Annotation: This guide provides information and guidance for working with pregnant and parenting youth, helping them as they develop both as individuals and as parents through positive casework interactions. The guide encourages a strengths-based approach to ensure the safety of both young parents and their children. It offers suggestions for engaging young parents in conferencing and supportive services while highlighting the importance of maintaining a young parent’s right to privacy and autonomy, and emphasize comprehensive planning for pregnant young people to promote well being, to minimize the need for court intervention, to ensure placement stability and to help young families move more quickly toward permanency. The guide is designed to be used primarily by provider agency case planners, but may also be useful to child protective staff, Family Services Unit staff, parent advocates, attorneys and others who work with this vulnerable population. Topics in planning and services for young parents in out of home care include: legal issues, father participation, collaborative planning and permanency, preventive services, child safety conferences, court intervention, pregnancy-related services, medical home visiting programs, parenting supports, counseling and mental health services, education, child care, and preparing a young parent for leaving foster care. Appendices provide resources for services in adolescent reproductive health, breastfeeding, the WIC program, support services and assistance, teen father support, mentoring and mental health, housing support, legal information, education, hoe visiting, and parenting education programs. Tips sheets are provided on mandatory reporting, early care and education, public housing, and transitional Medicaid.
Keywords: Adolescent parents, Adolescents, Child welfare, Family support services, Foster care, New York, Out of home care, Parent education, Social services, State initiatives, Youth in transition programs
