If I Am a Foster Parent Can I Adopt My Foster Child?

 

That said, if your long-term custody of a foster child has resulted in your wanting to adopt that child, it could be heartwarming or heartbreaking.  Adoption may cement the bond that was already created while you had custody of a foster child.  On the other hand, foster care laws make it difficult to predict when you can translate custody of a foster child to foster child adoption.  There are many reasons for this.
 

First, because foster care laws mandate that custody of a foster child remains with the birth parents until their death, until they voluntarily terminate it, or until social services forces them to terminate it.  Foster care laws have established a system that gives custody of a foster child to caring volunteers as a substitute for birth parents who are unable to exercise appropriate custody of a foster child.  The child may have been abused, parents may have been unable or unwilling to care for them, they may have been abandoned, they may have been exposed to drugs, and more.  In those cases, it is up to foster care laws and social services to determine if and when birth parents can resume custody of a foster child or when those parental rights must be forcibly terminated.  Sometimes foster parents with custody of a foster child who are awaiting foster child adoption have a long wait, often with no end in sight, to learn if they can ever satisfy all the foster care laws and complete the foster care adoption of the child they have come to love.
 

Foster care laws state that after 18 months, the system may begin to consider whether the birth parents’ legal rights to custody of a foster child may be forcibly terminated.  With no set time in foster care laws for that action, however, some foster parents who have custody of a foster child must wait two years and often much longer to be notified that they can move from mere custody of a foster child into beginning their foster child adoption. 
 

Steps to Adoption by Foster Parents
The first step, then, in your foster child adoption is to learn how long the child you wish to adopt has been in the system, as foster care laws can allow custody of a foster child to change often.  Foster care laws indicate that after at least 18 months, it may be possible to begin your foster care adoption.  At that point, according to foster care laws, you petition social services for permission to begin your foster child adoption. 
 

Foster care laws are unique and can sometimes be subjective.  No matter how long you have had custody of a foster child and how well you think you know the system, once you begin the foster child adoption process, you may need an experienced lawyer to help you negotiate the requirements of adoption and foster care laws, and to make the case for your foster child adoption.  
 

If social services begin the formal process of terminating the birth parents’ custody of a foster child, you can begin the foster child adoption process.  This starts with a petition for foster child adoption in court.  Your lawyer will help you fill out and file these papers in the proper location.  These petitions vary by state, but most containing information, including:

General background information on you and your spouse
 

During this process, you must go through a home study.  This is a part of state law, not foster care laws.  These studies vary by state, but they are often extensive.  Their purpose is to educate you on the foster child adoption process; to provide the adoption agency or court with information about you to ensure that you are matched with the right child; and to evaluate you and your family, especially while you had custody of a foster child, as to your fitness to have your foster child adoption approved.  While every state’s home study is different, most are similar, including your interview, an interview with your friends and family, and a study of your home, your finances, your past driving and (if applicable) criminal record, your neighborhood, your religion, and more. 
 

Even though you have had custody of a foster child for months or even years and followed foster care laws carefully, these formal investigations must occur.  Be patient; be helpful; be thorough with your answers.  Your family law attorney can help you locate and provide the kind of information, especially about your custody of a foster child, the interviewers need. 
 

The Adoption Hearing
Once all the paperwork is filed, and state and foster care laws have been satisfied, your lawyer and the court must notify all interested parties about the potential foster child adoption.  At that point you will appear in court to present your foster child adoption case before a judge.  Your adoption attorney or family lawyer will represent you and deal with any problems with state or foster care laws that may arise in your foster care adoption.  You never know what may happen in a foster care adoption, but if you have gotten this far, often it is likely that you and your attorney have fulfilled all the foster care laws for adoption as well as your state adoption laws.  It will then be up to the judge to determine if custody of a foster child can become a foster care adoption.