Is there any difference between guardianship and adoption other than the adoptees loss of rights?

Question

I'm just curious. And are there situations where PAP's could do a temporary or permanent guardianship instead, for the benefit of the child?

I'm in the USA, which probably makes a big difference.

Answer 1

It seems to me that guardianship agreements are the law-a-way plan of child care. You cannot arrest the development of a child to suit the needs of parents that can't get their act together.....this is why the foster care system is such a miserable failure.

Making a monthly payment on a child is unrealistic and selfish.

Adoption is making a daily investment on a child where one set of parents is guaranteed to be the stable influence in a child's life.

Answer 2

i am not too sure what you are asking since you do not make much sense BUT from what i have heard (wrong or right i am not sure) adoption is when they ARE parents to a child/ren and guardianship is when they are placed in a home to a responsible adult but does not have all the rights as a parent or adoptive parent would.

Answer 3

isn't that what foster care is about?

I'm glad my parents ADOPTED me and gave me their last name and the legal rights that went along with it.  That was beneficial for me.  If it was only a guardianship, i don't think i would've felt like part of the family.

ETA per your request:  I don't know if this is waht you're looking for but here's my thoughts:

1) Legally, the state recognizes me as their child

2) Inheritance benefits

3) Social security benefits

4) next of kin i.e. at hospital.  Say i was injured at 22 and the guardianship was over at 18, then what?  i'd want my mom and dad to be contacted as next of kin.

5) Having their last name means a lot to me.  Don't know why but it does.  It means I'm their child. period.

One Last ETA:  i can understand guardianship for a few years while the young mother goes away to college and grandma has the child.  I can certainly understand guardianship then; it's just when it's an 15 - 18 year guardianship with non bios, i don't get.

Answer 4

There are a lot of differences between the two, especially for kids adopted from foster care.  Many of them depend on the state you live in.

For example, here in GA, you receive adoption (financial) assistance if you adopt a child from foster care. You do not receive this assistance if you are a guardian (unless you qualify for TANF, but that's a completely separate issue).

The child does not automatically qualify for Medicaid in a guardianship situation.  

Foster children are supervised (with a minimum of 2 visits a month) and children adopted from foster care are supervised (with a minimum of 1 visit a month) until the adoption is finalized.  In a guardianship situation, there is no state supervision. Some parents find this supervision a nuisance and invasion of privacy. But many find it beneficial - it's basically free counseling and you have someone to call anytime for parenting help and advice. As a guardian you are on your own.

Once you adopt, that child is legally yours in all respects. If you pass away, they have right of inheritance. If you are in the ICU they have the right to visit you. These rights are all automatic.  If you are a guardian, the children have none of these rights. If you pass away while a child is in your care, they are right back into the system.  Many children that I have come into contact with through my work do not feel secure when they are in foster care (even if their foster parent is a blood relative) or in a guardianship situation. They have been bounced around too much from home and home and they want a permanent situation. Most of them ask to be adopted so they can finally feel they belong somewhere.

I believe that there are situations where short-term guardianship is the right thing, but I don't think it is good for long-term situations.

Answer 5

ya big difeerences

Answer 6

When a child is in foster care, the state has legal custody, not the foster parents.  The fparents have physical custody.  It's not the same as a legal guardianship arrangement.

A legal guardianship arrangement can be made that includes the child taking on the guardians' last name.  The "day to day investment" in the child is still there.  Guardianships can be just as permanent as an adoption.  (We do know that adoption doesn't have to be permanent, either -- 'adoption disruption' is a legal nullification of the adoption.)  

There are some legalities that would have to be arranged well, such as a will or trust.  If a person dies without a will or trust, the state looks for the next of kin that would be legally able to inherit.  I've just been through this with a relative who died with no will or trust.  An adopted child normally will automatically fit into that list.  So, if someone has a legal guardianship, s/he will need to make sure there is a trust or will in place so that the person to whom s/he is guardian doesn't get left out in the inheritance.  Other legal arrangements would have to be made for issues that wouldn't be an automatic right if the person is adopted.

This is just my person feeling for what I would have liked looking back.  I would have liked my AP's to have had a legal guardianship agreement.  The anti-adoptee c**p that happens when an adoption is finalized would have never occurred.  Because my natural parents had already relinquished, they still wouldn't have had parental rights over me, so I wouldn't have had parents in the LEGAL sense of the word, but my AP's wouldn't have treated me any differently that they did.  I'd have been able to have the truth of my ENTIRE history, however, as nothing would have been sealed.  MY heritage would still have been MY heritage.  MY birth certificate would have still been MY birth certificate.  

At age 18, if I chose to have them legally adopt me at that point, we could have done that.  It would have been MY choice, TOO.  

This is just what I, personally -- just I -- would have preferred for my OWN life.

Answer 7

YEP

1)  It is very difficult to obtain the correct paperwork to Add children to your Personal Health Insurance unless they are legally adopted or placed as Pre-Adoptive Foster Children.

2) Children living in the home under a guardianship will have a different Last Name and if the whole family has the same last name the child will always need to explain why theirs is different....

3) If the plan is to raise the child to adulthood then to ME (I say to me personally) It's the same as the difference between Shacking-Up and getting Married... Why Shack Up forever if this is a Family?

4) Guardianship May not offer as many parental rights as legal parents have--and there may be "decision" makers who have no vested interest in the overall welfare of the family unit.

5) Children Grow up and may feel they have No Family to go home for Holidays..... and Parents may be less open to Keeping a Legal Adult because there is Not a Family Tie that binds them....

6) Guardianship will offer parents More Paperwork dealing with schools, doctors and anything that requires parental permission... along with the fact that the child will always be made aware of the fact they are NOT REALLY a part of that family....

7) When it comes to making a kid feel Grateful... It is by far more of an issue for children living with people who are NOT really their parents....

8) Kids may not feel comfortable to Call the Mom--Mom or the Dad--Dad because they are really just people taking care of them and Not their Mom or Dad.....

9) If there are other children in the home, bios or adopted the child that is only living under Guardianship--May feel less a part of the family....