When children in care are adopted
Your child can be adopted if they are in out-of-home care. Read more about the process, consent and court requirements, including how to stop an adoption order.
What will change if my child is adopted
Adoption permanently transfers all parental rights and responsibilities to the adoptive parents. If a child in foster care is adopted by his carers, the carers will become the legal parents and will be able to make decisions about the child such as education, medical treatment, religion or where the child lives. Once the child is adopted, the law won't see you as the child's parent anymore. The adoptive parents will also be responsible for organising your contact with the child and they will decide if the child surname will be changed.
DCJ or any other agency that organised the foster care for your child won’t be involved in your child’s care anymore.
It is important to remember that once an adoption order is made, you won’t be able to ask the Court to order that your children come back to your care.
You can read more about the adoption process for birth parents and what is the effect of an adoption order to understand what is likely to happen once your child is adopted.