Child Welfare Information Gateway

Children’s Bureau/ACYF

1250 Maryland Avenue, SW

Eighth Floor

Washington, DC 20024

800.394.3366

Email: info@childwelfare.gov

https://www.childwelfare.gov

BULLETIN FOR 

PROFESSIONALS

January 2013

Use your smartphone to 

access this bulletin online.

Preparing and 

Supporting Foster 

Parents Who Adopt What’s Inside:

• Trends in foster parent adoption

• Benefits of foster parent adoption

• Costs of foster parent adoption

• Practice implications with children 

and parents

• Pre- and postadoption services

• Questions for further research

Child welfare practitioners are increasingly aware 

of the importance of foster parents as permanency 

resources for children and youth in foster care. 

Many children in foster care who become available 

for adoption are adopted by their foster parents. 

In order to facilitate these types of adoption, 

professionals should be knowledgeable about the 

benefits, costs, and practice implications.
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

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Trends in Foster Parent 

Adoption

Foster parents are the most important source 

of adoptive families for children in the child 

welfare system. According to the Adoption 

and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting 

System (AFCARS), in fiscal year 2011, 54 

percent of children adopted from foster care 

were adopted by their foster parents (U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services, 

2012). Data from the 2007 National Survey 

of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) and the 2007 

National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) 

show that among children adopted from foster 

care by nonrelatives, 8 out of 10 (80 percent) 

were adopted by their foster parents (Office 

of the Assistant Secretary of Planning and 

Evaluation, 2011). 

Foster parents were not always preferred 

candidates for adoptive parenthood. Earlier in 

child welfare practice, distinctions were made 

between foster parents, who were seen as 

temporary caregivers, and adoptive parents, 

who were specially matched with a particular 

child for permanent placement. 

Additionally, if parents decided to discontinue 

foster parenting after they adopted, or if the 

number of children in the home after a child’s 

adoption exceeded the number allowed by 

State policy, then the agency lost a foster 

home. The practice of discouraging adoption 

by foster parents continued through the 

mid-1970s, when two in three States either 

prohibited or warned against the practice 

(Festinger, 1974). By the early 1980s the tide 

had turned, influenced by a combination 

of foster parent activism and permanency 

planning projects that demonstrated the 

benefits of foster parent adoption. The result 

was the passage of the Federal Adoption 

Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 

(P.L. 96-272), which supported foster parent 

adoption by making subsidies available for 

children adopted from foster care (Proch, 

1981). It took a great deal of time—more than 

30 years—and the passage of several Federal 

laws to shift practice toward acknowledging 

the important role foster parents play in 

achieving permanence for children and 

youth. Now, foster parents are recognized as 

valuable resources for waiting children. While 

26 States give priority to a child’s relatives 

when he or she enters out-of-home care, 28 

States provide procedures for foster parents 

to adopt when their child becomes legally 

free for adoption. More information on these 

State procedures and requirements is available 

in Information Gateway’s Home Study 

Requirements for Prospective Foster Parents:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/

laws_policies/statutes/homestudyreqs.

pdf#Page=7&view=Fit).

Foster parent adoption is also the basis for 

two well-recognized practices in adoption, 

legal risk placements and concurrent planning. 

In legal risk placements, children whose 

situations indicate that parental rights will 

likely be terminated—legally freeing children 

and youth for adoption—are placed with 

foster parents who are willing to adopt. In 

concurrent planning, a practice supported by 

the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 

1997, the permanency goal of reunification is 

supplemented by an alternative goal (often, 

adoption) to ensure that if reunification is not 

possible, the child has a clearly identified 

permanency option that can quickly be 

put in place. Children and youth are often 

placed with foster families who would 
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consider adoption should reunification with 

birth parents or other relatives become 

impossible, thus minimizing the number of 

placements children experience. For this 

model to work, these foster parents must be 

able to support both the reunification plan, 

as well as the plan for adoption. After the 

passage of ASFA, adoption from foster care 

increased 65 percent between 1997 and 2000. 

Additionally, foster parent adoption increased 

after ASFA’s passage—28 percent between 

1998 and 1999 alone (DeVooght et al., 2011). 

More information on concurrent planning is 

available in Information Gateway’s Concurrent 

Planning: What the Evidence Shows:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_

briefs/concurrent_evidence/concurrent_

evidence.pdf. 

The Fostering Connections to Success 

and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 also 

promotes foster parent adoption. This law 

included provisions aimed at increasing 

adoption from foster care. Among these 

were the requirements that States inform 

prospective adoptive parents, including 

foster parents, about the Federal adoption 

tax credit available to those who adopt a 

child with special needs (DeVooght et al., 

2011). Other provisions included funds for 

Kinship Navigator programs, through new 

Family Connection grants, to help children 

in foster care locate relatives. The National 

Resource Center for Permanency and 

Family Connections (NRCPFC) published 

an information packet titled Kinship Care 

and the Fostering Connections to Success 

and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 that 

provides facts and statistics on kinship care 

and the kinship care policies and provisions in 

the Fostering Connections Act: 

http://www.nrcpfc.org/fostering_connections/

download/Kinship_Care_&_Fostering_

Connections_Act_KimHertz.pdf

More information on Fostering Connections, 

ASFA, and other important child welfare 

legislation is available through Child Welfare 

Information Gateway’s publication Major 

Federal Legislation Concerned With Child 

Protection, Child Welfare, and Adoption:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/otherpubs/

majorfedlegis.pdf

Benefits of Foster 

Parent Adoption

Unlike most other types of adoption, children, 

youth, and foster parents involved in foster 

parent adoption have already spent time living 

as a family before the adoption is initiated and 

have had the opportunity to make some initial 

adjustments. In addition, research indicates 

that children waiting for adoption by their 

foster parents are less likely to experience 

disruption than children in nonrelative, nonfoster-parent adoption (Berry & Barth, 1990; 

McRoy, 1999; Smith & Howard, 1991). 

For children and youth, some of the other 

benefits include:

• A continuing and legally secure relationship 

with foster parents they know and trust

• An end to the uncertainty of foster 

care and, for many children, a positive 

psychological shift in their sense of identity, 

connection, and belonging (Triseliotis, 

2003)

• The chance to remain in a familiar 

community, school, and neighborhood

• Tendency for shorter time to permanency 

than in other types of adoption (Howard & 

Smith, 2003)
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

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• Greater likelihood of maintaining an 

ongoing connection with the birth family 

than in families formed through matching 

(Howard & Smith, 2003)

• Experienced parents to manage their needs 

(often including emotional and behavioral 

challenges due to trauma and complicated 

life histories)

• An established legal permanency for 

children and youth who would otherwise be 

wards of the court 

For the adopting family, the advantages of 

adopting a child in their care include: 

• Continuity of the relationship with the child 

or youth

• The opportunity to raise the child without 

oversight from an agency 

• An established legal guardianship, 

becoming the sole decision-maker 

regarding school, religious practice, 

medical treatment, travel, discipline, and 

much more 

• Often, both familiarity and a relationship 

with the child’s birth family and greater 

knowledge of their child’s background than 

in non-foster-parent adoption

• Access to continued support for the 

adoption of children with special needs, 

such as the adoption assistance subsidy

For the birth family, foster parent adoption 

sometimes means the birth parents know and 

can have a relationship with those who will be 

the permanent caregivers for their children. 

Foster parent adoptions are often open—an 

adoption arrangement in which identities are 

known and there is direct contact between 

birth families and adoptive families—either 

because a relationship developed between 

the birth and adoptive parents when the 

children were in care or because the children 

know their birth families’ contact information 

and may contact them after adoption. More 

than one-third of all children who have been 

adopted (36 percent) had some postadoption 

contact with their birth families (Vandivere, 

Malm, & Radel, 2009). 

Creating an environment for children 

to be successfully adopted requires 

that child welfare workers and adoptive 

parents understand the impact that trauma 

can have on a child or youth’s life and 

development. Child Welfare Information 

Gateway’s Treatment and Trauma-Informed 

Care web section provides information and 

resources for building trauma-informed 

systems, assessing and treating trauma, 

and trainings for staff on interventions that 

address the impact of trauma: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/responding/

trauma.cfm

Information Gateway’s Trauma-Focused 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children 

Affected by Sexual Abuse or Trauma

explores the characteristics and benefits 

of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral 

therapy (TF-CBT) to help child welfare 

caseworkers and other professionals who 

work with at-risk families make informed 

decisions about when to refer children and 

their caregivers to TF-CBT programs: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/

trauma/trauma.pdf

TRAUMA-INFORMED CARE
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Foster parent adoption also provides an 

opportunity for siblings to stay together or 

remain connected. The Fostering Connections 

to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act 

of 2008 requires States to make reasonable 

efforts to maintain sibling connections in order 

to receive Federal funding. Since its passage 

in 2009-2011, 13 States passed statutes 

regarding sibling placement and visiting 

(National Conference on State Legislatures, 

2012). Sibling placement and contact after 

permanency vary widely by State, however, 

and while it is possible that the percentage 

of sibling groups placed together has 

improved since the passage of the Fostering 

Connections Act, there are no current sibling 

studies sampling children placed after 2008. A 

number of barriers to placing siblings with the 

same foster family—including the size of the 

sibling group, age, varying needs for siblings, 

or siblings born to the birth family after other 

siblings entered care—may carry over into 

barriers to adoption of a sibling group by the 

same foster parents. 

Child Welfare Information Gateway offers 

more information on the topics of open 

adoption and sibling issues in adoption from 

foster care.

Working With Birth and Adoptive Families 

to Support Open Adoption: A Bulletin for 

Professionals: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_

openadopt.pdf

Sibling Issues in Foster Care and Adoption: A 

Bulletin for Professionals:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/

siblingissues/siblingissues.pdf

For larger society, there are also benefits 

from foster parent adoption. These include: 

• Reduced costs to government agencies 

when a child moves from foster care to 

adoption, since the administrative costs 

of recruiting, training, and approving an 

adoptive family are reduced

• As with all adoptions from foster care, a 

decrease in the number of youth exiting 

foster care with no family, reducing risk for a 

host of problems, including homelessness, 

incarceration, and poverty

Costs of Foster Parent 

Adoption

Just as there are benefits, foster parents 

assume additional costs when they adopt. 

• While families gain autonomy, they can 

lose the assistance of the agency and 

relationships with caseworkers.

• Families may receive fewer resources 

and supports, sometimes leaving them 

financially vulnerable. 

• While foster/adoptive parents gain 

decision-making privileges, they become 

financially responsible for the child’s 

welfare, as well as legally responsible for 

the child’s actions. 

Some of these costs to parents may be 

mitigated by adoption assistance and 

other postadoption services. According 

to a recent study, roughly 90 percent (88 

percent) of children adopted with public 

agency involvement in 2009 received an 

adoption subsidy (DeVooght et al., 2011). It 

is important to educate foster parents about 

the availability of adoption subsidies and not 

assume that they’ve been provided with all the 

necessary information. Research shows that 
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

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the Adoption Tax Credit is not widely used b

families that adopt from foster care and that 

most tax credit dollars are used by families 

who adopt through intercountry adoption. 

Many families report not knowing that this ta

credit exists. 

Foster and adoptive families should be mad

aware of the nature of adoption subsidies. 

They are not merely maintenance payments;

often they include services like counseling, 

Medicaid, and even respite or residential car

in some States. Because adoption subsidies 

vary widely from State to State, it is also 

important to introduce parents to the fact th

subsidies may be reduced over time. 

Section 8 of the Children’s Bureau’s Child 

Welfare Policy Manual addresses the Adopti

Assistance Program: 

y 

x 

e 

e 

at 

on 

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/cwpm/programs/cb/

laws_policies/laws/cwpm/index.jsp

Child Welfare Information Gateway’s Adoption 

Assistance webpage provides resources 

for obtaining adoption assistance and 

other financial supports, including college 

scholarships, vocational education, and tuition 

waivers:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/

preplacement/adoption_assistance.cfm 

Information Gateway’s State Guides and 

Manuals search links professionals to online 

publications created by State agencies that 

describe services and provide guidance on 

child welfare-related topics: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/

sgm/index.cfm

The North American Council on Adoptable 

Children (NACAC) has several resources 

for adoption specialists and adoptive 

parents about subsidies. The Value of 

Adoption Subsidies: Helping Children Find 

Permanent Families explores the benefits of 

adoption subsidies to children, families, and 

communities: 

http://www.nacac.org/adoptionsubsidy/

valueofsubsidies.pdf

NACAC’s State Adoption Profiles provide 

State-specific eligibility requirements, benefits, 

and funding information: 

http://www.nacac.org/adoptionsubsidy/

stateprofiles.html

Practice Implications 

With Children and 

Parents

Even though foster parents have the 

advantage of knowing and having cared 

for the children and youth they plan to 

adopt, they still need careful preparation 

and support. Research indicates that foster 

parents need and want more preparation and 

information than they typically or currently 

receive in making this important transition 

(Howard & Smith, 2003). Practices associated 

with moving families from foster care to 

adoption include assessment, preparation for 

adoption, facilitating an ongoing connection 

between the child and birth family, including 

the child’s siblings (when it is in the child’s 

best interests), and working with families who 

choose not to adopt. As with all adoption 

practice, policies vary greatly among States 

and agencies.

Assessment. Assessing the family’s interest 

and ability to adopt is a crucial step. Workers 

should not assume that foster parents will 

choose to adopt, even if they have cared 

for a child for an extended period or have 

expressed interest in the past. Instead of 
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

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asking parents, particularly those who are 

ambivalent, if they will adopt, another 

approach is to help them explore the benefits 

of adoption, while still addressing their 

concerns. 

New research has shed light on the brain 

development of children and youth, 

showing that the brain continually develops 

from puberty through the mid-20s. 

Understanding what contributes to and 

what hinders positive brain development, 

and the implications for children and youth 

in foster care, is extremely important. 

Child Welfare Information Gateway’s 

Supporting Brain Development in 

Traumatized Children and Youth

summarizes what child welfare 

professionals can do to support the 

identification and assessment of the impact 

of maltreatment and trauma on brain 

development. It also explains how to work 

effectively with children, youth, and families 

to support healthy brain development and 

how to improve services through crosssystem collaboration and trauma-informed 

practice: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/

braindevtrauma.cfm 

The Jim Casey Youth Opportunities 

Initiative produced The Adolescent Brain: 

New Research and Its Implications for 

Young People Transitioning From Foster 

Care, an issue brief about new research 

concerning youth brain development: 

http://www.jimcaseyyouth.org/sites/

default/files/The%20Adolescent%20Brain_

prepress_proof%5B1%5D.pdf

BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

In reviewing the concerns of foster parents, 

the worker can explore the seriousness of each 

concern and determine what information or 

resources might reduce the parents’ anxiety. 

This exercise may help parents realistically 

examine their fears and consider if they should 

proceed with adoption. If the worker helps 

the foster parents explore their feelings, fears, 

and hopes openly and honestly over time, 

the odds increase that the foster parents 

will commit to adopting or will be active in 

helping the child move to another permanent 

family (Howard, 2002). However, it is important 

to note that a foster parent should never be 

pushed to adopt a child or youth. A resource 

for foster families considering adoption is the 

Child Welfare Information Gateway factsheet 

Foster Parents Considering Adoption:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_fospar.

cfm

Foster parent interest in adoption may stem 

from their sincere desire to become the 

adoptive parents. It may also stem from strong 

feelings toward the child and discomfort with 

the idea of others raising the child, despite 

their own misgivings about adoption. It is 

important to help foster parents consider 

factors that may make it difficult for them to 

meet the child’s needs now and in the future, 

due to the nature of adoption.

Indicators that the foster parents are good 

candidates to adopt include evidence of:

• A mutual emotional connection between 

children and parents, including signs of 

affection

• Understanding and accepting the child’s 

behaviors, abilities, and challenges

• Commitment to keep siblings together 

whenever possible and, when not possible, 
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encouraging and facilitating the ongoing 

communication between separated siblings 

• Valuing the birth family (even when they 

have made serious mistakes as parents) 

and respecting and supporting the 

child’s emotional connection to previous 

attachment figures, including siblings and 

other relatives or even previous foster 

parent relationships 

• Competence in meeting the child’s needs 

and advocating for needed resources

• Commitment to caring for the child now 

and in the future

Many agencies have specific assessment 

processes for determining whether adoption 

by a particular family is in the best interests of 

the child and for helping families come to a 

decision about their suitability for adoption. 

Those same processes are still relevant in 

cases of foster parent adoption. While the 

foster family may already have a completed 

home study, including background checks, 

the family should complete any remaining 

parts of the assessment specific to adoption. 

Agencies that have implemented a dual home 

study process that covers both foster care and 

adoption requirements initially will be able to 

process foster parent adoptions more quickly. 

Preparation for adoption. Once the parents 

(and the child, if old enough to consent to 

adoption) have committed to the adoption, 

the worker should help the family make the 

transition from fostering to adoption. Even 

though foster parents and children benefit 

from knowing each other, adoption is an 

adjustment for all persons involved. As with 

assessment, many agencies have standard 

procedures for helping families and children 

prepare for adoption. While some of the 

procedures may be unnecessary since the 

child has already been living in the home, the 

worker can facilitate other preparations.

For the family, these preparations may include:

• Providing full disclosure of information 

about the child and the birth family in 

writing, including explanations of the child’s 

placement history and full medical history, 

as well as implications for parenting

• Preparing the family for the possibility of 

the child acting out feelings he or she may 

experience as a result of committing to 

adoption, after the adoption is formalized, 

such as testing the parents’ boundaries to 

ensure their commitment is for the long 

term 

• Preparing the family for less support from 

the child welfare system

• Preparing for the impact on other children 

in the family, particularly other foster 

children who are not being adopted

• Providing information on the legal steps in 

the adoption process

• Providing information and access to the 

adoption assistance payment (subsidy)

• Informing parents about the one-time, perchild, Federal adoption tax credit 

• Helping the family negotiate ongoing birth 

family contact, if in the child’s best interest

• Providing parents with access to ongoing 

training, therapy, and/or other resources to 

prepare parents for the journey of adoption 

For the child or youth, preparation may 

include:

• For older children, involving them in the 

adoption decision
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• Helping the child understand the 

differences between foster care and 

adoption and what those differences will 

mean on a day-to-day basis and in the 

future

• Assuring the child/youth about the types 

of feelings that may come up as a result 

of committing to adoption, such as grief, 

acceptance, loss, uncertainty, reassurance, 

identity formation, etc. 

• With the family, helping the child review his 

or her history and put together a lifebook or 

lifemap that includes a visual presentation 

of the child’s life and a chronology of 

the child’s removals and placements and 

establishment of a forever family with the 

foster-adoptive parents 

• Helping the child navigate the possible 

grief and the loss he or she might feel 

for birth family members and accept 

the addition of the adoptive family as a 

permanent family 

• Helping the child to prepare for ongoing 

contact with the birth family if that is in his 

or her best interest and will occur in the 

future

A resource for workers and families is the 

Child Welfare Information Gateway factsheet 

Helping Your Foster Child Transition to Your 

Adopted Child: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_

transition.cfm

Facilitating ongoing connection with the 

birth family. Children adopted by their 

foster parents often have deep emotional 

attachments to members of their original 

families, including siblings who may be 

placed elsewhere. Even children who were 

not well cared for in their birth families may 

experience profound loss at separation, which 

may deepen when they are adopted and/or 

when they learn they will never return to their 

biological family/home.

Foster parents are likely to have had contact or 

even relationships with their child’s birth family. 

Workers and adopting parents, often with the 

help of therapists, need to assess what level 

of ongoing connection is in the child’s best 

interests and how to develop a postadoption 

connection agreement that works well for 

everyone. Some States use mediation or 

family group decision-making to help develop 

such agreements. More information about 

family group decision-making meetings can be 

found at: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/famcentered/

overview/approaches/family_group.cfm

Postadoption connection does not necessarily 

mean contact, although it may. A range of 

possible connections are described in the 

Child Welfare Information Gateway bulletin 

Working With Birth and Adoptive Families to 

Support Open Adoption:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_

openadoptbulletin.cfm 

In addition, the Child Welfare Information 

Gateway’s Postadoption Contact Agreements 

Between Birth and Adoptive Families explores 

postadoption connections: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/systemwide/

laws_policies/statutes/cooperative.cfm

Social media and adoption. Facebook, 

Twitter, and other social media outlets have 

changed the landscape of adoption. Child 

Welfare Information Gateway’s Video Gallery 

features digital stories told by children and 

youth waiting to be adopted and foster 

parents whose lives have been changed 

through adoption, and more 
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(see https://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/

nam/video.cfm). The NRCPFC also features 

new digital stories of foster/adoptive families: 

http://www.nrcpfc.org/digital_stories/_fafp/

The Children’s Bureau’s AdoptUSKids provides 

several social media tools and resources for 

foster parents and child welfare professionals:

• The Deciding to Pursue Adoption section 

of AdoptUSKids’ website features YouTube 

videos with stories of foster/adoptive 

parents: 

http://adoptuskids.org/for-families/how-toadopt/deciding-to-pursue-adoption?utm_

source=Gateway&utm_medium=Link&utm_

campaign=NAM

• Several recruitment and retention webinars 

are also available for professionals:

http://adoptuskids.org/forprofessionals/free-resources/

webinars-on-recruitment-and-retention

Although statistics are not yet available to 

document the number of adopted children or 

youth and their birth parents connecting via 

social networking sites, anecdotal evidence 

suggests that it is a growing trend. Evidence 

also suggests that adoptive families tend 

to ask for advice or help after they or the 

adopted child have already been in contact 

with the birth parents. With this in mind, it is 

suggested that preparation is needed for both 

parents and youth about the realities of birth 

family contact through social media, including 

safe and appropriate contact and use of these 

tools. 

The 2011 issue of CW360 ̊ Child Welfare 

and Technology by the Center for Advanced 

Studies in Child Welfare (CASCW) reviews 

technology innovations to improve child 

welfare outcomes and considers current 

gaps in technological practice knowledge. 

One such gap is that of social media and 

networking and the use of technology by 

children and youth in foster care:

http://www.cehd.umn.edu/ssw/cascw/

attributes/PDF/publications/CW360_2011.pdf

Adoption Star, a nonprofit child-placing 

agency, provides a list of tips and guidelines 

for adoptive and birth parents connecting 

online: 

http://www.adoptionstar.com/child-placement/

adoption-and-social-media-recommendationsfor-healthy-ongoing-communication/

Adoptions Together discussed the issue of 

social media’s effect on the adoption field in 

its blog: 

http://www.adoptionstogether.org/Blog/

tabid/333/EntryId/84/Social-Networking-andthe-Changing-Landscape-of-Adoption-Searchand-Reunion.aspx 

Families who do not adopt. Some parents 

may evaluate their situations and realistically 

conclude that adopting a particular child is 

not right for them or the child. If that is the 

decision foster parents make, and additional 

information and support do not allay their 

concerns, it is important to honor their 

decision and involve them in helping the child 

understand and transition to a new family. 

Specifically, the foster parents can help with:

• Not hindering the development of a new 

permanency plan for the child/youth

• Preparing the child for transition to a new 

family 

• Helping the child grieve leaving the family 

and giving their blessing for the move
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• Being an ongoing presence in the child’s 

life, if this is in the child’s best interests 

(Howard, 2002)

• Considering the possibility of providing 

respite care if needed, or even taking the 

child back into foster care in their home if 

the adoption disrupts

Caseworker reservations. What if the family 

is willing to adopt the child or youth, but 

the worker has reservations? Despite good 

intentions, many initial foster placements 

are made quickly, without adequate time to 

assess the fit between family strengths and 

child needs. While the emotional connection 

between the child and family is one important 

consideration, workers must consider whether 

a foster parent adoption is the best long-term 

option for the child or youth. Older foster 

parents of young children, parents who have 

limited support systems, parents who are 

harshly critical of a child or the child’s birth 

family or birth culture, and parents who exhibit 

limited ability to adapt to meet a child’s needs 

are examples of situations workers need to 

assess with special care. On the other hand, 

it is important that workers do not allow 

personal biases to play a role in impeding the 

process for permanency through adoption. 

Pre- and Postadoption 

Services

Services for families before and after adoption 

may be just as necessary for foster parent 

adoption as they are for other types of 

adoption. The fact that the child has lived with 

the family as a foster child does not preclude 

the need for services at the time of the 

adoption or in the future. Specifically, workers 

can help provide information about:

• Informing families of and constructing an 

adoption assistance agreement that reflects 

the child’s current and future needs; for 

more information, see the Child Welfare 

Information Gateway factsheet Adoption 

Assistance for Children Adopted From 

Foster Care: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_

subsid.cfm

• Formal support in the form of therapy 

or counseling resources or other mental 

health services, especially with therapists 

and counselors who have experience with 

adoptive families and will accept Medicaid. 

See the Information Gateway factsheet 

for families Selecting and Working With a 

Therapist Skilled in Adoption: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_

therapist.cfm

• Support groups for adoptive families (or 

support groups for adopted children/

youth), especially families who have 

adopted children with a history of 

maltreatment; for listings by State, see 

the National Foster Care and Adoption 

Directory: https://www.childwelfare.gov/

nfcad

• Experienced adoptive and foster parents 

who might serve as mentors

• Educational and informational services

• Ongoing parenting education, such as 

classes, conferences, and workshops

• Respite care

Much of the preparation for adoption is best 

done through group trainings, where parents 

join other foster parents who are considering 
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

12 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child 

Welfare Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_fospro

or currently taking this step. There are a 

number of curricula to prepare parents for 

fostering and adoption. Visit the Child Welfare 

Information Gateway webpage on Training for 

Foster, Adoptive, and Kinship Families for links 

to curricula and other training information:

https://www.childwelfare.gov/management/

training/curricula/foster/

The Child Welfare Information Gateway 

bulletin Providing Postadoption Services

provides detailed information about the range 

of services that child welfare workers can 

facilitate or link families to in order to ensure 

that the adoption is successful: 

https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_

postadoptbulletin/index.cfm

Questions for Further 

Research

Given the increase in adoption following 

ASFA and the Fostering Connections Act, 

most of which has been through foster parent 

adoption, there is a need for more research on 

foster parent adoption to ensure that workers 

and agencies are providing the best services 

for children and families. Important questions 

for further research include:

• How do the needs of nonrelative adopting 

foster parents differ from those of 

subsidized guardians, relatives who adopt, 

and other adoptive parents? 

• What are the long-term outcomes for 

children adopted by foster parents?

• What types of ongoing postadoption 

services are most effective in sustaining 

healthy successful families? 

• What are the differences in outcomes for 

children who have been adopted by foster 

parents when the placement was planned 

(such as legal risk and those arranged 

through concurrent planning) as compared 

to unplanned?

• Given that most foster parents have 

moderate to lower incomes, are adoption 

assistance payments adequate to meet the 

needs of children after adoption?

• What is the impact on adopted children 

when their parents continue to foster other 

children?

• What is the impact on the adoptive family’s 

birth children when adoption occurs?

• How might initial placements for children 

be more carefully selected?

• What impact does open adoption, which 

encourages birth family and sibling 

connections, have on adopted children and 

their families? 

Moving children and youth from foster care to 

permanence is paramount to ensuring their 

social and emotional well-being, and foster 

parents play an important role in that process. 

Foster parent adoption currently accounts 

for nearly half the adoptions of children from 

foster care. Child welfare professionals and 

prospective adoptive parents must work 

together and fully understand the benefits, 

costs, and implications of foster parent 

adoption.
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

13 This material may be freely reproduced and distributed. However, when doing so, please credit Child 

Welfare Information Gateway. Available online at https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/f_fospro

References

Berry, M., & Barth, R. P. (1990). A study 

of disrupted adoptive placements of 

adolescents. Child Welfare, 69(3), 209-225.

DeVooght, K., Malm, K., Vandivere, S., & 

McCoy-Roth, M. (2011). Trends in adoptions 

from foster care in the wake of child welfare 

reforms: Number of children adopted from 

foster care increases in 2009. Connections 

Analysis, 4. Retrieved from 

http://www.fosteringconnections.org/tools/

assets/files/Connections_Adoption.pdf

Festinger, T. (1974). Placement agreements 

with boarding homes: A survey. Child 

Welfare, 53(10), 643-652.

Howard, J. (2002). Best practice in child 

welfare in Illinois: Preparing for adoption.

Unpublished manuscript.

Howard, J., & Smith, S. L. (2003). After 

adoption: The needs of adopted youth.

Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of 

America.

McRoy, R. G. (1999). Special needs adoption: 

Practice issues. New York: Garland 

Publishing.

National Conference on State Legislatures. 

(2012). NCSL Child Welfare Policy 

Update: State Response to the Fostering 

Connections to Success Act of 2008 Sibling 

Placement Provision. Retrieved September 

7, 2012 from:

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/humanservices/fostering-connections-act-siblingplacement.aspx#Chart

Proch, K. (1981). Foster parents as preferred 

adoptive parents: Practice implications. 

Child Welfare, 60, 617-625.

Smith, S. L., & Howard, J. A. (1991). A 

comparative study of successful and 

disrupted adoptions. Social Service Review, 

65(2), 246-261.

Triseliotis, J. (2003). Long-term foster care 

or adoption? In P. Reder, S. Duncan, & C. 

Lucey (Eds.), Studies in the assessment of 

parenting. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

U.S. Department of Health and Human 

Services. (2011). The AFCARS report: 

Preliminary FY 2011 estimates as of July 

2012 (19). Retrieved from 

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/

main/afcarsreport19.pdf

Vandivere, S., Malm, K., & Radel, L. (2009). 

Adoption USA: A chartbook based on the 

2007 National Survey of Adoptive Parents.

Retrieved from 

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/09/NSAP/

chartbook/chartbook.cfm?id=1

Resources 

Additional resources for workers facilitating 

adoption of children from foster care can be 

found on the following websites:

• Child Welfare Information Gateway—

Adoption From Foster Care section https://

www.childwelfare.gov/permanency/

adoption/

• AdoptUSKids 

http://www.adoptuskids.org/
Preparing and Supporting Foster Parents Who Adopt https://www.childwelfare.gov

• National Resource Center for Permanency 

and Family Connections

http://www.nrcpfc.org

• National Resource Center for Adoption

http://www.nrcadoption.org/

• North American Council on Adoptable 

Children (NACAC)

http://www.nacac.org

• The Casey Center for Effective Child 

Welfare Practice

http://www.caseyfamilyservices.org/pr_

casey_center.html

• The Child Welfare League of America 

(CWLA)

http://www.cwla.org

Suggested Citation:

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). 

Preparing and supporting foster parents 

who adopt. Washington, DC: U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services, 

Children’s Bureau.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Administration for Children and Families

Administration on Children, Youth and Families

Children’s Bureau