Over the last several years, I have had the privilege of working with couples in the process of adopting children and with others simply needing information about adoptions in Pennsylvania.
There are different approaches to adoption in Pennsylvania: kinship, private, and agency. Kinship adoption is between people related to one another such as grandparents adopting their grandchild. Private adoption is an adoption of a non-relative through an attorney. Pennsylvania is one of only a few states that permits private adoptions. Finally there is agency adoption which is conducted through licensed adoption agencies. Agency adoptions seem to be the most prevalent.
In an agency adoption, a couple first selects the agency, either private or public. A private agency is one that is supported by private funds and is regulated by the state. Costs can range anywhere from $8,000 to $20,000. A public agency is one which is actually operated by the state (in Pennsylvania, by a division of the Department of Public Welfare) and funded through state and local taxes. Public agencies typically place children having special needs.
Although Pennsylvania law provides that any individual may become an adoptive parent, most adoption agencies will only consider couples who have been married at least one to three years, who are between the ages of 25 and 40, and can demonstrate a stable employment history.
Once the couple is accepted by the agency, the agency begins the process of searching for a baby to place with the prospective parents, arranging for counseling for the birth parents, and performing background clearances and studies. Criminal history and child abuse records are examined, and the agency or social worker performs a pre-placement or home study investigation of the prospective parents. The purpose of the home study investigation is to determine how the prospective parents live, their neighborhood, background, jobs, hobbies, medical history, how many other children there are in the home, what types of pets they own, and similar matters.
When all of the agency functions have been performed, the adoptive parents contact an attorney, if they have not already done so, to fulfill the legal requirements of adoption. Under Pennsylvania law, there are several documents which must be prepared and filed with the court. These include a report of intention to adopt, a report of intermediary (in this case, the agency), the home study or pre-placement report, a consent of birth parent (if the birth parent is willing) or a petition for termination of parental rights, a petition to confirm consent, a petition for adoption, and preliminary and final decrees approving the adoption. This is typically a fact-gathering process for the attorney. Usually it is not until the hearing at which the final decree is entered that the attorney sees the results of his or her work – the baby in the arms of the proud new parents.
Call us if adoption is in your future plans.
— Denise Ciampitti