Adoption Checklist

Meeting Adoption Requirements

You must be over 19 years of age.

If married, marriage must be of at least 3 years duration.

You must have adequate housing & personal space for the child or children adopted.

You must be healthy enough to meet a child's needs.

You must be willing to undergo a thorough background check.

Preparation for Child Adoption

Determine what type of adoption is right for you.

Attend programs specifically designed to educate potential adoptive and foster parent families.

Join local and internet adoptive parent support groups.

Check an adoption professional or agency out with the licensing authority in its home state.

Consider hiring or consulting an experienced and reputable adoption attorney.

Be cautious if you are offered a referral before you have a completed and approved homestudy.

Find a child available for adoption.

Get approved as an adoptive resource or obtain consent to adoption.

Obtain adoption petitions.

Meet the children in pre-placement visits.

Upon the signing of a placement agreement, child will be placed in your home.

Parenting After Adoption

Exchange information with other adoptive parents.

Participate in the support groups.

Questions you Should Ask the adoption agency

Do the agency web site & advertisements make it clear that the agency only does fully open, fully identified adoptions?

Is this agency easy to drive to from your home?

Do you have a friend who knows or has used this agency and gives it a very high recommendation?

Are there other agencies in your local yellow pages under the adoption heading?

Does the agency encourage maternity clients to parent?

Does the agency also offer free support and guidance in how to parent a child?

Did agency staff make it clear that they prefer to do fully open adoptions?

Did agency staff accurately define open adoption as involving no secrets between birth and adopting families and ongoing, direct, in person contact between them?

Does the agency strongly recommend, or even require, several counseling sessions by their staff before a maternity client starts considering the selection of a family for their child?

Does agency require a minimum of 10 hours of training & counseling for all adopting parents before they are approved for placement?

Does the agency encourage matching between birth and adopting families who live close enough to each other for easy visits?

Does the agency have fully identified resumes by families adopting for the selection process?

Does the agency always allow maternity clients selecting a family for their child?

Does the agency provide a copy of their fee agreement for adopting parents with a clearly stated refund policy?

Does the agency provide a clarification that donations cannot be accepted during the adoption process?

Does the original adopting parent fee include money for all maternity client expenses?

Is the race of the child expected one of the last questions asked?