The main goal of foster care is to provide a safe place for children to stay until it is safe for them to return to their biological families.  Hopefully foster care is temporary and problems in the child’s home can be resolved quickly.  When parents can work things out, returning home is best for children.

Unfortunately, some families are unable to resolve their problems.  Sometimes it is not possible for children to return home.  When this happens, the state is responsible to find a permanent home for the children.

Parents are generally given 12 months from the time their children go into foster care to “make right” the problems in their home.  After that, the child’s right to a permanent home begins to take priority.  After 12 months the court begins to make the difficult decision of what will be the long-term plan for the child.  At this time if the child is still unable to return home, adoption is one of the options that is considered.  For children under the age of 3, the court may begin this process after the child has been in foster care as few as eight months.

There are two ways to adopt children from foster care:

1.     Waiting Children:  This is what most people think of when talking about adoption.  “Waiting Children” refers to children who are waiting to be adopted.  These are usually children who have been in foster care for more than a year and it has already been determined that they will not be able to return home. The court process of taking away their biological parents’ rights to them has already occurred.  These children are also sometimes referred to as “legally free.”  When a waiting child is placed with a family it is intended that the family adopt that child.

2.     Foster-to-adopt:  This refers to foster families who adopt a child in foster care that they have been caring for.  This is sometimes called “legal risk foster care” or “legal risk adoption”.  This means that the child is in foster care and has a goal to return home.  However, the child has been placed with a foster family chosen to adopt the child if that child is unable to return home.  The practice of placing children in foster care with potential adoptive families is referred to as concurrent planning – when a “return home” and potential “adoption” plan are occurring at the same time.  You will know you have been identified as the potential adoptive family for a child when an “Intent to Adopt” form has been signed for that child.  In these cases, the foster family is expected to support the efforts to help the child return home as long as that is the goal.  While this can be challenging for some families hoping to adopt, most children adopted from the foster care system are adopted by the foster family they have been living with.