Foster to adopt in PA

March 12, 2012

BAC4343

Yes, the way it works in PA is they make the goal reunification with birth parents with concurrent goal of adoption by foster parents. If the birth parents rights are terminated and no family or other interested party steps up then the foster parents are next in line and they change the goal to just adoption by foster parents. If the foster parents decide not to adopt the child, then they open it up to others. That is how it is set up to work.

There could be exceptions however such as if the foster parents come under investigation or don't renew their home study, but in most cases that is how it works.

So just so I have it straight... say we are foster parents and the goal become adoption, and no family/close friend steps forward, and we wanted to adopt, they would NOT choose other families we'd have to compete with, correct? And is that the way it is in all of PA, it's not county by county? My Agency led me to believe that was how it worked, but someone else told me that even if you have been a foster parent, they will still choose other families you have to compete with. I'm sort of down-hearted if this is true because this is the reason we chose to foster, rather than straight out adopt. Thank you by the way for your reponse.