Children’s Rights
Are you a child or youth receiving services from FACS Niagara?
Do you live in a foster home, group home or secure treatment facility?
Are you currently in a youth justice facility?
Are you receiving services for your mental health, a developmental or physical disability?
You have RIGHTS that have been outlined in the Child, Youth and Family Services Act (CYFSA)
Your RIGHTS include:
- Express my own views freely and safely about matters that affect me
- Be engaged in decisions that affect me, including about my identity, creed and community, and have my views given due weight in light of my age and maturity
- Have a say in the services I receive
- Express my concerns and suggest changes to those services and to be told about the decisions made about those services
- Be informed of my rights
- Be informed about the Ontario Ombudsman and how to contact that Office
- Express my views about my treatment, education, work program, creed, community, identity and cultural identity and have my views given due weight in decision-making
- Have a say in any decision about my placement in or discharge/transfer from a residential placement
- Be informed about the procedures for making a complaint to the CAS and the Child and Family Services Review Board and of my right to ask for a review of my placement by the Residential Placement Advisory Committee
- Know the rules of the home in which I live and my responsibilities while living there
- Talk in private and receive visits from my lawyer, the Ombudsman, or a member of the Legislative of Ontario or the Parliament of Canada
- Speak in private and visit with members of my family, subject to some limits set out in the Child Youth and Family Services Act
- Send and receive communication that is not opened or altered, except as permitted by the Act
- Reasonable privacy and possession of my own things
- Take part in activities of my choice related to my creed, community identity and cultural identity
- A plan of care designed to meet my needs, prepared within 30 days of admission to care, and to participate in its development
- Be asked what aspects of my identity are important to me, have them considered in decisions that are made, and be offered a resource person to support me in meeting my needs related to my identity
- Have access to good quality food and well-balanced meals
- Be given appropriate clothing for my activities and the weather
- Receive regular medical and dental care
- Receive an education that is right for me
- Take part in recreational, athletic and creative activities that are right for me
- Be provided with French Languages services if that is my preferred language
- Be asked what aspects of my identity and regional differences are important to me, and if I am a First Nations, Inuk or Metis child, about my cultures, heritages, traditions and connection to community; to have these matters considered in decision that are made, and be offered a resource person to support me in meeting my needs related to these matters
- I also cannot be physically punished, locked up or detained (except under the criminal law), and restrained by physical or mechanical means except as expressly authorized by the CYFSA
