Adoption


All children who are available for adoption through Westside Children's Center come through the foster care system. Therefore, potential adoptive families attend training classes with the agency's foster parents. Families who are interested in adopting a child will then become certified foster parents with the agency.

A child may enter the fost-adopt home with one of three case plans:

1) Reunification with his/her birth parents. If reunification does not occur, the foster parents will most likely have the opportunity to adopt the child. In this scenario, the fost-adopt parents have the likelihood of being the first family of choice for the child.

2) In some special cases, the child's case plan has already been targeted for adoption upon entry into the foster system. This decreases the risk for the potential adoptive parents. Although reunification efforts are still made while the adoption is being concurrently planned.

3) When a child has been in foster care for an extended period of time without reunification, his/her case is referred for adoption. Adoptive parents are located in the community for a specific child. The child will be slightly older as he/she has already spent time in foster care. There is very little risk with this type of placement.

Adoptive parents can designate the level of risk they are willing to take, which will thereby dictate waiting periods for the initial placement of a child. Because the agency specializes in ages 0-8, children will likely be in that age range. There is the possibility of adopting a child outside of this age range when siblings are involved.

Once a child has been placed in a home, the family will receive all the agency services provided to foster parents. These include case management, support services, counseling, and advocacy by a WCC social worker. Once adoption placement papers are signed, the child and family will no longer be affiliated with the public foster care system. WCC will then be available to provide free post adoption services that include topic-specific educational classes, an adoptive parent support group, and information regarding legal and financial matters. In some instances, a home visiting component will also be available. The Center will remain accessible for adoptive families to provide resource and referral information.

The adoption/foster care system can be complicated. If you live in Los Angeles and have further questions, you may contact Westside Children's Center at (310) 390-0551 or by e-mail at: janels@westsidechildrens.org