Every day children continue to enter the foster care system, and large numbers of people decide to become foster parents. The application for foster parents is not much different than that for adoptive parents.
Trends of foster parents becoming adoptive parents has grown steadily. Since many of the requirements are similar, if not the same, becoming adoptive parents after providing foster care is much easier than petitioning for adoption from the outset.
Often, children placed with foster parents are expected to reunify with their biological parents. Generally, these parents would have exhibited an inability to raise the child at some point and will be given a specific criteria to satisfy in order to have legal guardianship returned to them. Unfortunately, many times these biological parents continue to exhibit failings and forfeit any possibility of reunion with their children.
At this point, these children are effectually up for adoption barring any further considerations. When these situations occur, the foster parents will sometimes become the child's adoptive parents.
The qualifications for becoming foster parents,much like that for adoptive parents, include: an intensive home study, background check, different certification, and medical examination for the foster parents and all children. Oftentimes after completing the qualifications and gaining the State license to become foster parents, individuals will be asked for placement right away.