When In Foster Care Does The Child Get A Choice/Selection?

Question

I Mean Do They Get To Be Picky About Who Is Fostering/Adopting Them? And Does The Mother/Parents Get To Choose Who The Child Is Fostered/Adopted By

Answer 1

This is not a hard and fast rule, but IN GENERAL when children are in foster care, it is because they have been removed from their homes for a reason. Usually it is because of abuse of some kind or neglect. If a child is removed from the parents' home, the parents do not have a say in who the foster family will be.

Answer 2

Fostering-ususally not. For one thing there is usually not enough foster parents to go around in the first place. Older children ususally get to pick whether they want to be adopted at all and then there are usually a series of visits with the potential adoptive family to see if everyone is happy. If the child is not, they can elect to not be adopted by that family. The parents in the foster situation do not have many rights in regards to who fosters or adopts their child. This is because their child has been taken away due to some major issue (abuse or neglect) with their parenting. In the case of the child being available for adoption, the parents rights have been terminated.

Answer 3

Fostering no they have no choice or say and neither do the parents.  For adoption kids above a certain age i can't remeber what though do have a say but for kids in foster care the parents have no say because they have had their rights severared

Answer 4

If you are speaking about the children themselves...yes, sometimes, they do get to have a voice in the adoption...especially older children who know more of what is going on.

***EDITED AFTER RE-READING YOUR QUESTION***

Okay...in the case of a child being able to select them, I still stand by my statement above, however, it is still "to a degree".

Given the choice, I'm sure my children would've picked someone in their birth family vs. us, strangers at the time...even though the state has proof of the damaging relationships their birth family had with them.

So, yes, they will listen to the children, but if the placement doesn't appear in the child's best interests by their worker and any professionals involved in the case, then the placement will not be granted.

Answer 5

no, the agency makes the placement YOU can actualy decide if the child is right for you-but not the other way around

Answer 6

I think you'll find that most kids in our foster care system would NOT be picky. All they truly want is a "family", someone to parent them, a source of stability, a house they can call theirs, and a mom or dad or both.

Answer 7

The mother who elects to put her child into foster care temporarily (from financial hardship, severe illness, because she's in the millitary and has an assignment, etc) may have some choice over who fosters the child, but usually not much unless she is choosing a relative.  

Parents whose children are taken from them because of abuse or neglect have no choice (nor should they) of who takes the child, but usually states will try to place with a relative if they can.  

Children in foster care have almost no choice about the foster families they are assigned to.  There simply aren't enough foster families to go arround.  However, a child can request to be moved if they really hate a family they are with - but they will not have much choice in where they go from there.  

Children in foster care DO have some say over whether they are adopted and whom they are adopted by.  A child that the courts consider competent to make the decision veto being adopted by any particular family, or even being adopted at all.  However, very few actually do this, because most would prefer to be adopted then to be in foster care.

Answer 8

The child has no choice, they can request to be together with siblings but it rarely makes a difference.  When my parents were foster parents, we were given the opportunity to refuse children.  We were permanent and emergency care.  That means, if a child's parent is arrested or hospitalized, we could be called in the middle of the night and told to expect a child.  They would stay just a short time, sometimes just a day or so and then move on.  We had some that stayed with us for years.  The system is really hard on kids and there are parents who are just in it for the money, which isn't much, believe me!  My parents always shared the grocery bill with everyone and then let the foster kids see the check.  The check barely helped with groceries, not to mention clothing and other things.