Diagnostic Home

Temporary home in which a child is placed pending determination of whether he or she should reside in a foster home, which will help the social worker reunite the child with the birthparents, or a legal risk home (see AT RISK PLACEMENT), which is likely to adopt the child if and when parental rights are terminated.

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According to author Ann Hartman, there are certain problems involved in placing a child in a diagnostic home. "A temporary placement in a 'diagnostic home' entails an additional move for the child. Moreover, such a plan suggests that the worker can make a determination in the space of sixty days or less concerning whether the goal is adoption or return home. However, some believe that such a prejudgment, early in a situation and before a legal determination is made, may have the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Ann Hartman, "Practice in Adoption," in A Handbook of Child Welfare: Context, Knowledge and Practice (New York: Free Press, 1985).

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©2000 by Christine Adamec and William Pierce, Ph.D. Reprinted from The Encyclopedia of Adoption, 2nd Edition (2nd Edition) with permission of Facts On File, Inc.