How to Find a Foster Care Agency in Alabama

Should I Work with a Foster Care Agency to Adopt in Alabama?

If you’re considering adoption to grow your family, you most likely are weighing your adoption options.

You may be wondering if you can work with a foster care agency to complete your adoption in Alabama.

Although foster care adoption is one way to grow your family, it’s not without challenges.

This guide will examine:

What foster care adoption is
How to have a foster care adoption with a public adoption agency in Alabama (also known as a foster care agency)
Foster care adoption benefits and challenges
Foster care adoption alternatives

If you’ve already weighed your options and have determined that you’d prefer to pursue domestic infant adoption, you can contact us for free. But, if you want to find out more about “foster care agencies” and adoption in Alabama, continue reading.

What is Foster Care Adoption?

A foster care adoption in Alabama involves a child in foster care whose biological parents have had their parental rights terminated by a court.

Alabama has the following foster care adoption requirements for potential adoptive parents:

Be at least 19-years-old
In good health
Complete a 30-hour training course
Meet the Alabama Minimum Standards for Foster Family Homes

Also, it’s important to note that foster care agencies in Alabama are public adoption agencies (not private foster care agencies) run by the state. Any public adoption agency in Alabama works with families who want to:

Foster children
Adopt from foster care
Foster children and adopt from foster care

How to Pursue Foster Care Adoption with a Public Adoption Agency in Alabama

The main goal of foster care is to safely support a child until their biological parents can begin to care for them again.

In general, children are typically placed in foster care because of:

Neglect
Abuse
Parental substance abuse
And more

No child ever ends up in foster care because of something they did. It’s also important to understand foster children may need additional emotional support while living in your home.

If a child’s biological parents are able to fulfill a judge’s reunification plan, they will be able to continue to parent their kid. But, if the biological parents are unable to fulfill the plan – and the child’s relatives cannot adopt the child – the child’s foster parents may be able to pursue foster care adoption with the help of a public adoption agency.

Foster Care Adoption Benefits

You may choose to pursue foster care adoption through a public foster care agency in Alabama if:

You feel like you’ve been called to become a foster parent.
You would like to adopt an older child.
You would like to adopt a sibling group.
You don’t have the finances to pay private adoption fees and want to grow your family.

Foster Care Adoption Cons

Becoming a foster care parent may not be the right choice for you if:

You want to work with a private adoption agency and not the state. You will not work with a private foster care agency in Alabama during the foster care process. Foster care is almost always handled by the state with the help of a public adoption agency.
You want to adopt an infant.
You want a predictable adoption wait time and less uncertainty.

Foster Care Agency Adoption Alternatives

Two types of foster care agency alternatives are private domestic infant adoption agencies and international adoption agencies.

Private Domestic Infant Adoption

Most adoption agencies in the United States provide private domestic adoption. Agencies either operate locally, regionally, or nationally.

American Adoptions is a national adoption agency that provides adoption services in all 50 states. Our agency helps prospective birth mothers by:

Ensuring they receive adoption financial assistance
Providing adoption counseling and support
Providing adoption plan creation help
And more

And our agency helps hopeful adoptive families by:

Protecting their adoption investment
Providing adoptive family profiles
Marketing adoptive family profiles to prospective birth mothers
And more

International Adoption

Although international adoption is less popular than it once was, you can still pursue international adoption in Alabama by working with an international adoption agency. Be prepared to fulfill additional time-consuming and often expensive steps before your adoption is completed.

Final Thoughts

Foster care adoption is one of three choices you can pursue to grow your family. The following resources can help you find a reputable public foster care agency in Alabama:

Disclaimer
Information available through these links is the sole property of the companies and organizations listed therein. American Adoptions provides this information as a courtesy and is in no way responsible for its content or accuracy.

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