Foster Care and Adoption in Nebraska
Currently, there are more than 6,000 children in Nebraska foster care. Currently, many of those children are eligible for adoption from foster care and are waiting for an adoptive family.
Although American Adoptions specializes in the adoption of newborns and is unable to provide Nebraska foster care adoption services, adopting a child from foster care is a great family-building option. The information below can offer you more insight into the process of foster care adoption in Nebraska and can help you determine if it’s the right way to grow your family.
How to Get Involved in Nebraska Foster Care
There are three ways to get involved with foster care in Nebraska:
Become a Foster Parent
If you get licensed as a foster parent, you would be providing children with a temporary home until they can be placed somewhere more permanent, either with their biological family or with an adoptive family, depending on their situation.
Foster to Adopt in Utah
If you’ve been fostering a child and he or she becomes legally eligible for adoption, you may be able to adopt him/her through a process called foster to adopt in Nebraska. Although most children in NE foster care won’t ever become eligible for adoption, a child’s foster parents can ask to be considered as a permanent placement option if a foster care adoption becomes the new goal in the child’s situation.
Adopting from Foster Care in Nebraska
If you know that you want to adopt from foster care in Nebraska, then you don’t have to become a foster parent first. Instead, you can ask to be matched with children who are already eligible for a Nebraska foster care adoption and are waiting for adoptive parents.
Nebraska Foster Care Subsidies
You may be eligible to receive Nebraska adoption assistance through a state adoption subsidy if you adopt through foster care in NE. The amount of adoption assistance you may receive will vary depending on state laws as well as the individual needs of the child(ren) you foster or adopt through foster care in Nebraska.
Who Can Foster to Adopt or Adopt through Foster Care in Nebraska?
Contact the Nebraska Foster Adoptive Parent Association for information about what is required to adopt a child from foster care in Nebraska.
All prospective adoptive parents must be approved through the home study process and will also need to meet their foster care provider’s requirements for potential adoptive parents. Contact your foster care agency to learn more.
Who Can Be Adopted from Foster Care in Nebraska?
Before a child can be considered eligible for adoption from foster care in Nebraska, their biological parents must first terminate their legal parental rights. This can be done voluntarily by the parents themselves, or involuntarily by the court if the parents fail to meet the requirements needed to regain custody, as is often the case in foster care situations.
When a child turns 18, they “age out” of Nebraska foster care if they haven’t been adopted. But they can still be adopted by former foster parents to establish a legal and permanent bond to that family through an adult adoption.
Resources and Nebraska Foster Care Adoption Agencies
The following foster care adoption agencies and Nebraska adoption photolisting sites can help you learn more about foster care and adoption in Nebraska:
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Nebraska Heart Gallery adoption photolisting
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AdoptUSKids Nebraska resource page
Please contact one of the above agencies to begin your foster care adoption in Nebraska.
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.