should friendly interest and informal supervision 
 continue, and to what age? 
 
 In the case of children who have developed subnormal or ab¬ 
 normal tendencies, formal supervision should, if possible, continue 
 until the child has been committed to some special institution, 
 placed in the care of some responsible organization, or until some 
 private individual assumes the responsiblity or permanent interest. 
 
 Children Returned to Their Own Homes 
 
 1. What constitutes an adequate investigation of an application 
 from parents or relatives, for the return of a child from the care of a 
 society to their custody? 
 
 Before returning the child to the custody of parents an investigation 
 should show that they are morally and financially able to give the child 
 proper care, protection and training. If a child is to be returned to 
 relatives other than parents, the investigation of the home 'should be as 
 thorough as that for a free foster home. 
 
 2. Should such an investigation concern itself with any other matters 
 than the moral suitability of the parents or relatives to look after the 
 children? 
 
 In considering the return of a child to parents, lower economic stand¬ 
 ards can be accepted than those required in a foster home. Poverty alone' 
 should not, as a rule, prevent the return of a child to its parents. 
 
 3. If such an investigation should take into account the income, finan- 
 * cial circumstances and sanitary condition of the home, should a different 
 
 standard be accepted than would be required in placing-out a child in a 
 foster home? 
 
 A lower standard can be accepted in case of children returned to 
 4 parents or to older brothers or sisters, provided it is sufficiently high to 
 assure moral protection and physical welfare. 
 
 4. After a child has been returned to his parents or relatives by a 
 placing-out society, what degree of supervision should the society exercise 
 over the child? 
 
 (a) If the child has been in the care of the society for less than 
 six months? 
 
 When a placing-out agency investigates histories of children 
 carefully before placing them in homes, as should invariably be 
 done, there would rarely be a sufficiently radical change in the 
 
 7 
 
family situation within six months to warrant the return to his 
 parents of a child who had previously been permanently removed. 
 If the circumstances justify the return of the child to his parents 
 within six months, ordinarily there would be no duty of subsequent 
 supervision. If the child is returned to other relatives, the super¬ 
 vision should be sufficient for a period of three years to show 
 whether the return was justifiable, and in doubtful cases should be 
 further continued. 
 
 (b) If the child has been in the care of the society for longer 
 than six months and less than three years? 
 
 Supervision should continue long enough to assure the placing- 
 out agency that the child is properly and permanently provided for. 
 
 (c) If the child has been in the care of the society for longer 
 than three years? 
 
 Supervision should continue the same as if the child had been 
 placed in a free home. 
 
 Records 
 
 What should be regarded as the essential records to be kept in placing- 
 out, supervision and after-care of children? 
 
 A complete record in permanent form should include all the facts 
 collected in connection with the investigation of the family history of the 
 child (see Standards of Placing-out, 8), with the investigation of the 
 child’s foster home (see Standards of Placing-out, 1 to 7), and with 
 every visit made and all the correspondence in the supervision, including 
 copies of all letters to and from the family and the child, or about them. 
 All formal documents such as birth certificates, vaccination certificates, 
 school cards, etc., should be filed with the child’s record. Records should 
 be kept in such a form that the information is readily accessible. Written 
 records should be made of all important arrangements made by the 
 placing-out society or by any of its supervising agents, either with the 
 family or with the child. 
 
 Trained Service 
 
 What degree of training should be required on the part of persons 
 who are to be employed as agents for placing-out or supervision of chil¬ 
 dren, and what salaries will it be necessary to pay to secure such 
 services? 
 
 Only people of judgment, intelligence and ability to get along with 
 different types of people are useful as children’s agents. A good general 
 education, special training or its equivalent in experience in social work, 
 teaching, nursing, etc., should be required. A college education or training 
 in -schools for social work is desirable. 
 
 Confidential Nature of the Work 
 
 Placing-out work is essentially confidential in its nature, and all inter¬ 
 views and records should be so regarded. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 Mrs. Henry L. Corbett, 
 
 Mrs. E. C. Giltner, 
 
 Dr. Jas. W. Rosenfeld, 
 
 Dr. Philip A. Parsons. 
 
 Wm. D. Wheelwright, Chairman. 
 
 Mrs. Harriet H. Heller, Secretary. 
 
 8