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Waiting Children
Foster Care and Adoption Basics
By National Adoption Information Clearinghouse
Can foster families adopt? Can adoptive families provide foster care?
Many families are interested in both fostering and adopting. They agree with the agency that the children's needs come first. In most cases, this means helping prepare children for reunification with their birth family, mentoring the birth parents or working toward a relative or kinship placement. When termination of parental rights is in the children's best interest and adoption is their plan, then foster parents who have cared for the children often are given the opportunity to adopt. Some states certify families for adoption and foster care at the beginning of the process to speed up the placement process, reduce the number of moves a child makes and allow relationships to evolve with the initial placement process. Across the United States, 65 percent of children adopted from the foster care system are adopted by their foster parents. (1) Another 15 percent are adopted by relatives. (2) In some states, a "buddy system" has been developed in which experienced foster families, who understand the challenges and rewards of foster parenting, are available to share experiences with new families and give support.
Many States also have local foster parent associations and adoption support groups that help with training and support activities for foster and adoptive families.
Contacts
For more information about becoming a foster or adoptive family through the public system, contact the Department of Social Services in your State. (1)AFCARS Report, January 2000
(2)AFCARS Report, January 2000
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