[SageKitty]

Does anyone know what legal guardianship is though DSS? What is the difference in adoption?

[mj77]

My understanding is that with our foster son, though we are his caretakers, DHS (the state) are his legal guardians. When you birth a child or finalize adoption, then you, the parent(s) become the legal guardian(s). We have to get written permission to travel out of state with our fson as we had to with our ason while waiting for his adoption to finalize.

[lucyjoy]

Legal guardians take on the responsibilities of the parents. However, it is not always permanant as adoption is. Through DHS, the child also may not qualify for all of the subsidies a foster or adoptive child gets. I think for older children-like teens- who do not want to be adopted guardianship can be useful. I think for kids under 14, it's really not a good idea. I had a child who was placed at age 9 in a guardianship placement. At 16, he's guardian decided he's had enough. The boy stayed with me as I'd adopted his brother. He was devastated that this had happened and it was very damaging.

[mj77]

Sorry SageKitty, Lucyjoy answered your post more accurately than I did. I thought you were just asking what legal guardianship is. I have known grandparents and aunts/uncles to take legal guardianship of their kid's/sibling's children when the parents weren't able to. Had they not been given legal guardianship, they might not be able to make decisions like authorization for medical treatments, school enrollment etc..

[riley6]

A main difference with guardianship vs adoption is the termination of parental rights. The parents' rights remain intact with guardianship.

Also, the children in guardianship don't have inheritance rights like in adoption. The parent has to specify the child in his/her will. The probate will not automatically appoint the estate to the child who is "only" a guardian-charge.

[SageKitty]

What if the parent's rights are already taken away and the current guardian is DSS? Does DSS allow foster parents to become guardians?

[aMarylandfamily]

I had a friend who does foster care who took "legal guardianship" of one of the girls following tpr ... the only difference she identified was removal of the adoption/foster care stipend (which is often what the medicaid payments/benefits are tied to ... so be careful) and that she no longer required Mom's approval on certain things (such as hair dying) and DSS approval on trips, etc. She recently found it necessary to relinquish "legal guardianship" of the girl vs. accepting legal responsibility for criminal acts and that is simpler than an adoption "dissolution" but no less fun.

[Dmommab]

I am legal guardian for my 4 year old who used to be in foster care. Bmom & Bdad decided to "give me" legal guardianship rather than "have children's services involved in their lives forever". They had already had 4 children "taken away" and they were adopted by grandparents so when this 5th was "taken away" they didn't want to deal with "the system" anymore so when I showed up to court for the state to get temporary custody they asked if they could sign papers making me legal guardian. The judge agreed and so I basically left there with a new daughter. I was thrilled as I had been with her since birth & she was 2 years old. I had agreed to allow mom & dad to visit with her, etc. but shortly after court they moved out of state & have only called us 2 or 3 times in the last 2 (almost 3) years. In our situation there is really nothing diff. than if we had adopted her EXCEPT we can't change her last name and we would very much like to. We are getting ready to check with an attorney in regards to what we would have to do to actually adopt her and change her last name. Any suggestions for me in regards to that? (We're in Ohio)

[mj77]

Dmommab, do you think the court could get the parents on abandonment and allow you to adopt?

[Dmommab]

I'm not sure how that would work. I'm gonna ask the attorney we're using to adopt our 18 month old foster son when we go to court to finalize on Nov. 3. It is definately something we want to look into though because we want her to have the same last name as we do & so does she. Thanks & I'll let you know what I find out. I have some paperwork that we had to sign & return to the attorney to mail back tomorrow - maybe I'll send him a note about this situation as well so he can do a little research. We had been told in the past that the only way we could adopt her would be to give guardianship to the county & then adopt her from them but that doesn't make any sense to me & I'm not willing to do that as ANYTHING could happen during that time period and I'm not willing to take that risk.

[mj77]

I can't imagine you would have to give guardianship to the county first before being able to adopt at this point. But I do imagine, depending on your state laws, the parents of this child will have to make a decision whether or not to fully release her for adoption. Of course if you are still open to the same contact as before, you can assure them that nothing will change relationship wise in hopes of putting them at ease. I can see where initially the state/county would have had to have custody before an adoption, but since a judge agreed on guardianship and the child has been in your home some time, my guess is it would have to go before a judge again. If the parents don't appear in court to contest it, my guess is then, maybe you could get them on abandonment. I really am not sure but I agree, you really ought to talk with an attorney. Please do keep us posted.

[riley6]

Originally posted by SageKitty
What if the parent's rights are already taken away and the current guardian is DSS? Does DSS allow foster parents to become guardians?

According to the ASFA, DCFS is supposed to provide the child with a permanent home, meaning adoption if they don't return home. Some states allow DCFS to make the decision to provide the child with a guardian instead, mostly if the child is a teen and doesn't want to be adopted. But be careful. Some states take away all financial support and these families may have to disrupt the placement some day bc of this. If the child needs RTC or extensive care, the family could go into great debt to provide for the child.

Find out as much as you can what YOUR DCFS will provide if you go the guardian route.

[joskimo]

we are legal guardians of out 2 nephews, we did this thru H&SS. Legal guardianship is awfully close to adoption except we cannot change their names or sign them into the military (darn!) If either of their parents decided that they wanted the boys back, they could take us to court, but they would have to prove to the judge that they are cleaned up, responsible, etc --- all of the reasons that they lost the boys in the first place.

The benefits of legal guardianship is that they have Medicaid - which is nice, you have no idea how many ER visits we have w/ 2 athletic boys We also get a small stipend, very small, about 1/2 what FC is, but it helps. We were pretty young and naive when we did all this, had I known more then we would have negotiated for more money, we literally went to the brink of financial ruin the first couple years we had them.

[skootinalong2]

We are the legal guardians of our 14 year old son. We are friends of the family. He has been with us for 11 1/2 years. The differences:

Parents rights are not terminated. They may or may not have visits depending on the judges decision.

He does not have our last name.

We live in California. If we were to move out of the state, another state might not recognize the guardianship.

The birth parents can petition the court to have the child live with them again. (There is alot they would have to prove: best for child, they are fit to parent etc...)

Teralyn