What is the difference between adoption and foster care?

AnnaBelle

Foster care is a system set up to temporarily care for children who have been apprehended (removed) from homes where they are not having their needs met, or are being abused/exploited, etc. In these cases, the goal is generally for reunification first..Supports are implemented in the home, and the biological parent(s) are given a "case plan", indicating what changes will need to be made before children are returned to them. Assuming the parents faithfully attend visits, drug/alcohol rehabilitation, parenting classes, anger management, etc., the goal is to return the child(ren) home.

However, some of those children cannot go home. In these cases, parental rights can eventually be terminated by the courts, which means these children are in foster care with no plan to return home. At that point, the goal changes from reunification to permanency, meaning a search for 1) a biological family member to act as a long term kinship caregiver, or, 2) if efforts to find a kinship home are unsuccessfully exhausted, an adoptive home is sought. In this case, the foster parents who are currently caring for the child often adopt them, but not in every case, which leaves many, many children in care waiting for adoptive families.

There are also private adoptions, and agency adoptions, where infants are "voluntarily" placed with adoptive families by their parents.

Adoption is permanent, foster care is temporary. In adoption, the child becomes the child of the adoptive parents in the eyes of the law.

The use of the word "apprehend" gives a negative connotation for the children involved in foster care. It implies they have done something wrong -- as this word is usually used for criminals being apprehended by the police. (It means "to take into custody" or "arrest"-- not "removed")
http://www.answers.com/topic/apprehend

Anyway, that being said, foster care can be permanent. In fact in the United States, foster care is a permanent solution for 20-30% of children in care. Long-term foster care usually leads to independent living programs that begin training the kids at 14-15 years old. Once the kids age-out of the foster care system, they are in aftercare programs that the ILP prepared them for.

The main difference is that in adoption, a child becomes part of ONE family legally. In foster care, a child is not part of any family legally....the child is under care and controlled by the State. While being under the care of the State, the child's parents are either working their plan as determined by the Family Court system or doing nothing. The child is living in a foster home with people who are acting as parents or group homes or residential treatment centers.
If the parents do nothing, the parents lose their rights to the child. However, State laws determine how long parents have to work their plan. Each state is different.

If the parents do not work their plans, the child's permanency plan becomes one of the following based on MANY factors: (a) kinship care, (b) adoption, (c) ILP, (d) long-term care, (d) emancipation or possible other. These plans are reviewed yearly with workers, the child, and the courts, so the could change.

For example, a teen may start with a permanency plan of adoption, but then switch to ILP with the idea of moving into a transitional program upon aging out.
A child may start with the plan of adoption, but it might become clear that the child "needs more" and the child may be place in a residential center for a year. See, it depends on what is occurring.

Not simple.

ETA: It is also untrue that states do not give money once a child is adopted. States vary on this and some continue payment until the child is 18 -- even if fully adopted from foster care.

Pip

Adoption is forever and foster care can be temporary or permanent but the natural parents are still the parents of the child in the eyes of the law.

Foster care is there for a variety of reasons such as respite care for the parents or child so the child can be returned at any time through to removing a child for their own safety with shades of grey in between.

Doodlestuff

Adoption means the child is yours as though you bore him/her. A child can only be removed from you for serious harm to the child. If you and your partner die, the child will go to other relatives. The child's natural parents have no legal rights to the child.

Foster care makes you a guardian. Most of the time you are a temporary guardian, but on rare occasions, you can be a permanent guardian. The child can be removed from you for almost any reason because the child is in the care of the state. If you and your partner die, the child can go to whomever the state decides upon, no matter what your preferences. The child's parents may or may not still have legal rights to the child. If permanent guardianship, the parents have had their parental rights terminated.

i love me!

Foster care the state gives the foster parents money to care for the child.
While adoption the parents take the child as there own and no longer
get money from the state.

The Girl In The Green Scarf

Foster Care- means noone wanted them, they were put in a home with other foster kids, left behind the opposite of the meaning of family
Adoption- means someone took them in and took the job to be their guardian like Sandra Bullock did recently.

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