ADOPTION SERVICES
Bethanna's first priority, when a child comes into foster care, is to
safely reunite the child and parents. However, when it is not possible
for a child to return to his/her biological family, Bethanna seeks
adoptive families to ensure the child has a permanent home. Bethanna,
an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption and Permanency
Network (SWAN), provides adoption services for families and
children/teens that live within one hour of any of our four offices
(Philadelphia, Southampton, Media, and Lancaster).
Bethanna has been completing adoptions since the early 1990s. We
currently have 15 workers and 4 supervisors, as well as, a number of
contract workers (including previous employees) working as a team to
support families throughout the entire adoption process. In 2010,
Bethanna finalized 104 adoptions. We also complete adoption work for
four specific agencies in the Philadelphia area that do not have
adoption licenses and for a variety of agencies (per county department
request) in the southeast and south central regions of Pennsylvania.
What are the goals of the Adoption Program?
What is required of Bethanna adoptive parents?
What type of Adoption Services are provided?
Frequently Asked Questions about Adoption
How can I learn more?
Myths about Adoption
Statistics about Children Who are Waiting for Adoptive Homes
What are the Goals of Bethanna's Adoption Program?
1. To provide a child with a family who
commits to a lifetime relationship.
2. To help families assess their
strengths and challenges in meeting the special needs of children in
the foster care system.
3. To provide trainings for families
interested in adoption covering a variety of adoption topics.
4. To prepare both the child and the
family for the adoption through a variety of services before, during
and after the adoption.
What is required of Bethanna Adoptive Parents?
Be capable of setting clear boundaries
and providing structure.
Give constant love even if a child
does not respond.
Appreciate small steps in growth.
Be flexible and forgiving.
Commit to a lifelong relationship.
Foster a safe and nurturing
environment that meet a child's educational, social, emotional, and
economic needs.
Complete adoption orientation
trainings and the application packet paperwork.
Meet with an adoption worker for a
series of interviews.
Cooperate with the adoption social
worker who will provide post placement supervision in the home
beginning when the family profile is approved by the county until the
finalization hearing is completed.
What type of Adoption Services are provided?
Foster Parent Adoption
Many of the adoptions Bethanna facilitates are with foster parents and
kinship parents adopting the foster child already placed in their home.
After a child's parental rights are terminated and a foster family is
interested in adopting the child in their care, Bethanna's Adoption
Department will assess the foster family and complete a family profile.
Bethanna also completes family profiles and finalizations for foster
families from other agencies that do not have an adoption license.
Special Needs Adoption
Most of the adoptions we facilitate involve children in the custody of
a County Children and Youth agency. The majority are considered special
needs children who are:
Age 5 or older
Members of a minority group
A sibling group placed together
Living with emotional, physical or learning disabilities
Infants at risk of a disability due to
genetic or environmental factors
Private Adoption
Bethanna completes family profiles and provides post placement
supervision and reports for private or international adoption
situations. Families must reside in PA. Typically, these families are
working with another agency outside of the area that will complete the
legal paperwork and finalization.
Orientation and Ongoing Training
Bethanna provides training for people interested in foster care and
adoption. These trainings are offered for free and cover topics such as the
approval process, grief and loss, child development, and abuse issues
as well as other pertinent topics. Once a family is approved for either
or both foster care and adoption, they will be invited to ongoing
trainings throughout the year offered by Bethanna's Training Department.
Family Profiles
The family profile process includes collecting application paperwork from the
family, interviewing the applicant(s) and other household members, and
completing a home safety check. Discussion during the Family Profile
process includes the social worker and family together assessing
whether or not the family is a good fit for the children who are
available for adoption. Before the typed profile is sent to a child's
custodial county for approval the family reviews the report for
accuracy.
Family Profile Updates
A number of families adopt more than once. Bethanna will update the
family's previous family profile and help the family update any expired
application paperwork.
Matching Services
For families who have an approved family profile by Bethanna and do not
have a child identified, we will help the family through the matching
process that includes considering children within Bethanna's foster
care program as well as throughout the state of Pennsylvania.
Click Here to view Children in need of Adoptive Homes
Child Profiles
Every child in Pennsylvania with a goal of adoption or permanent legal
custodianship receives a comprehensive report called a child profile.
The profile includes information on the child's social, medical,
educational, psychological and placement history. When a family is
approved for the adoption of the child, they receive a copy of the
child profile.
Child-Specific Recruitment
This service specializes in finding homes for older children or
children with more challenging medical or behavioral issues.
Child Preparation
Adoption workers meet with a child/teen and at times the caregiver to
help a child understand his history in preparation for the future.
Usually the worker meets with the child for 10 sessions over 6 months.
Different creative activities or talking with the child is used to help
the child/teen process his feelings. This does not take the place of
therapy. This is a service that was initially for children/teens with
the goal of adoption but SWAN (Statewide Adoption and Permanency
Network) now offers this service for children with permanency goals
other than adoption.
Coordination of Adoption Finalization
Once Bethanna and a child's custodial county agency) have approved a
family for a child, the Bethanna adoption worker will help the family
through the adoption legal paperwork process including recommending
adoption lawyers. Most of the time there are no costs associated with
the legal process if a family is adopting a child out of the foster
care system.
Post-Permanency Services
A family does not need to worry that once an adoption or PLC is
completed they will be on their own. Bethanna, through the SWAN
program, is able to offer families post perm services after a
finalization takes place for a period of six months anytime until the
child turns 18. These services can include support group, helping to
find and pay for respite, and case management.
Frequently asked questions about Adoption
1. Who are the children that
need
adoptive homes?
As a SWAN (Statewide Adoption and Permanency Network) Affiliate,
Bethanna specializes in helping children in the foster care system who
cannot return home, find permanent families. Once it is determined a
child can no longer be reunified with a birth parent or birth relative,
and the parents' rights are terminated in court, the child becomes
eligible for adoption. Most children will have resided in foster care
or other out-of-home placements for at least twelve to eighteen months
prior to becoming eligible for adoption. The child may have also had
multiple placements in foster care during that time. Currently in the
state of Pennsylvania, there are hundreds of children whose goal is
adoption; however, do not have an adoptive family identified.
These children vary in age, ethnicity, and special needs. The type of child you
are interested in can be discussed in detail with your adoption social
worker. We request all adoptive parents be open to their home being
approved as a foster home, as the majority of placements for adoption
involve the adoptive family acting as foster parents initially. This
means at the time of placement, the child remains in the custody of the
county children and youth agency, and parental rights may or may not be
terminated. These are considered legal risk placements.
Click Here to view Children in need of Adoptive Homes
2. How would I be matched with a
specific
child?
Once a family has completed the necessary orientation classes and a
family profile has been completed and approved by Bethanna, the family
is assigned to the family matching specialist, who helps identify a
particular child. The family also has the opportunity to view different
websites or attend matching events where they have the opportunity to
meet with a child and/or his adoption worker to discuss if that child
would be appropriate for their family. The family matching specialist
is available to answer any of the family's specific questions, as well
as possibly attend any interviews for a specific child.
3. Is it expensive to adopt a
child?
When adopting from the foster care system, costs for a family are
minimal. Attorney fees are usually paid by the county that has custody
of the child. Most children are eligible for an adoption subsidy that
might include a daily reimbursement, as well as medical coverage. The
adoptive family is responsible for providing a complete physical for
every one living in the home. FBI, child abuse and criminal history
clearances may be the responsibility of families for themselves and any
household members over a certain age.
For private adoptions, the adoptive family is responsible for the costs
of FBI, child abuse and criminal history clearances, physical
examinations for each applicant, adoption family profile, attorney
fees, and other related paperwork.
4. How long does it take to
adopt?
Each family must attend trainings prior to being matched with a child. Prior to being approved as an
adoptive family, the family must also have a completed Family Profile.
The time for this process depends on different factors, including
availability of the family to meet with the social worker and
collecting the documents necessary to complete the
application. Periods will vary to be matched with a specific child
depending on the type of child the family desires. While we understand
the process may feel overwhelming and tedious, our goal is to help
children and families experience lifetime connections with each other.
Our goal is finding families for children rather than finding children
for families.
How can I learn more?
Take the first step in the adoption process. Call Bethanna for
information about adopting a child who is waiting for a family. We want
to meet you and answer your questions. Bethanna will work with you to
identify a child who would best fit into your family.
For more information about becoming an Adoptive Parent
Contact: Karen Mummau, kmummau@bethanna.org
Adoption Worker
717-299-1926 or 800-989-1926
Statistics about Children Who are Waiting for Adoptive Homes
www.chidlwelfare.gov/adoption/foster/children
The average age of children waiting to
be adopted from foster care is 8 1/2 years old. Many state child welfare
agencies are implementing specific services to help preteen and teenage
youth find permanent families.
Many of the children in foster care
waiting for adoption are members of sibling groups. Child welfare
professionals recognize the importance of sibling bonds and often try
to identify adoptive families that will keep siblings together.
Almost two-thirds of the children in
foster care who are waiting to be adopted are children of minority
races or ethnicities. Many State and local agencies have developed
programs focusing on helping these children transition from foster care
to permanent adoptive families.
Some of the children in foster care
waiting for adoption have physical or emotional disabilities. Child
welfare agencies may undertake targeted or child-specific recruitment
efforts to help these children find permanent families.
For more information on Pennsylvania's waiting children,
please visit
these websites: Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange
www.adoptpakids.org
and Statewide Adoption and Permanency
Network's (SWAN) Prime Contractor www.diakon-swan.org