NOTE: Even if you are not formally
designated as the Prospective Adoptive Parent, you may have the right to notice, to object, and to request a hearing if you meet the threshold qualifications for Prospective Adoptive Parent.
The Juvenile Court may designate a current
caretaker as a prospective adoptive parent if the child has lived with the caretaker for at least six months, the caretaker currently expresses a commitment to adopt the child, and the caretaker has taken at least one step to facilitate the adoption process.
Our agency, Family Connections, Inc., has had families who are placed with a child after being approved
as a prospective adoptive parent for a couple of days; we have also had couple wait a few months adopt; or who have waited for over three years to adopt a child.
Keeping that in mind, your
job as a prospective adoptive parent is to show that even though you may face more challenges than a couple, you're perfectly capable of dealing with them — just like others have before you.
Families wishing to adopt a child from a foreign country (inter-country or international adoption), must complete a home study investigation and be approved
as prospective adoptive parents by a Hague Accreditated adoption agency.
The Child Welfare Information Gateway recently released a bulletin designed to help child welfare and adoption professionals expand their cultural competence and build their skills for working effectively and fairly with LGBT
families as prospective adoptive parents.
Please note that even if you have not been formally
designated as the Prospective Adoptive Parent, you have the right to notice of intent to move the child in your care, and the right to object and request a hearing if you meet the threshold criteria for Prospective Adoptive Parent.
After Termination of Parental Rights: «The court... may designate a current
caretaker as a prospective adoptive parent... [and] the child may not be removed from the home of the designated prospective adoptive parent unless the court finds that removal is in the child's best interest.»
Now that you have completed your paperwork, your home visit, reviewed your home study and been approved
as prospective adoptive parents, y
□ The final page of the book will be your thank you to the birthmother for considering
you as prospective adoptive parents.
After a thorough investigation of a family they will either be approved
as prospective adoptive parents or denied approval as adoptive parents.
As a prospective adoptive parent, you will have the opportunity to take your prospective son or daughter to a Pakistan Pediatrician to be evaluated when a child is handed over to you by the orphanage.
Now that you have completed your paperwork, your home visit, reviewed your home study and been approved
as prospective adoptive parents, you are one step further on your journey to add to your family through adoption.
The Court will decide at the hearing whether or not you will be designated
as the Prospective Adoptive Parent.
Please note that when a person is designated
as a prospective adoptive parent, that person is not a party to the dependency proceedings nor do they have any standing to object to any department or agency decision other than removal, unless the person was recognized as a de facto parent prior to the notice of removal.