There are three main types of adoption: domestic U.S. infant adoption, adoption from foster care/state welfare agencies, and international adoption.
Adoption through the child welfare system also involves completing a homestudy. The homestudy is circulated among caseworkers looking for families for children. Information about children who are waiting for adoption is also often available through photolistings or directories sometimes called “blue books” which give a basic synopsis of the child’s age, situation, and needs. These are generally children who are in foster care. When a match is made, there is usually a period of transition when the child begins to visit the family for day visits, then overnight, then for weekends, etc. Fees are usually much lower for this type of adoption, since the state saves money by having a family assume financial responsibility for the children’s upkeep instead of keeping them in foster care. In fact, some states provide some form of ongoing subsidy for medical or psychological care. Again, states vary widely.
An important subset of foster care adoptions are “foster-adopt” or “fost-adopt” placements. In these cases the child is not yet legally free for adoption, but it is expected that parental rights will be surrendered or terminated and the family agrees to adopt the child when this occurs. When it is fairly certain a child cannot return to her birth family, this arrangement spares him or her the disruption of being moved from a foster family to adoptive family when the legal situation is resolved. Foster-adopt children may be older, but not infrequently include infants who were taken from their mothers at birth, due to maternal substance abuse or other factor which causes concern about the child’s safety. Some adoptive parents have found this to be the least costly way to have an infant placed with them at birth who has never known foster care or other trauma. However, fost-adopt parents must be willing to accept uncertainty and the possibility, however remote, of having the baby taken from them at some point in the first 12-18 months (approximately) before final adoption occurs.
See related blogs:
State Adoption: Approved and Certified Home Study
State Adoption: Matching and Placement Decision
State Adoption: Legally Free for Adoption or Legal Risk Placements