Many families interested in adopting a baby or child from the state foster care system may find they are encouraged to become a Foster to Adopt family.
It is estimated there are over a half million children in the foster care system at any given moment in the United States. The State is in the position of finding families for children and not children for families. When it means finding a safe and stable home for one or more of the children in foster care it means the state has an obligation to ask families to consider becoming a resource for children.
Families interested in adopting a child should understand the Foster to Adopt program is the highest risk situation an interested adoptive family may accept. Often, the children are placed on an emergency basis with an approved family and it is impossible to predict the outcome no matter what anyone in the system might think of the situation. There is no way to know which children will be reunited with their biological parents or placed with a family member. No matter what the odds are when a caseworker says, “This child is a good case for adoption.” the process to get to adoption can be a painful roller coaster ride with the foster family stuck in the middle.
The initial plan will always be to work toward reunification. In some cases when the biological family has a history with the state a case plan may be fast tracked but in most cases it will be a year and a half before a family will know if adoption is going to be the plan. Often even when adoption is the case plan it is concurrent with the reunification plan and may take another year before a child is free to be adopted.
During this time in many cases the fostering family will have some major obligations with the state. Many foster families will be responsible for facilitating weekly visitations with the biological family. There will be regular visits to the home by a case worker, and involvement in the process leading up to the termination of parental rights.
There are some advantages to Foster to Adopt in that often families have newborns placed, or much younger children. The baby or child placed will suffer fewer attachment issues having had one stable family during the time they are in foster care. Should the child eventually be adopted there will be fewer emotional issues. Foster to adopt is wonderful for the child when everything works the way it should. But, foster to adopt can be a heart breaker for an adoptive family especially when they started out with the intention of only adopting.
There are some people who have wonderful stories to share about the first newborn baby placed and it leading to an adoption but this is the exception. Statistics can be difficult to come by and each state seems to have their own method of counting but, in general of all the children placed into a foster family more than 80% will either be reunited with their biological parent or placed with a relative of the child’s family.
The bottom line foster to adopt families need to understand is that it is unlikely they will adopt the first child placed in their home. If you are they kind of parents who are able to love a child not knowing and allow the child to return to a situation you might find less then perfect than foster to adopt might be right for you. In future entries I will discuss many of the issues foster to adopt families face.
If you cannot see yourself emotionally able to keep in mind the goal of foster care is always reunification then you might want to consider the pre-adoptive or straight adoption programs which will be in the next article I write.
Special Needs and Adoption-Related Terms:
A | B | C | D | E-F | G-H-I | J-K-L | M | N-O | P | Q-R | S | T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
For more information about parenting special needs children you might want to visit the Families.com Special Needs Blog and the Mental Health Blog. Or visit my personal website.