Foster parents provide temporary homes for children who cannot live safely with their parents or legal guardians. Many children are placed with relatives, while others are placed with foster parents. In 2012, there were about 400,000 children in foster care at any given time, according to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS 2012).5
When allegations of abuse or neglect are substantiated, parents must follow a case plan if they want to remain with or be reunified with their children. Parents who satisfactorily meet the requirements of their case plan are reunited with their children. In other cases, courts terminate parental rights and children become “legally free” for adoption. In 2012, the case plan for about half of all children in foster care was reunification with parents or guardians while the plan for about a quarter of the children was adoption. Other permanency goals include long-term foster care or guardianship placement with relatives.
Children whose parents’ parental rights have been terminated and are legally free to be adopted are often referred to as “waiting children.” While waiting for a “forever family,” children are most often placed in relative or non-relative foster homes while a small percentage, usually children with severe mental, medical or physical challenges, are placed in group homes or hospitals. Some foster children experience multiple foster placements before they are adopted. Approximately 100,000 children in the United States are waiting to be adopted, according to AFCARS 2012.6
TRUTHS ABOUT OLDER CHILD ADOPTION
Adoption of children from the US foster care system, sometimes referred to as public adoption, has been increasing over the past three decades and accounts for about 40 percent of all adoptions by Americans (the remaining adoptions are of American-born infants voluntarily relinquished by biological parents and international adoptions).7 A majority of older children adopted in the United States are adopted by their foster parents. Not all foster parents adopt children in their care, however—they may be unwilling or unable to make a lifetime commitment to the child. A growing number of foster children are being adopted by family members, due in part to state programs and federal incentives encouraging kinship adoption. In most states, relative caregivers of children removed from their parents have first priority in adoption.8 Some family members prefer legal guardianship to allow the child’s parents a greater measure of involvement in the child’s life. The remaining children adopted out of foster care—many considered “hard to place”—are adopted by persons unrelated to them.
| COMMON MYTHS ABOUT OLDER CHILD ADOPTION | |
| MYTH | FACT |
| Most foster children are juvenile delinquents. | Most foster children are caught up in the child welfare system through no fault of their own. |
| Most older children and teens waiting to be adopted have significant mental health problems and need to live in institutions. | Very few foster children live in institutions and the vast majority function normally. |
| Domestic older child adoption is expensive. | Generally there is no cost to adopting from the public system, and you may receive monthly adoption subsidies. |
| Older teens in foster care don’t need adoptive families; they will do just fine on their own. | Were you able to live independently at sixteen, eighteen or even twenty-one? Teens aging out of foster care without a permanent family face serious lifelong challenges. |
ADOPTIONS FROM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM
It is important that prospective adoptive parents of older American children become familiar with the foster care system, because their future child most likely will have spent time in foster care. Foster care is meant to be a safe place for children but sometimes it does more harm than good if children are moved from home to home or experience maltreatment in a foster home. Children in foster care already have experienced the trauma of being separated from their biological parents. Being moved in and out of foster care homes can aggravate this trauma and cause further emotional and behavioral problems. One adoptive mother told us, “…Regardless of what happened with her first family, I believe the five years bouncing around foster care is what caused [my daughter] the most trauma.” Most children only have one or two foster placements but about 15 percent experience multiple placements. According to AFCARS in 2012, close to 30 percent of all foster children have been in care for more than two years.9 Children who are in foster care for many years are more likely to experience multiple placements.
Children also suffer when they are not integrated in a meaningful way into a foster family. Some foster children describe feeling as if they are little more than house guests. Despite the problems some foster children experience, living with a foster care family can be positive for many children, especially if the foster family is loving and supportive and wants to have a permanent relationship with the child.
Prospective adoptive parents considering adopting a specific foster child should ask questions about how long the child has been in care and what his experience was like. This knowledge will help adoptive parents develop empathy for their child and understand why certain behaviors are manifesting. Pre-adoptive parents may even want to speak to the child’s current and/or former foster parents to get a sense of what type of experience the child had and how well he adjusted to a positive family environment.
FOST-ADOPT
Achieving “permanency” for children is a guiding principle in contemporary child welfare practice. In order of priority, permanency for a child engaged in the system means either reunification with parents or relatives, adoption or long-term foster care. Generally, for older children and teens interested in being adopted, an agency pursues two concurrent tracks toward permanency: reunification with the biological parents or adoption by a foster or relative caregiver. Agencies prefer to license and place children with foster caregivers who are willing to adopt them should they become legally free to be adopted.
Foster adoption, or fost-adopt, programs allow foster parents to adopt a child in their care should that child become legally free for adoption. In many areas, participating in fost-adopt programs is the quickest and surest way to adopt a child. Fost-adopt parents undergo screening, preparation and have to fulfill foster parent licensing requirements. Each state sets its own guidelines about the amount of training and preparation foster parents must receive. Fost-adopt parents receive public subsidies for their service and may receive reimbursements and other benefits to assist in the care of their foster child(ren).
Some prospective adoptive parents decide the best route to adoptive parenthood is through a fost-adopt program; however, foster-adoption is not for everyone. Foster parents must accept the risk that their foster child, whom they may grow to love very much, could be reunified with his or her biological parent(s). Not being able to adopt a beloved foster child can be heart-wrenching, so prospective adoptive parents must understand this risk before entering a fost-adopt program. Some prospective adoptive parents may prefer the fost-adopt route to parenthood, because it can be easier and faster than adopting a legally free child, because they will have time to get to know the child prior to permanently adopting him or because there is a greater likelihood of adopting a baby or toddler. Contact your local or state child welfare agency to learn more about fost-adopt.
WAITING CHILDREN
Think about the background and characteristics of the child you would like to adopt. Educate yourself about the common problems and issues that waiting children may face and think about the types of behaviors or challenges you think you and your family could cope with. As you decide what type of child you would like to adopt, think about or discuss with your partner or spouse the following questions:
• Do I/we want to adopt an elementary-school-age child or a teenager?
• How important are the racial or cultural characteristics of the child?