When a parent/child relationship is severed, either voluntarily or through court action, adoption staff develop and implement a permanency plan for the child. These workers recruit, study and approve adoptive families, including relatives and foster parents, educate prospective adoptive parents, place children in adoptive homes and work with the child/adoptive parents until and sometimes after the adoption has been finalized. Children in need of adoption are those who have been in families served by child protection, are often older, handicapped, minority, or in sibling groups.