Foster parents will be responsible for caring for your child, but they don’t have any legal rights over your child. You remain your child’s legal guardian in most situations.
When foster care is arranged through Oranga Tamariki, the court will make Oranga Tamariki an additional guardian so they can provide day-to-day care of your child. This gives Oranga Tamariki the right to place your child in a foster care arrangement.
If a foster family has had your child in their care for a long period of time they could apply to the court for additional guardianship and for day-to-day care, in place of Oranga Tamariki (this is called “Home for Life”). You would still be a guardian unless the court decided you were no longer fit to be a guardian. The situation has to be very serious for the court to decide to remove someone as a guardian, so this does not happen very often.