Becoming a foster parent: rights and responsibilities
Do you and your partner want to take in a child as foster parents? As parents of a foster child, you have the task of caring for, caring for and educating them. Find out here what rights and obligations you have as a foster parent.
What are foster parents?
Adoption and foster care have in common that a stranger’s child comes into the family. However, the two forms differ significantly from one another, especially in legal terms. While in an adoption there is no longer a legal connection between the adopted child and the birth parents, a foster child always remains a member of his or her family of origin. This is because foster care is understood as a temporary measure and aims to bring the child back to its biological parents.
Taking in a foster child brings some changes to the family situation. In the following you will find out what support foster parents are entitled to and how you can best deal with the new situation:
rights of foster parents
- Nursing allowance: As soon as the parents take in a foster child, they are entitled to nursing allowance. This consists of subsistence and the costs of education and is graded according to age. If foster parents have to provide special educational services, such as caring for a disabled child, the care allowance may increase.
- Allowances: As far as the financial situation is concerned, foster parents have the right to receive so-called allowances for special one-time expenses of the foster child, independently of the care allowance.
- Child benefit: Foster parents with whom a child lives permanently are entitled to child benefit.
- Right to be heard: As a foster parent, you have the right to be heard on all issues relating to the foster child. This means that the judge has to talk to you about your questions and take note of your opinion.
obligations of foster parents
As a foster parent, you must be aware that your foster child is and will remain a child with two families. Even children who have had unpleasant experiences in their family of origin love their parents and have a strong bond with them. After the separation, parents and children usually have the need and the right to see each other, to visit each other or to call each other. Above all, the regulation of visiting contacts depends on your willingness to approach each other.
But what is everyday life like with a foster child? Is a foster family primarily determined by the youth welfare office and the biological parents? Do you have to be prepared for the fact that others constantly interfere in the upbringing or try to get your child out of your family for a short time?
First of all, it is important to understand that as a carer, you are legally allowed to manage the day-to-day affairs of your foster child. So only you decide on everyday questions.
Day-to-day affairs of foster parents:
- whether and when the child is allowed to visit friends
- when to go to bed
- where to go on vacation
- whether and when your child needs medical treatment
- whether your child will become a member of a club
- shopping for the child
- at school: signing certificates, making decisions about working groups, fostering classes with taking on positions, talks with teachers and conferences
If you, as foster parents, are allowed to decide on your own in all everyday matters, this also means that you are not allowed to do it in non-everyday matters.
Non-everyday affairs of foster parents:
- Registration for school and kindergarten
- operations
- long stays abroad
- apprenticeship contracts
- vaccinations
Something else applies if danger is imminent. In these cases, you as foster parents are allowed to take all legal actions. So if your child is hit by a car, you as foster parents don’t have to ask the birth parents for permission for an operation.
Foster parents’ obligation to report
As a carer, you must always give the youth welfare office access to the foster child. This means that you must inform the youth welfare office about important events that affect the child’s well-being. This includes permanent changes in personal circumstances as well as changes in family and partnership. This is a basic reporting obligation that applies to all carers. Any problems are discussed with the youth welfare office and further steps are determined.
Can biological parents take the child away from the foster parents?
The most important difference between adoption and foster care is that the foster child remains the child of his birth parents. It does not become the child of the foster parents, it does not get their name, it is not entitled to inherit from them. Of course, as a foster parent, you will treat your foster child like a biological child and love them that way. From a legal point of view, however, it is the child of other parents.
This is important when it comes to the question of whether the birth parents can remove the child from the foster family. In principle, the biological parents have the right to have their child handed over to anyone. After the child has been in a foster family for a longer period of time, you as a foster parent can apply for the child to remain with your family if the birth parents intend to take your foster child out of the family. You can submit this application to the family court.
What rights do birth parents still have?
- The issues of religious upbringing can continue to determine and influence biological parents, even if they no longer have custody of their child. That means they can decide, for example, whether the child should be baptized or not.
- The biological parents still have the right to contact with their child.
- The right of the biological parents to release the child for adoption also remains.
- However, if the well-being of the child is violated, the family court can overrule or replace the parental decisions.