Adoption Through The Foster Care System

There are many viewpoints of adoption. This is the aspect of adopting a child through the foster care system.

Adoption is a process of transferring the legal custody of a child from one legal guardian to another. In most cases the child is not related to their adopted parents. However, there are a number of adoptions whereas the custody of the child is transferred to another family member such as an aunt and uncle or grandparents.

There is always a need for more foster parents. Foster parents generally work with their county Department of Social Services. There are also a large number of foster parents that work with private agencies. These private agencies contract with the county, state or handle private placement of children. When foster parents decide to foster children, they will attend training through the county or the agency that they sign up with. The initial training is an orientation to foster care and other necessary information designed to outline the duties and responsibilities of becoming foster parents. There is yearly ongoing training available and it is necessary for all foster parents to keep current on their training requirements. There are various foster parent associations available for foster parents to join and this is highly recommended. By joining these organizations, the foster parent is kept informed of information that is pertinent to being a foster parent. Regarding this information, there are various resources for training and the foster parents can choose training that is pertinent to issues that they are not familiar with or that they are dealing with in their homes at the present time.

Foster parents can be couples, a single mom or a single dad. In a lot of cases couples that have already raised their own children choose to do foster care because they just like to have children around them. Some parents will take in a foster child or two while they are raising their own families. Some parents raise foster children because they can't have children of their own. There are as many reasons to become a foster parent as apples on an apple tree.

Why are children in the foster care system? On the top of the list is Abuse and Neglect. For various reasons, children that are placed in the foster care system for this reason are not or have not been taken care of properly by their legal guardian. Often they are subjected to physical abuse that is noticed and reported by another responsible adult. (Their are adults due to their job functions that are legally obligated to report any suspicion of abuse to either the Department of Social Services or the Police Department.) Sometimes the situation is traumatic for the children and the out of home placement for them can be an extended period of time. Often this is accompanied by obligations that the parents will have to accomplish in order for their children to be returned to their homes. At other times, a requirement might be placed on the family to accomplish certain tasks over the period of 2-3 days and if completed, their children would be returned upon completion of these tasks. These are the less severe situations such as having a clean and safe environment for the children to live in.

The next part of the process is where do the children go next? As mentioned previously, if the situation is not too severe, the children might be returned to their homes in just a few days. If the parents do not meet the requirements of their obligations to have their children returned, then the situation would need to be reviewed to determine what course of action would be necessary. In some of the cases, it is evident early on that these particular children would be available for either long term foster care or adoption. In these cases, the parental rights would be terminated and the child would be available for adoption.

There are a lot of children available for adoption through the foster care system. Children are available for adoption by various means and agencies. As well as adoptions at the county level, there are privately arranged adoptions, private agency adoptions and international adoptions. We are focussing on the county level adoption due to the cost factor. The private agency and international adoptions can be quite costly. The privately arranged adoption could be costly as well but could also be arranged to cover the costs involved in arranging the adoption. With the county Foster/Adopt programs, the costs involved in adoption is covered by the county or reimbursed.

Through the county foster/adoption system, children that it appears will be available for adoption are placed in homes that the foster parents are planning to adopt. The county is mandated to moving the child a minimum amount of times. If the situation with the child's home looks as though there is a strong possibility of termination of parental rights, then there is an attempt to place the child in a home with foster/adopt parents.

There is a push for more adoptions of children in the foster care system due to the mandates placed on the county Department of Social Services to provide more comprehensive permanency planning. The horrific stories that some of these children carry with them are traumatic enough without adding trauma by being moved from one foster home to another to another over the ensuing years. The foster/adopt programs at the county level just became an extension of the foster care programs that were already in operation.

The average family raising their own children would probably raise 2-3 children over the course of 20 years that their children may be living in their home. In the same 20 years, a foster family may touch the lives of 100-200 children that may be in their care for 2-3 weeks, months or years each. So many foster children are raised in a number of different homes. With the foster/adopt program, there is more stability for the child. The child also feels a stronger sense of belonging and being cared for.

Children do not forget their foster parents as those that are raised in their natural homes do not forget their natural parents. Being foster parents can often be frustrating when children come and go so often as the parents only have a short time to make a lasting impression. Adoption allows for a long term relationship between the adoptive parents and the adopted child. Often this makes a tremendous difference in the outcome of one's life. Children also learn from their parents and often is the case that children that are raised in foster care homes become foster parents themselves.

As adoptive parents, there are a lot of resources available for training and support. Some of the foster parent associations provide support for the adoptive parents as well. There are also a number of support associations for adoptive parents specifically. If considering adopting children, this is one avenue that you will want to investigate. You should check around with the various organizations, associations and foster and adoptive parents to find what would be right for you. If you are thinking about it, go through the orientation training before you make a commitment.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to adoption.guide-for-you.com Adoption