Foster care and adoption are two important parts of providing children in care with a loving home environment. Learn how they differ in our blog.
Article updated: August 13, 2025
Foster care and adoption are each a pathway to expanding your family and providing a loving home to a deserving child. Though there are differences between these paths, in both cases, the child’s short and long-term well-being is the highest priority.
Understanding the key differences between foster care and adoption can help you on your personal journey of deciding how to make a life-changing difference for a child who needs a home and loving family.
Whether you are interested in providing a safe, short-term home for a child in foster care, a permanent home for a child through adoption, or a foster care adoption situation, welcoming a child in need into your family is a heartfelt and remarkable decision.
The purpose of foster care is to provide a safe, short-term, nurturing home for kids who cannot live with their families. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, children enter foster care for various reasons — from unstable living conditions to caregiver neglect, and even unexpected death.
Foster parents offer kids in foster care a home where they can feel secure during a difficult transition and begin healing from trauma. In most cases, reunification with the child’s birth family is the primary goal of foster care, as long as it is in the best interest of the child.
Foster parents undergo a process to become licensed in their state before a child in foster care can be placed in their home. Though each state has different requirements, standards, and criteria for potential foster parents, there are some common steps and basic qualifications:
Once foster parents have successfully completed the process and received their state license, their organization will work towards matching a child in foster care for temporary placement in the home.
Though a child in foster care may not always live with you long-term or legally become your child, your role as a foster parent is significant and rewarding. Not only do foster families provide a home and love at a time of great need for a child, but they also create lasting connections and memories for everyone involved.
Get a sneak peek into the world of fostering with a compilation of letters from foster parents to the children in their care. You'll get a glimpse of the love, hope, and joy you can discover by transforming a child's life.
Adoption is the process in which a parent or parents gain legal rights and responsibilities for a child who is not biologically theirs. The adopted child becomes a permanent part of their adoptive family once the court determines it’s in the child’s best interest and approves the proceedings.
Like those in foster care, children are placed for adoption for various reasons. In most cases, the birth family is unable to care for the child. Once the adoption is finalized, it is a lifelong commitment on the part of the adoptive parents to be responsible for the child.
Prospective adoptive parents must also undergo a legal process to ensure that they are fit to permanently care for the child. This includes background checks, a home study, and assessments of things such as physical health, emotional health, and financial stability.
In 2025, the National Council for Adoption (NCFA) released an “Adoption-by-the-Numbers” report estimating the number of U.S. private domestic non-stepparent adoptions with the most recent data available. These numbers showed 25,949 adoptions in 2021, and 25,503 in 2022.
However, as the report indicates, these numbers do not reflect all types of adoption available in the U.S.
There are different types of adoption processes available to prospective adoptive parents, including domestic adoptions, international adoptions, and foster to adopt.
In this case, birth parents in the U.S. place their newborn for adoption. The procedure may be overseen by a professional adoption organization or through private, independent arrangements.
Domestic adoptions also have the potential to be open, semi-open, or closed:
This type of adoption involves adoptive parents who decide to adopt a child outside of the U.S. It requires proper navigation of adoption laws and regulations in both the U.S. and the child’s country of origin. In addition, there may be language and cultural barriers to consider.
When reunification with their birth family is not possible, a child in foster care can be placed for adoption and a permanent home. Nearly one-third of kids in foster care are eligible for adoption, and many of them wait years for a permanent home and family.
In truth, the process and result of fostering to adopt can be one of the most rewarding journeys for both prospective adoptive parents and children in foster care in need of a loving family to call their own.
Tacole Robinson, a foster parent in Maryland, expresses her joy of becoming an adoptive parent to children in her care:
There are other types of adoption that involve people close to or related to the child. For example, a stepparent adoption is when a stepparent legally adopts a stepchild. Kinship adoption involves a relative who is not the child’s birth parent, such as a grandparent or aunt, adopting a child.
Both foster care and adoption are centered around a child’s well-being and need for a loving home and parents. Yet it is important to understand the key differences between these approaches.
Adoption is a permanent, legal relationship in which a child becomes a lifelong member of a family. Adoptive parents have full legal rights and responsibilities for the child.
Foster care is a temporary arrangement with the goal of reuniting the child with their birth family whenever possible. Foster parents provide an interim home where the child in foster care can safely stay and grow.
For children in foster care, the state usually has legal custody rights. That’s why significant decisions regarding the child, their care, and immediate future are determined by the state and child welfare system.
For adoption, legal custody and parental rights are transferred from the biological parent(s) to the adoptive parent(s), giving them full decision-making authority and responsibility for the child.
Though there are many avenues for adoption, it can be an expensive process, reaching costs in the tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, adoptive parents are responsible for lifelong financial support of the adopted child, including medical, educational, and any other monetary needs.
Foster parents, on the other hand, do receive financial stipends to meet the daily costs of raising the child in their care. These stipends vary from state to state and are often dependent on the child’s age and any special needs. It’s important to remember that foster care stipends are intended to support the child in your care, and are not a form of personal income.
As you consider becoming a foster or adoptive parent, it’s important to think about your short and long-term abilities and goals. In either case, parenting requires time, energy, stability, love, and resources.
If you aren’t sure about making a lifelong commitment as a parent, perhaps fostering would be beneficial rather than adopting. If you are ready and have the means to permanently take care of a child, then adoption may be a great choice.
Be sure to communicate with your family and ensure that everyone is supportive of welcoming a child into the home — whether temporarily or permanently.
It’s also important to keep in mind that there are many supportive resources and organizations so that you are not alone on your journey. No matter which path you choose, the commitment to improving the life of a child through fostering or adoption is courageous and rewarding.
Learning about foster care is a first step in a life-changing journey. Fostering connects deserving kids in foster care to loving homes and families when they need it most.
Want to learn more about if fostering might be right for you? Get personalized advice from a foster care expert.
No matter where you are in your adoptive or foster parenting journey, you can get your questions answered, and see how fostering fits into your life's circumstances.
The first step just takes one minute: Reserve your time to get personalized foster care advice now.
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