Dependency (Fost-Adopt) Adoptions

Juvenile dependency cases result when children are removed from their biological parents or other caretakers because of abuse and/or neglect. Child Protective Services steps in to protect the children and place them temporarily with foster care providers who are now called “resource families.” These foster children become “dependents” of the court and are either adopted out, become wards of legal guardians, or remain in foster care until they “age out” of the system at the age of eighteen. There is always a need for both resource families and Fost-Adopt parents willing to take children into their homes and provide them with the love, stability and security they all need and deserve.

In Los Angeles County, the Department of Children and Family Services works with resource families and prepares those who are interested to be adoptive parents. In most cases, the birth parents do not voluntarily give up their parental rights in order that their children can be adopted.  Therefore, L.A. County attorneys represent the Department of Children and Family Services and take steps in court to legally terminate the birth parents’ parental rights so that the children may be “freed for adoption.” These proceedings take place in the Juvenile Court system.

We've worked closely with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services since 1988 helping foster parents adopt children who were wards of the Dependency Court. These kinds of adoptions are called dependency adoptions or “fost-adopt” cases. We've successfully finalized well over 8,000 of these adoptions. Our goal in these cases is to make the adoption finalization process go as quickly and smoothly as possible with the least amount of stress and inconvenience to his clients.