Legal Risk Adoptions

When most people think of adoption they think of a child whose parents are no longer in the picture either because they have given them up or because their rights were taken away. In these cases the steps to adoption have mostly to do with a process that centers around you and the child and making you a permanent family. 

So what is legal risk adoption and how does it differ from standard adoptions? A Legal risk adoption is one where the parents are still actively involved in the child's life and their rights have not been taken away. This includes visiting rights. It is when the courts have decided that the reunification plan is not looking promising and starts to look for a licensed foster family who is seeking an adoption. Once this family is found (through a interview/selection process) they place the child in their care. In the following months/years the child's case will be presented to the court to determine the direction of the case plan (switch from reunification with the parents to adoption with the selected family), a request to terminate parental rights (TPR), and a 30 day waiting process once TPR is signed and filed by judge for parents opportunity to appeal. If the parents do not appeal, the rights are officially taken away and you can start pursuing adoption by submitting petition to adopt. There can be waiting periods (in our area they are 3 months) that sometimes can be waived following the petition. Once these waiting periods have passed you can officially start adopting the child.

What is the risk to taking in a child who is legal risk. The main risk is that the child you are living with will be reunified with their parents and adoption will not occur or that the process of removing the rights of the parents can take a very long time. However, this is not always the case. There are occasions when the court sees that the parents are most likely not going to do what it takes to reunify with their child and expedite the process as much as possible. Each judge responds to these situations differently as well as the requirements on the judge can be different based on the area which they reside. The child's team of workers can also make the process move at different speeds. 

These children need permanent homes and a sense security. Many time once entering in an adoption home you can see great strides in their health and development. They are defiantly a risk worth taking.