Foster Care and Adoption: What's the Difference?

To many people the terms foster care and adoption are synonymous. They are not the same. Foster care is intended to be a temporary placement for children who are unable to live with their birth parents. Many children in foster care will be reunited with their birth parents once the birth parents complete a case plan. The parent's case plan may include finding housing, securing employment, completing drug and alcohol treatment and/or taking parenting classes. While these children are in foster care the public child welfare agency holds temporary custody. Medical care, permission to travel, approval of educational plans and most parental responsibilities are held by the public child welfare agency. The agency works closely with the children and parents to achieve reunification.
Some families cannot be reunified. The public agency takes legal action to obtain permanent custody of these children and if the court agrees, the birth parents rights are permanently severed. These children become available for adoption. The children may still be living in foster care, but adoption now becomes the goal. When an adoptive family is identified, the child is placed with them. After a period of time (usually six months or longer), the adoptive family petitions the court to adopt the child. If the public agency which holds custody of the child consents the hearing is scheduled. This hearing is called an adoption finalization hearing, or sometimes an adoption legalization. Once a child is adopted, the adoptive parent becomes the legal custodian. The child is no longer in the custody of the public child welfare agency. For all legal purposes, it is as if the child who was adopted was born to the adoptive parents.
In the United States, there are 114,000 in foster care with the plan of adoption. These children are waiting for an adoptive family to come forward and make a lifelong commitment to them.

6000 Ohio Children Are Waiting

6,000, where did that number come from? A few years ago, NOAS took a look at our marketing materials and thought about how to make it clear that our mission is to place children who are in foster care waiting for adoptive families. We were well aware that when folks hear the word "adoption", infant adoption is the first image that comes to mind. NOAS serves older children in the custody of public agencies. Two-thirds of the waiting children are over 12 years old.

We were aware that most people have no idea how many children in foster care need an adoptive family. On December 31, 2005 there were 115,000 in the United States waiting to be adopted. In Ohio on January 1, 2006, there were 4,007 children in the permanent custody of public child welfare agencies and another 2,542 in a "permanent planned living arrangement" (PPLA). Experience tells us that some of the children and teens in PPLA could be adopted if a family came forward even though adoption is not their current plan. Hence, the round number of 6,000.

We have used the tagline "6,000 Ohio Children Are Waiting" for a few years now. After the number of adoptions peaked about five years ago, since then the number of adoptions has gone down as has the number of children entering care. 6,000 remains a good estimate and reminder of the number of children in Ohio who lack a permanent family, committed to them for life!