All About Adoption: What is adoption?
Adoption creates a new legal parent-child relationship in the adoptive
family with all of the rights and responsibilities of a biological parent-child
relationship.
All About Adoption: Different Types of Adoption
Private Domestic Adoption:
Sometimes children are adopted directly from their birth families using the
services of adoption attorneys or adoption agencies to make sure that the legal
requirements are met. Usually, the child's biological family chooses the
adoptive family, and decides how much future contact the original family will
continue to have with the newly created family. Click here to learn about HVAS Private Domestic Adoption Services
Intercountry or International Adoption: Orphans from other countries can be
adopted by American parents or vice versa with the approval of the governments
of both countries.
Relative or Intra-family Adoption: Children are sometimes adopted by their stepmothers,
stepfathers, aunts, uncles or grandparents, if one or both of their parents
cannot take care of them. These adoptions also need the assistance of licensed
adoption professionals to make sure legal requirements are met.
Domestic Adoption from State Foster Care: Many children in
the community need new families because they are growing up in state-sponsored
foster care in temporary situations that can change at any moment. These
children are all ages and races, some with health problems and some with none.
Having suffered losses, these children need new parents who are committed to
helping them make the transition to a permanent adoptive home and the optimism
and hope that a permanent family can offer.
All About Adoption: Cost of Adopting
Adopting can cost almost nothing, and it can cost $30,000 or more. The
Federal Government has published detailed information about the many kinds of
adoption costs at the child welfare information gateway: www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/s_cost/
Domestic private agency adoptions: Licensed private
agencies charge fees that include the costs for birth parent counseling,
adoptive parent home study and training, the mother and child's living and
birth expenses, post-placement supervision until the adoption is finalized, and
a portion of agency costs for overhead and operating expenses.
Domestic independent adoptions: Adoptive families who
pursue independent adoptions can spend $30,000 or more depending on fees
charged by their attorney and the medical and living expenses of the mother and
child.
Intercountry adoptions: Fees for international adoption
include agency fees, dossier and immigration processing fees, and court costs.
However, there may be additional costs for the following:
- Child Foster Care;
- Adoptive parents' travel and in-country stay to process the adoption abroad;
- Escorting fee;
- Child's medical exams, care and treatment.
Adoption Resources, Grants, Loan Programs, Adoption Tax Credit
(Open PDF Below)
