Q: How do I adopt a New York State Waiting Child?

A: Any children whose parental rights have been terminated are in the foster care system, waiting to be adopted. Therefore, although your goal is to adopt, in order for a child to be placed in your home, you must have a Certificate to Board Children, also known as a foster care license.

Here are the steps you need to follow in order to be ready to have a New York State Waiting Child placed into your home for adoption:

1. Information/Orientation at an agency: Before you begin any paperwork, agencies require you to attend a meeting at which they explain their services to you, and the needs of the many different children who may be available to adopt. At FAMILY FOCUS ADOPTION SERVICES, we call these our Adoption Information Meetings (AIMS), and we offer them several times a month at no charge. Before you have even decided if our agency is right for you, we give you as much information as we can on today's realities about the various types of adoption and foster care.

2. Training: In order to be licensed, you must attend a certain amount of training. Many agencies give training over the course of several weeks, a few hours each week, and the training includes many aspects of temporary foster placement. FAMILY FOCUS has developed a series of three training sessions that are specific to what you will face as you move toward permanency with a child. At the conclusion of the first session, you will have the opportunity to choose one of our programs that seems right for you, and ask for an application to that program.

3. Application: The application process is fairly extensive, and includes a good deal of paperwork for you to fill out. In addition, you will need to submit a set of fingerprints to be reviewed by New York State and the FBI, and you will fill out a form so that your background can be checked for any history of child abuse.

4. Home Site Visits: During or after the time it takes for you to fill out your paperwork and complete your training, a Caseworker will make appointments to visit your home twice, during which he or she will interview you, assess your home, and prepare to write your Family Study.

5. Family Study: Your study (called "Home Study" by many agencies) represents a summation of your paperwork, your interviews, your personal references, and your Caseworker's observations of your interactions, your environment, and your physical home itself. It will also contain a description of the type of child you are looking for. This is what County representatives will read when they are considering you for placement of a child.

6. Search: We give you several resources and places to search for children. Occasionally, we receive referrals of children from counties across New York State, which we then evaluate and pass on to our approved families for consideration. We suggest that the more active you are in your search, the better your chances are of finding a child who you think is an appropriate match for your family.

7. Placement and Beyond: When a child is located, you will then move on to the next stages, which include visits, placement, transition, adoption covenants and finalization.

FAMILY FOCUS ADOPTION SERVICES has two programs for the placement of New York State Waiting Children:

The Rubenacker program is for families wishing to adopt children who have developmental disabilities or other physical or mental challenges that prevent them from being able to consent to their own adoptions.

The Budabin/McQuown program is for families wishing to consider any of the other New York State children. These children are, on the average, older than ten years of age.  Most are teenagers. Many have psychiatric diagnoses, are on medication, attend special education classes, or have other special needs.  Some are part of a sibling group that may not be separated.

You can view pictures and short histories of many of the New York State Waiting Children by visiting www.ocfs.state.ny.us/adopt.

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