Child Adoption Overview

A brief summary of the child adoption information for each U.S. state is provided below.  Please review the more detailed presentation by visiting your state of residence site listed in the right hand column.

Provides a description of the types of adoption to help you decide which type of adoption is best for you.

Closed adoption means there is no identifying information exchanged and anopen adoption allows the birth mother, birth father, and adopting family to exchange identifying information.

Both domestic adoption and international adoption are explained, as well as the differences between intrastate and interstate child adoption. 

An agency adoption is the safest route for a birth mother or a family interested in child adoption to take while a private child adoption is more risky.

Adoption facilitators, in contrast tolicensed adoption agencies, can pose significant risks and the U.S. government has issued warnings about the risks associated with using adoption facilitators.

Selecting the right agency is an important early step. Agencies can be for-profit or non-profit, public or private, and domestic or international.  We have included a list of licensed adoption agencies for each state.

Help in defraying child adoption costs includes information on grants, loans, employer benefits, child adoption tax credits, and state and federal child adoption subsidies.  Government Agencies A-Z gives you a comprehensive list of the hundreds of federal agencies and departments and we provide other government services and benefits.  Also listed are each state child welfare office and elected officials.

Adoption support groups across the country and in your state, and well as adoption related organizations that can help provide pre-and-post adoption support, are listed for each state.

Legal rights of the adopting family as well as the rights of the birth mother and the birth father are a concern of any adopting family.

We created a site, Adoption Laws, which lists the adoption laws of every state. Also provided are interstate law and international law, the Indian Child Welfare Act, important information related to child adoption expenses and the use of advertising in adoption, the Child Citizenship Act, Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, the Family Medical Leave Act and many other adoption laws.

This section discusses the adoption of a special needs child, adoption disruption, and some of the issues involved in adoption costs and fees.

Overview of international child adoption, as well as information on special international documentation including passport help, the authentication of documents, the federal required fingerprinting, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service required form USCIS I-600a, are presented.  Also provided is information on China adoption, Russian adoption, Guatemala adoption and adoption from additional countries.  Returning to the U.S. after your international child adoption has been completed and re-adopting in the U.S. are two post-adoption issues discussed. 

Issues include deciding when and how to explain adoption, timely therapeutic intervention and finding and selecting the right kind of therapist.