Before a court grants an adoption, the child must spend a sufficient period in the care of the prospective adoptive parent or parents. This allows the court to determine whether a stable relationship consistent with the purpose of adoption has developed between them. Under Section 829 of the Czech Civil Code, this pre-adoptive care must last for at least six months.

In 2025, 440 children were placed in pre-adoptive care or in the care of prospective adoptive parents, and 315 children were formally adopted following a court decision. In 2024, the corresponding figures were 384 children placed in pre-adoptive care and 294 children formally adopted; in 2023, they were 435 and 395 respectively.

These figures represent two different stages of the adoption process. Placement in pre-adoptive care precedes the court’s final decision, while formal adoption establishes the legal parent–child relationship. The figures must therefore not be added together to calculate how many children joined adoptive families during the year, as the same child may be included in both statistics.

Before making a final decision on foster care, a court may initially place a child in pre-foster care. The duration of this period depends on the circumstances of the individual case, and the court monitors how the placement is progressing.

Czech law distinguishes between foster care arranged through a formal matching process (zprostředkovaná pěstounská péče, often translated as “mediated foster care”) and foster care arranged outside this process (nezprostředkovaná pěstounská péče, or “non-mediated foster care”).

In the first category, the regional authority identifies a foster family considered suitable for a particular child. In the second category, the placement does not result from this formal matching procedure. It typically involves grandparents, other relatives or people who already know the child and are close to them. However, an unrelated person may also become a foster parent outside the formal matching process, for example by applying directly to care for a particular child.

In 2025, a total of 1,814 children were placed in long-term foster care. Of these, 1,185 were placed with relatives or other people already close to them. For the remaining 629 children, the statistical report does not show how many placements were formally matched through a regional authority and how many were arranged outside that process. During the same year, 139 children were placed in pre-foster care and 927 in temporary foster care.

In 2024, 1,895 children were placed in long-term foster care, 163 in pre-foster care and 940 in temporary foster care. Following a marked increase in 2024, these numbers decreased slightly in 2025.

Applications for adoption or foster care are submitted to the local child protection department – known in Czech as OSPOD – at the municipal authority responsible for the applicant’s place of permanent residence. Applicants specify whether they wish to offer adoption, long-term foster care or temporary foster care.

In 2025, the following new applications were submitted:

• 345 applications for adoption;
• 457 applications for long-term foster care;
• 273 applications for temporary foster care.

As of 31 December 2025, regional authorities had 1,134 adoption applications, 724 long-term foster care applications and 354 temporary foster care applications on their registers. These applications had already completed the professional assessment process and had been formally entered in the relevant registers. However, they do not necessarily represent prospective carers who were immediately ready to welcome a child at that particular moment.

The registers cover an ongoing process and may include applicants whose matching process has been temporarily suspended – for example, at their own request, because of a change in their personal circumstances, after they have been provisionally matched with a particular child, or after a child has been placed with them in pre-adoptive or pre-foster care. The number of registered applications therefore should not be interpreted as the number of families currently available for an immediate placement.

In addition, 353 adoption applications, 404 long-term foster care applications and 226 temporary foster care applications were still pending at the end of 2025. These applications were still being processed and may have involved the completion of supporting documents, mandatory preparation courses or professional assessment.

According to the qualified estimates of the staff of regional authorities who search for foster families for children, the proportion of Roma children for whom adoption or foster care is successfully mediated is lower than for children of the majority ethnic group. The difference is mainly attributed to the lack of applicants for adoption or foster care who would be willing to take in a Roma child.

In 2020, approximately two-fifths of the total number of children of Roma ethnicity for whom adoption or foster care had to be arranged were on the records of regional authorities. Of the children newly placed on the register in that year, approximately one in three were of Roma ethnicity. The number of Roma children registered with regional authorities was highest in the Ústí nad Labem Region, followed by the Moravian-Silesian and South Moravian Regions. On the other hand, the lowest numbers of Roma children were estimated in the Zlín and Pardubice regions.

According to the majority of the staff of municipalities with extended competence and regional authorities who receive and assess applications for adoption or foster care, only 10-20 % of the applicants are open to adopting or fostering a child of Roma ethnicity. The staff also agree that it would be desirable if there were more Roma applicants for adoption or foster care. Nevertheless, their experience with Roma applicants is very rare.