What Criteria Must Be Met to Adopt a Child?
- First, you should ask yourself if adoption is right for you. Many adoptive parents have some similar personality traits. An adoptive parent is willing to make a lifelong commitment to a child, has an abundance of patience, a good sense of humor, is able to handle stress well, and is non-judgmental and tolerant of children.
- Public and private agencies usually have very different criteria that you must meet. Public agencies usually have more flexible eligibility requirements for adoptive parents, especially when it comes to older children or children with special needs. Public agencies have application paperwork, sometimes with an application fee. Public agencies also commonly require potential adoptive parents to attend an orientation and parenting classes before matching them with children.
Private agencies also usually require application paperwork, usually with a non-refundable application fee. Many private agencies match potential adoptive parents with infant children, and the criteria that parents must meet for this type of adoption are usually much more stringent than with other types of adoptions. Many private agencies require the potential adoptive parents to be a married couple, and the couple must be married at least one to three years and be between the ages of 25 and 40. Some agencies don't want the couple to have any other children or be able to conceive children. Some private agencies even require that one parent not work outside the home for at least six months after the adoption.
Most public agencies will match children with parents over the age of 40, but encourage these potential parents to consider older children who desperately need homes. - A very important and nerve-wracking part of the adoption process is the home study. A home study is a series of meetings between the potential parent or parents and the agency's social worker. Almost all types of adoptions require a home study. For at least one meeting, everyone who lives in your home must be present so that the social worker can be sure that your home will be a good environment for the child you are hoping to adopt.
- In order to legalize an adoption, potential parents must attend a court hearing with the agency's social worker, a judge, and potentially a lawyer present. The prospective parent files a petition to adopt, and after reviewing paperwork and the results of the home study, as well as a statement from the parents about why they want to adopt, the judge makes the final decision about whether the parents should be allowed to have a child.
