DCFS and the court and foster care licensing are no longer involved in these decisions. Changing a child's name or birth certificate becomes your choice. You make all the decisions about contact with other relatives and birth parents. Adoption has financial benefits for both the adoptive parent and the child. Adoptive children are eligible for their adoptive parent's insurance as well as Medi-Cal as secondary coverage.
Adoptive children have inheritance rights from their adoptive parents.
Once a child is made a court dependent, the court and DCFS routinely assess progress towards reunification. When children cannot safely return home to their birth parents an adoption assessment is one of the tools the court uses to determine the appropriate plan. An adoption assessment may be initiated during the time reunification services are in place. Once initiated, an Adoption Liaison will contact the child's caregiver. As part of the assessment, the current caregiver will be asked if he or she is interested in adopting the child.