Adoption is a legal action that transfers all parental rights to adoptive parents, making a child a legal member of a family with all the rights and privileges of a biological child.
According to The Florida Department of Children and Families: “To be eligible to adopt one of Florida's children, you can be married or single, above the age of 21 and not have certain felony criminal records. If you have the time, the space in your home, are financially stable and the desire to adopt, you can be considered for adopting a child from Florida’s foster care system.”
Any child in foster care whose birth parents’ parental rights have been terminated by the courts may be adopted.
Florida does not charge for pre-adoptive training, home studies or placement.
The length of the process varies from case to case.
Any information that the agency currently has, will be provided to adoptive families.
Please refer to the Benefits of Adopting Florida’s Children page.
When you’ve completed training, backgrounds and your home study has been approved, it is time to explore children. You can visit www.heartgallerypbc.org to learn about local children available for adoption. Other websites include: www.adoptflorida.org or www.adoptuskids.org.