Families interested in adopting through the state have some options as to how children are placed and what method they are willing to adopt a baby, child or sibling group. There are primarily two different paths a family will be asked to consider. Straight Adoption, also called pre-adoptive placement, or the Foster to Adopt program. In a future blog I will discuss the Straight adoptive placement.
When the Adoption and Safe Families Act, ASFA, was passed by the federal government in 1997 one key change that affected each state was the mandate which allowed foster families to adopt a child who was in their care, when the child’s case plan changed from reunification to adoption. Prior to the passage of the ASFA many states had laws preventing foster parents from adopting a child in their care. These states had an opinion that a foster families role was to work with the state and birth families and aide in reunification plans. The states with these laws felt allowing a foster family to adopt might sabotage the efforts for reunification and therefore created a conflict of interest.
It was clear however, many children had been in care with the same family for so long that moving the infant or child to another adoptive placement did more harm than good for the child. Attachment disorders often develop with children who are moved. In order to help avoid later attachment issues adoption by the foster family was seen as a positive change. At the same time thousands of older children who had lived in the same foster family for years waiting for an adoptive placement aged out and became adults without ever having been adopted. Allowing their foster parents to officially adopt them was seen as a positive change and meant that these young adults would not go into the world without a place to visit on the holidays or a family to call their own.
There are many complexities and issues that Foster To Adopt families need to consider if they choose to take this path. I will address many of these issues in my next entry. In a nut shell however, the biggest issue Foster To Adopt families must consider is the first and primary goal of foster care. Which is to work to help the state and allow biological families to become able parents – with the goal of returning the child to the biological family. Only after all the time and effort to assist the baby or child’s birth family has failed and the state has ruled out any interested relatives of the birth family will the foster family be in a position of being consider an adoption resource.
My next entry will address some of the concerns and issues Foster to Adopt Families encounter.
Special Needs and Adoption-Related Terms:
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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.