Adoption of Children in Foster Care – Assisting Foster Parents, Birth Parents, and Others
Foster Parents
If you are a foster parent seeking to adopt a foster child currently in your care, we can help. In most cases, you will utilize our services to finalize the adoption following termination of parental rights in the dependency case. In most cases, that is when the Florida Department of Children and Families will authorize you to begin the adoption proceedings. We can process the adoption court proceedings for you, and the Department will pay all of your legal fees and expenses.
In other cases, you may prefer to speed up the process and enlist our services before parental rights are terminated in the dependency case. In these situations, we will process both the termination of parental rights case and the adoption case. We may assist you whether your status is still that of a temporary foster parent, relative caregiver, or permanent guardian.
Birth Parents
If you are a birth parent with a child in the foster care system, we can offer a very positive solution. We understand that having your child taken into the foster care system, and sometimes languishing there for months, or even years, can be extremely traumatic for you and your child. In order to act in their child’s best interest, many birth parents prefer to have their child immediately removed from the foster care system and adopted by a stable and loving two-parent home. If you are a birth parent with a child in the foster care system, we can assist in having your child immediately removed from foster care and placed for private adoption with one of our adoptive families, with your relatives, or with some other adoptive family selected by you. This will permit you to immediately rescue your child from the state’s foster care system, and result in your dependency court case to be closed. It will also permit you to immediately begin receiving photos and information about your child. If, instead, you elect to leave your child in the foster care system, and your parental rights are eventually terminated by the state in the dependency case, you will have no such assurances.
Other Persons Desiring To Adopt A Child From The Foster Care System
If you are not a foster parent, but know of a child in the foster care system that you would like to adopt, contact us. We may be able to help you make it happen.