How much does it cost to adopt from fostercare?

Adopting internationally is quite expensive and will cost you around $30,000. Adopting from foster care is usually pretty close to free. I only paid around $150 for each of my three adoptions. How long until a foster care adoption can be finalized depends on the situation. If the child is already legally free for adoption (these are usually older children), then it can be finalized after they have lived with you for 6 months. For younger children, the child likely will not already be legally free and you will have to wait for the court process of terminating the parental rights. This can delay the finalization, but how long a delay depends on the specifics of the case. Also, if the child is not legally free, there is a risk that the biological parents may still be able to get them back. These are called "legal risk placements" because you are accepting the child knowing there is a risk you could have to return them to their birth parents. How big a risk depends on the specifics of the case, but you will be given this information before you accept the child into your home. Some areas of the country frequently have infants available that are very low legal risk, whereas in other areas you have to be willing to accept a higher legal risk if you wish to be placed with an infant.

To give you an example of finalization timelines: I adopted 3 babies from foster care. All 3 were very low legal risk, meaning there was extremely little chance of them being returned to birth parents. The first was placed with me as a newborn and the adoption was finalized 6 months later. The 2nd was placed with me at 13 months old and the adoption was finalized 14 months later. The 3rd was placed with me as a newborn and it took nearly 3 years to finalize the adoption. This delay was because the birth mother appealed the termination of her rights and it took a long time to work its way through the court system. Even though it took 3 years, there was never much of a chance that she was going to win so the delay was an annoyance, but not a real threat to the adoption.

If you adopt through foster care, you will receive a monthly stipend from the time the child is placed with you until finalization. The amount of the stipend depends on where you live, the age of the child, if the child has special needs, and whether you are going through the county or a private agency. Generally, the stipend is higher if you go through a private agency. As an example, I live in California. The stipend for my youngest child, pleased as an infant through a private agency with no special needs was $626 per month. You will also receive free medical care for the child. Some states also provide free daycare for foster children.

Once the adoption is finalized, you may receive monthly Adoption Assistance Payments (AAP) through age 18 if the child is classified as special needs. The amount of the payment varies by where you live and the needs of the child. Most states will classify a child as special needs if they are over a certain age, a member of a minority group, a member of a sibling group being adopted together, or have medical and/or emotional issues. Some states (i.e. California) classify ALL children adopted through foster care as special needs so every child adopted from these states will get a monthly AAP payment. As an example, each of my children (all healthy and adopted as infants in California) receive around $500 per month. If the child qualifies for AAP, then they will also qualify for free medical insurance through age 18.

Finally, once you adopt either internationally or through fostercare, you will be eligible to take the Adoption Tax Credit when you file your federal taxes for the year you adopt. The amount of the credit is around $13,500 and is fully refundable (meaning you can get it even if you paid no taxes). If you adopted internationally, the credit is limited to the amount you spent on the adoption. If you adopt through fostercare, the credit is limited to the amount you spent on the adoption (which is usually close to nothing), unless the child is classified as special needs. If special needs, you will be able to claim the entire credit of around $13,500 even if you didn't spend anything. The federal government defers to your State's definition of special needs, so if your State classified your child as special needs (i.e. you receive an AAP payment), then you can take the entire credit regardless of expenses. The Adoption Tax Credit is set to expire on December 31, 2011, so your adoption must be finalized by December 31, 2011 in order to claim the credit. However, the credit has been set to expire several times in the past and has been extended and even improved, so it may be extended again.

If you do an international adoption it can cost in excess of 30,000 dollars.

If you adopt from the foster care system, the adoption itself could be as little as zero to roughly 500 dollars. However, depedending on your state, you might have to pay for a homestudy which will run you several hundred dollars. Or not, some agencies do not charge for a homestudy if you are doing foster care or they will write a mini child specific homestudy that specifically adddresses the issues of the child and how your home specifically meets those needs.

In order to become a foster parent, you have to meet a minimum income requirement. It is really quite low but since I don't know what state you live in I can't tell you what that minim is but at 2400 a month you probably make it.

As for how long it takes, that all depends on if you are going straight adoption or foster to adopt or foster care.

If you are going straight adoption, then the agency will give you a timeline of a year. That is for a non-baby adoption. If you adopt an older child (which can be defined as a one year old) or a sibling group, you could have a child or children within a matter of months. It is kind of a hurry up and wait process. You go through all the paperwork and stuff and you find out about a child and then you ask your social worker to be considered for that child. Well then, you have to wait around for the adoption agency to do a BIS (best interest staffing) Usually they want at least two prospective options when they go into a BIS. And a lot of times, they will wait until around the child's birthday because that is how they keep track of the when to do it. Not always but it does seem to correspond with the child's birthday sometimes. So, really it just depends on what you want and the agencies timeline as to when you even get a child. Once you are selected, you can start visits within a week or two. Usually they try for 3 visits before they place the child in your home but if it is a very young child, they will often times rush it. I highly advise against this. DO NOT RUSH THE VISITS. Take your time. I know you are excited but the more visits you have, the better the transistion goes, the better it is for all inovled. Once the child is in our home, then the adoption will probably be finalized within six months.

Foster to adopt is slightly different. A child or sibling set is placed in the home with the understanding that the bio parents' rights are eventually going to be terminated. This isn't always true. Sometimes the kids go home but usually if the child is foster to adopt, then it is fairly obvious that the bio parents aren't going to get it together enough to get the kids back. However, you still have to wait for it to make it through the court system. A lot of states set a one year in foster care mandate that stipulates that after a year in foster care the children need to be sent back home or the agency needs to move to terminate. If the parents rights are terminated and the kids are in your home, you will be considerd the identified adoption resource and things will proceed as normal and you can expect to adopt within six months. So again, anywhere from a year to a year and a half depeding where the bio parents are in the process. The good thing about this is that you already have the children and you can start building a family. The bad thing is that it is protracted and there is a chance of it all falling through.

Foster care is all of the above but you are starting from scratch. Not even from a foster to adopt time line. So the agency is still trying to do reunification with the parents and, the agency is looking for family placement. The goal is still to send the child home. And as a foster parent, you better not talk about adoption at this point. However, if the parents can't get it together then it moves to the termination stage and if there are no family placements and if the agency determines you to be agood match, then you just wait for it all to go through the system. So if you do foster care it could be up to 2 years depeding on if a child just came into the system and what is going on with the parents.

It is a hurry up and wait game no matter what avenue you take.

The one thing the agency is going to ask you guys about is why do you want to adopt so early in your marriage. If would highly advise AGAINST adopting via the foster care system early in your marriage. Your marriage needs time to gel and come together and foster children can be challenging and put a strain on even the best of marriages. So, give yourself time before you start this process.

Good Luck

P.S. I have never heard of a foster care stiped tax credit. I have been doing foster care for 7 years and if there has been a tax credit I could have been getting, man I'm going to be &#^#(#(&* :0)

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RE:

How much does it cost to adopt from fostercare?

My fiance and I are trying to decide if we want to adopt from 1. Seoul,SouthKorea or 2. the American Foster Care system?Price will determined which we option we chose.

Combined we make 2400 a month

The stipend inst a tax credit. It's a check you get from the state to recover SOME of the costs of fostering. The amount varies from state to state.

The cost for Kids in foster care, less then $200 if you could absolutely everything and about 5 months to a year until finalization. Sometimes faster. International, 15,000 - 30,000 and years.

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It doesn't cost, you just have to have a house to live in, and make enough money to support a child and yourself. They do a background check, and they contact people about you, it's a long process but once it's done then the ball gets rolling ASAP.

And the children of America win coming in at a cool cost of zero.

wait. a couple questions back, you wrote you were picking him up in a couple of weeks. hmm... somethings' not quite right here...