Adopting from Foster Care

A word about United States Child Protective Services (CPS), the Laws and the Courts

If you adopt from foster care are you an angel? There are some things you should know about adopting from foster care.

1) Anyone can make an anonymous call, maliciously, to the child abuse hotline. Parents are considered guilty until proven innocent. Yet, there is no penalty for knowingly making a false report of child abuse. Why might a person falsely accuse someone? To get back at an ex-partner, to get back at someone who has turned them in for food stamp fraud, and any other excuse you can think of.

2) Thanks to the Adoption and Safe Families Act and Adoption Bonuses, parents are not being proven unfit prior to having parental rights terminated. In fact some parents prove they ARE fit and then their parental rights are terminated. Some parents lose only the youngest "adoptable" child. Social workers and psychologists (representing their pre-adoptive clients) might claim "the bond is broken" but I overheard one social worker say "The kids ALWAYS want to go back home".

3) Fost/Adopt. It used to be that there were foster care providers who were there for temporary care until things got sorted out - did the child's parent actually neglect or abuse the child? What about the non-custodial parent? What about other relatives? Now there are fost/adopts - people who are hoping to get a child. If they wanted to adopt a child already in the system they would have. But they know they can get a fresh little one who has not been batted around the system and abused if they become a fost-adopt. If they don't like the kid, they can recommend returning him. If they like the little one - well, it's destiny.

Be sure to read how the Adoption and Safe Families Act can tear a family apart.

Read what this foster care provider has to say about the child protection system.

A father's rights violated by New Jersey DYFS.

If you have been falsely accused of child abuse or are a grandparent or other relative trying to get your child back from CPS, read Parents Guide to the "System" - and look for family rights and children's rights groups on-line that may be able to help.

Note: The dehumanizing terms "Dear Birthmother", "Dear Birthparent", "Birthmothers", "birthparents", "birthmoms", "birthmom", "birthfather" are used in this website for search engine placement ONLY. A single ("unwed") mother or father is not a "birth object" meant to be used as the source of a baby for adoption. They are the parents of their child.

Mothers for Open Records Everywhere. Sign petition. Mothers (NOT 'birthmother') for Open Records for Adoptees, No "birthparents" confidentiality or privacy promised or desired.