There’s More than One Way to Build a Family
We connect families who want to grow with young people in foster care who dream of forever families.
Why Adopt from Foster Care
More than 20,000 kids in care across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware are seeking supportive connections to help them thrive.
All socioeconomic backgrounds
LGBTQ+ folks
People with disabilities and neurodiversities
Families Come in All Forms
We believe that families can take all shapes, sizes, and identities. We started breaking the mold of what families should look like 50 years ago.
It doesn’t matter what background you come from, what abilities you do or don’t have, your relationship status, or how you identify. What matters is that you have room in your heart for a great kid who wants a family.
All ethnicities and cultural backgrounds
Single people
Parents with adult children
10-Steps to Adoption
The adoption process can vary from state-to-state and depend on the types of adoption you’re exploring. There are 10 basic steps you can expect.
Resources to Guide You on Your Adoption Journey
Find the answers to your foster care and adoption questions in our resource center.
Financing Adoption
Learn how to finance an adoption and discover available resources that may help cover adoption costs.
Types of Adoption
Learn about the types of adoption, the difference between open and closed adoptions, and how to adopt members of your family.
Adoption Laws
Learn about the different adoption laws and how they may affect your adoption journey.
Frequently Asked Questions about Adopting from Foster Care
Your social worker may be able to connect you with other adoptive parents or an adoptive parent support group in your area. Some agencies will pair a waiting family with a "buddy" family who has already adopted a child with similar circumstances. Others sponsor their own parent groups. The North American Council on Adoptable Children provides a searchable database of parent support groups throughout the United States and Canada. Select Post-Adoption Services on their website at www.nacac.org. You can also meet other families online.
You have a number of options available for adopting infants or toddlers, especially if you're open to adopting children of a different race or with disabilities. They include agency adoption (both public and private), private adoption, identified adoption, inter-country adoption, and foster adoption. You can learn more about the types of adoption here.
Whatever option you choose, you will need to complete the home study process to be eligible to adopt. We suggest that you contact a number of agencies to learn about their procedures for approving families for adoption. Here's more information about the adoption process.
For this type of adoption, begin by contacting an attorney. You can find one through your local bar association, by searching the internet, or by contacting the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys at 202-832-2222 or www.adoptionattorneys.org.
Yes. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) removes geographic barriers to adoption by requiring that states not delay or deny a placement if an approved family is available outside the state.
Most children's agencies can provide more information about a child than they're able to include on a flyer, newspaper article, or website description. However, some of the child's information is considered confidential, and workers may want to share it only with those families they are seriously considering as adoptive parents.
Once you have been selected for a particular child, adoption agencies are required to share with you any information they have about the child, with the exception of identifying information about the birth family. Unfortunately, they may not always have a great deal of information, especially if a child has lived in several foster homes. It's important to ask for whatever is available, including medical reports, results of psychological or educational testing, and information about early development.
In order for a child to be adopted, the birth parents have to relinquish legal parental rights. With most agency adoptions, a child is already legally free for adoption before a placement occurs. While cases where a parent changes their mind are highly publicized, they don't happen very often. Once the adoption has been finalized, the biological parents have no legal tie to the child.
About 120,000 children in the US need permanent homes. Most children ready for adoption live in foster or group homes because their parents were unable to care for them. Some of these children have been abused, neglected, or abandoned. Most are school-aged or older. Some are also siblings who need to stay together.
Foster care is meant to be an alternative shelter for a child when the parents are unable to provide care. If the child can't return home, their case manager works to put together a plan to help them find a new home. Adoption is often a great option.
Foster parents may be able to adopt eligible children in their care through a foster-adopt program with their agency. Most adoptions in the United States are by children's foster parents. Starting as a foster parent is also one way that you may be able to adopt a child, but you are not required to be a foster parent in order to adopt.
While some agencies approve a family simultaneously for both foster care and adoption, a foster care home study and an adoption home study are not always interchangeable. If you're thinking about foster-adoption, it's important to inquire how your agency handles this.
If you wish to become a foster parent, the National Foster Parent Association may be able to help.