DocumentationOpen the editor

Show adoption or fostering

Change the type of a child line to show that a child was adopted, fostered, raised by a step-parent or conceived with a donor or surrogate, and record the years that the arrangement covers.

2 min readChecked 16 October 2026Open in the editor

A child line records the relationship between one parent and one child. McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (2020) draw an adopted child with a solid line and a dotted line in parallel, which shows the permanence of the connection, and a foster child with a dotted line. The editor follows this convention and writes the year of an adoption, or the years of a foster placement, beside the line.

Demonstration in the editor
This demonstration runs in the editor on a copy of a sample family. It does not change your own chart.

Procedure

  1. 1

    Click the line that runs down from the couple line to the child. A card opens with the names of one parent and the child in its heading.

  2. 2

    Confirm that the heading names the parent whose line you intend to change.

  3. 3

    Select Adoptive parent or Foster parent in Parent type.

  4. 4

    If the child was adopted, type the year of the adoption in Adopted.

  5. 5

    If the child was fostered, type the years of the placement in Lived with from and Until.

  6. 6

    Confirm on the canvas that adoption appears as a solid and a dotted line in parallel, and fostering as a dotted line.

Tip

To change the other parent’s line as well, press C, click that parent, and then click the child. Select the same type in Parent type, and click the option that names that parent as a parent of the child.

Note

Each parent has a separate child line, and the two lines are drawn on top of each other. Parent type therefore changes only the line of the parent named in the heading of the card.

Parent types

Each option in Parent type draws the child line in a different way. The step-parent line is an addition of this editor and is not part of the published notation, so the key explains it wherever it is used.

Kinship care and temporary placements

Kinship care, such as a period in which a child lives with grandparents, does not change who the child’s parents are. It can be recorded by drawing a Temporary group round the household with the lasso, as described in Group a household.