What is fost-adopt?
Fost-adopt is a way of looking at permanency for children. Until recently, planning for children in foster care was sequential, focusing on efforts to rehabilitate the parents and reunify the family and then, if these efforts failed, looking for a permanent placement. Child welfare agencies were able to recommend terminating parental rights and move forward with a plan for adoption or guardianship only after a year or two had passed. Fost-adopt parents have been licensed and are prepared to adopt the child who is living with them as a foster child. Having fost-adopt parents prepared to adopt adds to the consistency and stability of a child’s life.
All children deserve permanent homes, so long-term foster care is not the best choice for children who are not able to reunify with their birth parents. The fewer times a child changes foster homes, the healthier the child. Children who are less likely to reunify with their birth parents are placed in foster homes that are interested in adopting the children, should the parents fail to regain custody. This is called “concurrent planning.” This creates an adoptive opportunity for people who are willing to do foster care, but are hoping to adopt. This also allows children to be placed in one foster home until they either return to their birth parents’ care or are adopted. Allowing them to settle into an adoptive home at an earlier age is a great benefit to the child. While it takes special people to do foster care and plan for adoption concurrently, many Shasta County foster parents’ families have successfully grown through this process. Click here to read about one family’s story.
