Foster parents are called when a child needs a home. Adoptive parents search for the children to complete their families. All adopted children endure foster care before they can be permanently adopted. A foster child is placed with a foster family either after being removed from a birth home or another foster home. Foster kids frequently undergo trauma and may end up in several homes before stabilizing. In some states, kids change foster homes an average of every three months, which is difficult on everybody involved. You have the right to refuse any placement, but if you refuse too many without good cause, you will no longer be considered; there is desperate need for homes. Terminology: Legal Risk or Legally Free: In most cases, the birth parents’ rights to their child have been abrogated with a “Termination of Parental Rights” (TPR) before a child is listed for adoption in a heart gallery or adoption exchange. However, the need may be so urgent, (perhaps a child is in a foster home where he/she may not want to be in), that sometimes a child will be put up for adoption before the TPR winds its way through the slow legal machinery. There can also be a legal dispute with one or more birth parents. An adoptive placement, in this circumstance is called a “legal risk” adoption. A child who has suffered a TPR is called “legally free” for adoption. Permanent Foster Care: A child is placed in permanent foster care when adoption is not legally possible or the child does not want a family. Age Out: About 20,000 American children, leave foster care each year, as adults, without a family, because no family is ever found for them. Many children who “age out” look for a family even after foster care has ended. Unfortunately, some find criminal families. Guardianship:Courts may appoint kin as guardians of a mature child until their birth parents again become available to them. ICPC and NEICE:In-state adoption is usually preferred over out-of-state unless out-of-state kin foster or adopt the child. A child is setback by school curriculum changes during interstate adoption so in-state adoption is usually recommended first. Exceptional families for exceptional children are exceptions. Interstate adoption is controlled by the federal Interstate Compact for Placement of Children (ICPC). The National Electronic Interstate Compact Enterprise (NEICE) clearinghouse provides communication for the contract between states that is necessary to place a child out-of-state. Families First: The recent (2018) Family First federal child welfare laws requires that states make a pro-active attempt to avoid foster care before separating a child from his/her birth family. Other parts of the law provide common foster care and home study requirements. ICWA: The federal Indian Child Welfare Act, which provides cultural support for the native American Indian tribes. The ICWA sets federal requirements that apply to state child custody proceedings involving an Indian child who is a member of, or eligible for membership in, a federally recognized tribe. The ICWA involves the child’s tribe as well as parents and kin in the casework decisions. Open Adoption: Some foster parents work with the birth parents to rear children. After such foster care, if the foster parents and birth parents agree, adoption can be arranged with state involvement. This kind of arrangement is called “open adoption”. Informal agreements for rehoming of children are completely illegal. Adoptive parents use state adoption exchanges, heart galleries, adoption agencies, AdoptUsKids, Adopt America Network, A Family For Every Child, or any other service which will honor their home study to locate the best child for their home. The home study must be transmitted to the child’s social worker so the child’s social worker can determine if a family is a good fit. Childrens workers may need to look for a fairly special family (but be legally unable to state that they are doing so). Sometimes more than 100 homestudies are accepted prior to making a placement decision. The family usually “inquires” about whether a child is still available for adoption through email. Sometimes the family is given a copy of their home study to “submit” it themselves, during child search, but that is not universal practice. In some states, the family must direct their adoption worker to “inquire” with the child’s social worker to determine whether a placement can be arranged (this is called a worker-to-worker requirement). Adoptive families, in those states, are not permitted to contact a child’s social worker directly until after a placement decision has been made. Searching for an adoptable child can be an emotional roller coaster and quite frustrating. Social workers, who are under intense career pressure to engineer successful adoptions, have to be very picky… we live in a very diverse country… and, for privacy reasons, cannot put the “whole story” about any child on the internet. Parents usually need to inquire or “submit” their home study for more than a dozen children before a placement is found. Over half of adoptive parents “give up” and let their home study expire without a placement. This is a disaster for everyone involved. Unless you realize you cannot provide a stable, loving home for a child, we encourage you to try to find the right child.