Fostering versus Adopting

I am not, by any means, an expert, but here is what I have learned in training about the differences between fostering and adopting from foster care. I had a hard time finding this information all in one place, so I thought others might find it helpful.
This is Texas-specific.

Foster care:

How the child comes to you: Referrals are sent from CPS to your licensing agency. Your home study is submitted by your licensing agency to CPS for children matching the criteria you’ve discussed with your agency. Children arrive in your home, usually with no pre-placement visit.

Care for the child: Daily documentation is required, including medical logs if applicable. Weekly phone calls with your agency caseworker are the norm, but may vary by agency. Expect weekly, biweekly, or monthly visits with the child’s biological parents; most often they take place at the CPS office. There will also be therapist visits, probably weekly or biweekly, as well as doctor and dentist visits. Your licensing agency will be in your house at least once a month to check that you are complying with all the standards of safety; CPS has the right to arrive at any time. The child must be enrolled in public school (if over the age of three) within three days of placement. If the child is younger than three, you have to enroll them in an Early Childhood Intervention program or provide a written argument why that is not in the child’s best interest. The length of each placement is unknown; CPS’s primary goal is reunification with the biological family. You could house the child for several years and he may still be returned to his parents or another relative.

Reimbursement: The child comes with full Medicaid (Star Health). There is a basic reimbursement amount of around $600 per month per child (higher for certain populations/needs).

Keep in mind that being in foster care is, in itself, traumatizing to the child. The circumstances of their removal were traumatizing, and their life is now unpredictable, scary, and filled with strangers. The visits with bio parents can be emotionally excruciating, and waiting to see if parents will follow their service plan, will relinquish rights, or will have rights terminated is extremely difficult on the child.

Adoption:

There are three routes to adopting from foster care: foster-to-adopt; legal risk; or straight adoption. Foster-to-adopt means that you are open to adopting the children you foster if their parental rights are terminated. Legal risk means you ask for placements where CPS is about 85% sure that parental rights will be terminated. Straight adoption means you only express interest in children whose parental rights have already been terminated and who are therefore available for adoption. The information below applies to straight adoption in terms of how the child comes to you, but applies to all three kinds in terms of the process once rights are terminated.

How the child comes to you: Referrals are sent from CPS to your licensing agency or you can find a waiting child or children (you can search available children here) and ask your agency to submit your home study for that child. CPS narrows the home studies to 3-4 families, then everyone involved in the child’s case (agency caseworker, CPS case worker, CPS supervisor, guardian ad litem, CASA, therapist, and current foster parents) meets to select a family. After about a week, you are notified if you have been selected. There is then another meeting of the entire team; this time you attend as well. You get more information about the child at this meeting. You are not allowed to officially “accept” the possibility of adopting the child until 24 hours have passed. Once you accept, several pre-placement visits are set up for you and the child to get to know one another. You meet several times over the course of a month or two for gradually longer visits. Then the child is placed with you as an adoptive placement.

Care for the child: As an adoptive placement, you are not required to keep the same level of documentation (though I think the medical logs are the same). You still have weekly calls with your agency caseworker, and monthly visits from your caseworker (and potentially the child’s). The child lives with you for at least six months before the adoption can move forward. Then it usually takes another 3-4 months to finalize the adoption paperwork. So by the time you officially adopt the child, you have been with him for about a year. Once the child is officially adopted, you no longer interact with CPS and you don’t have to interact with your licensing agency. The child is yours and you can make whatever educational, medical, etc. decisions without state intervention (obviously keeping the child’s safety and wellbeing as the foremost priority).

Reimbursement: Children are eligible for a subsidy if they meet one of the following four criteria: 1. Older than six, any race 2. Older than two and a member of a minority group 3. Part of a sibling group (and you’re adopting the group) 4. Special medical needs (this is case by case, and usually only severe, lifelong issues). The subsidy includes traditional Medicaid until the child turns 18. It also includes a basic reimbursement amount of around $400 per month per child (higher for certain populations), again, until he turns 18. There are also substantial tax credits for the year of adoption. The child’s college tuition is paid in full for any public university in Texas.

Keep in mind that an adoptable child has also been traumatized, both through whatever situation brought him into care and through the process of having parental rights terminated and then waiting in foster care for a family.

Dr. Karyn Purvis estimates that it takes a month of investment parenting (using her methods) per year of the child's age in order to effect healing. Read more about her trust-based-relational-intervention method here.