If you decide to pursue adoption through the Minnesota Waiting Children program, you will (from a legal standpoint) be considered the child’s foster parent (or “pre-adoptive foster parent”) when the child is placed with you. From the time that the child is placed with you until the adoption is finalized, you will be their foster parent. This means that you will receive foster care payments. Once the adoption finalizes, you will likely receive Adoption Assistance payments instead of foster care payments.
Because you are seeking to adopt the child, it might feel weird to be receiving money to take care of them. However, these funds make the process more affordable for children to become a part of a stable and permanent family. Additionally, for the first few months after your child moves in with you, you will likely experience some “sticker shock,” because (let’s face it!) – kids are expensive.
This linked PDF contains the foster care daily rates for Minnesota for 2012. Foster parents receive a “per diem” for each day the child lives with them. This payment consists of two parts: a daily basic maintenance rate and a difficulty of care (DOC) payment.
As a parent who has been through this process, I can tell you that these funds are very helpful. I can also tell you that I am surprised to hear that there are people who allegedly “do foster care” for the money, because at least in our household, there is no financial profit as a result of receiving those foster care payments each month. There is another “profit” though- – an intangible benefit . That benefit is the feeling of providing a stable home to these wonderful children.