Foster Care Agencies in Connecticut

A Guide to how Foster Care Agencies in Connecticut Work

Public adoption agencies are often referred to as foster care agencies or foster care adoption agencies. These agencies work on behalf of the state to coordinate foster care and foster care adoptions.

You may choose to work with foster care agencies in Connecticut if you want to:

Foster a child
Adopt your foster child
Adopt from the foster care system

This guide will detail why hopeful adoptive families may choose to work with a foster care agency in Connecticut. It will also explore a few other adoption options.

If you’ve considered working with a public adoption agency to adopt from foster care but have determined you’d rather pursue private infant adoption, you can contact us today via our online form or call 1-800-ADOPTION.

What is Foster Care?

Public foster care agencies in Connecticut help place children in loving foster homes. Children in the foster care system are there because their biological parents can no longer safely care for them. No child is in foster care because of something they did.

Children in foster care may have experienced:

Neglect
Parental substance abuse
Physical abuse
And more

The main goal of foster care is to reunify children with their biological parents. To do this, a judge presents a reunification plan to the child’s biological parents. If the parents can meet these terms, the child will return to their home.

But, if the child’s biological parents cannot meet the reunification plan’s terms, the child will be eligible for adoption. Three different types of public agency adoption in Connecticut can happen:

First, the courts will see if someone from the child’s biological family can adopt them.
If no one in the family can adopt, then the child’s foster family can start the foster-to-adopt process.
If the child’s foster family chooses not to adopt, the child will remain in the state’s custody until an adoptive family is found.

What Do Foster Care Agencies in Connecticut Do?

All foster care agencies in Connecticut are diverse and provide different services.

But, many foster care adoption agencies in Connecticut provide the following common services:

Parenting classes, like PS-MAPP (Partnering for Safety and Permanency – Model Approach to Partnerships in Parenting) or PRIDE (Parent Resources for Information, Development and Education) classes
Foster parent profile creation
Home study help

Pros of Adopting Through a Public Adoption Agency in Connecticut

Foster care is a vital service for many children, and foster care adoption can be an amazing way to start or grow your family. Here are a few pros of working with foster care adoption agencies in Connecticut:

Pursuing adoption through foster care is a good choice if you want to adopt an older child or teenager. It’s also a good choice if you’re interested in adopting a sibling group.
If you get the opportunity to foster to adopt, you will experience less adoption disruption. This is because the courts have already terminated the child’s biological parents’ parental rights.
Private adoption can be expensive. You do not have to pay to become foster parents. If you get the opportunity to adopt your foster child, those costs are much lower than private adoption.

Cons of Adopting Through a Foster Agency in Connecticut

Foster care adoption is great, but it’s not right for everyone. There are some potential pitfalls of this route:

Many hopeful adoptive parents want to bond with their child from birth onward. Infants are typically not available to foster.
Hopeful adoptive parents may experience disappointment if their foster child’s birth parents fulfill the court’s reunification plan.
You may experience a longer wait time to adopt while waiting for the courts to make a decision about the child’s biological parents.

Other Adoption Options in Connecticut

If you are still considering your adoption options and aren’t sure you want to adopt from a foster care agency in Connecticut, you may want to consider private domestic infant adoption or international adoption.

Private Domestic Adoption

Local and national adoption agencies help women experiencing unplanned pregnancies and hopeful adoptive families pursue adoption.

Pregnant women do not have to pay for any aspect of the adoption process. Hopeful adoptive families cover their costs with the help of a licensed adoption agency.

American Adoptions is a full-service private, domestic infant adoption agency that can help you through the entire adoption process and refer you to other adoption professionals. Our agency requires hopeful adoptive families to agree to openness in the adoption. Open adoption benefits everyone involved in the adoption process, including you, the birth mother, and your baby.

International Adoption

International adoption agencies help hopeful adoptive families adopt children in different countries. This type of adoption is less common than it used to be and can be quite expensive and result in an unpredictable adoption process.