[Vicki H]

Hi,
I am new to this part of the forum, I am usually in the Russian Adoption forum.
I was just wondering if there is anyway in Pennsylvania to adopt a child under the age of 3 without it being an open adoption or fostering first? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Vicki

[HappyMomAnna]

Vicki,

Most states have several ways to adopt a child currently in Foster Care. One method is to Foster and work toward reunification with the biological family and adopt if this does not happen. Many families who choose to take this risk do have new borns and tiny infants placed but often the family would have several children come in and go before one might be ava for adoption.

For families who are unwilling to take this kind of risk most states do have Pre-Adoptive programs where by a child placed would be adopted by the family. Generally, this is far less risky some children are placed in pre-adoptive homes before the termination of parental rights is completed and on rare occasions these placements do disrupt.

The least risky way to have a child from foster care placed is to become a pre-adoptive familiy and only accept "legally free" children. The down side to this is that generally a child who is leagally free will be older or have significant special needs.

There are many children between the ages of 1-3 adopted from the Foster Care system These numbers have increased over the years following the passage of ASFA (Adoption and Safe Families Act) of 1997 where the states are required to place a child for adoption if they are in foster care 15 of 22 conseutive months. Children are being adopted much quicker then they wee in years past. This has meant there are younger and younger children ava.

There are some amazing benefits of adopting through your state. There is training and support near by and often there are support groups. There is usually NO FEE and No Cost to a state adoption. Often a child who qualifies as special needs (each state varies and many children qualify for minor reasons) the adoptive family may recieve an Adoption Assistance subsidy monthly, as well as medical insurance to age 18--some states are now offering the children free tuition at state colleges and universisties. In addition a family who adopts a 'special needs' child is entitled to the Full $10,126.00 Federal Tax credit.

Special needs can be for a variety of reasons, from minority status, over a certain age, a minor medical issue. Many children in foster care are born drug affected and most of these children are classified special needs with or without any known problems.

A family interested in adopting a child from Foster Care should be able to recieve infromation from thier local social services office. Do not expect a real warm greeting as many families inquire and few make it through the whole process. Generally there are information meetings and interested families are welcome to training for no cost.

Open The vast majority of children in Foster Care are their for their safety and generally any contact they have with the biological family is suppervised by the State in the State visitation centers.
Occasionally, a pre-adoptive placement may have one or more visits at the center until the TPR (termination of parental rights) is completed. And often the state will grant a 'goodbye' visist. The majority of adoption of children from Foster Care are closed completely for the protection of the child and the adoptive family. Most states would rather there is no future contact. Some families do maintain contact with other biological family members--of prior Foster Families however in most cases there is No obligation for an adoptive family to maintain any futre contact.