Adoption Agency Fees

Thank you so much for posting your update! We've always planned on adopting, but only just started the serious research and the costs have been causing me to seriously doubt whether this was even an option for us. Reading your post has given me hope! :thanks:

That's great that you found an agency to work with you. Are you sure that your group legal plan will cover the attorney? We also have a group legal plan thru my husband's work and there are no participating adoption attorneys. Apparently the reimbursement the plan gives to attorneys is not much, so it only ends up being useful for having wills drawn up and small things like that (although we did get two wills and a new deed to our house for free thru the plan). If your plan covers your adoption attorney, then that's great, you're very lucky. Just be sure that's the case so you're not disappointed.

Our plan covers uncontested adoptions...private and agency. We've talked to the benefits company and confirmed coverage and also the attorney that is in our network and she confirmed coverage of our adoption expenses. Thank you for bringing up a good point though. :)

my husband and I just decided that we are ready to go for adoption. we were talking about it a lot, and we feel it's time. I noticed that there are a lot of people talking about finances. I am actually looking into non-profit agency (so far I founf 4 in my area) that say they do not chage any fees for their services. we will just have to pay for cpr, fingerprints, ect (which we both already have since i run a day-care) and even those fees are reimbursed up to $400 after adoption is finalized. we are meeting with couple of those agecies to see what's it all about. Anubody knows anything about this? or rmaybe this can be a good idea for those like us, who can't aford thousands of dollars for an adoption.

How did you find the nonprofit agencies? If they say they are nonprofit, does that immediately translate to lower or no fees??? Thanks!

i went to google them and i think i put free adoption or something like. it's actually foster-to-adopt program, but you can ask for an infant or whatever kid you're looking for. of course, depending on that the wait might be longer. also, call the county and see what they say. we are meeting with oe of the agencies right now - in 30 min. and we have another orientation to go to on dec.6th at the county. i'll write more, when we get back.

we just met with one of the non-profit agencies. they charge $0 for their services and they said that most of the expenses like livescan, cpr, some of the house fixing costs will be reimbursed after the finalization. I found a few non-profit foster-to-adopt agencies that do not charge for their services and they all have a pretty much the same process of adoption. first, you'll have to get foster care certification and then they will do the home study and the matching starts. they said that we are on top of our paperwork, the certification and home study would take about 2 months before we start the matching of children. and then, while the child is in our foster care (for about 6 months before he/she can start the adoption finanlization) we would get $900 stipend per month for the support of that child. after the adoption process starts, they would continue the financial support that's called AAp -adotion assesment program, until the child is 18 years old. so, check with the agency if they offer aap support. it is smaller than the forster care, but it's still money. and ofcourse, the child gets medical until he is 18. I know that the county does offe aap too, but i believe that some agencies don't. so ask them about it.

I've never heard of a program called foster-to-adopt before.... is that different than just fostering and deciding to adopt one of the kids? I mean, the parents rights haven't yet been terminated, have they? So isn't there a good possibility of the child going back to their parents???

yes, there is a chance that the child will go back to their parents, but normally you would get a child that is almost possitevely going to be placed for adoption and is not going to be reunited. to my understanding, if there is a chance that a child can be reunited with his/her family, then the child is placed into a foster system, not foster-to-adopt. some of the children that are in the foster care are ready to be adopted (meening their parent rights have been terminated and they are just waiting for a family). also, the children services would not let a child go through adoption process and mess with your and especially the childs feelings letting both of you believe that you would be made a family, and then take a child away. like i said, these kind of cases go to just the foster care and not foster-to-adopt. but like everywhere else, you are taking a risk of maybe having the child go back to his/her parents or relatives. we chose this options mainly based on finances. now it's up to God to do his job and send us a child.

So- and this probably reveals how new I am to all of this- is there not then a straight "adoption" process??? Are the choices just foster or foster-to-adopt??? :confused: Because, I thought that there was a straight "adoption" process once foster kids' parents' rights were terminated. But if that's right then I don't understand why some would go to a straight forward adoption process and others would go to a foster-to-adopt process??? Or do I just have no idea how this works???

The "straight" adoption route is when all parties involved -aparents, pbparents, agency, lawyer, etc.- enter into an adoption agreement. Everyone knows this is going to be an adoption and is consenting to it. Then there's foster care, which can lead to adoption but the actual goal is to reunite children with their parents whenever possible.Then there's foster adopt. In these cases it is unlikely that a child's parent (s) are going to regain custody. Custody may even have already been terminated. There is still the possibility that it may happen however. It is just far less. If you go into foster adopt there is a clear understanding that you are open to situations that will lead to the adoption of a child (children). There are many other situations and programs that fall into these categories or somewhere in the middle too.

Thanks. That explains things a little better. And actually, while I was waiting for your answer I googled "foster to adopt" and found even more information that way. BTW I see on your siggie that you've been "matched & met" so, CONGRATULATIONS! I wish you all the best! :D

Thanks! We had quite the surprise with our DD and it was an amazing experience. We're all finalized now and we just got her birth certificate in the mail yesterday. I know starting out can be incredibly confusing. Different people have different answers for every question you ask. Not to mention having to deal with all the well meaning advice you get from people who have NO idea what they're talking about.

Wow, would any of you who have noted fees under $15,ooo please PM me the info? It's so confusing bc some agencies list an all-inclusive fee, others list a fee and then plus all these things that are case-by-case. I have been researching on and off for years, going through independent adoption with 4 fall throughs, foster parenting, and now trying to find a domestic program I can live with. There are only 2 agencies in our area that have sliding scale fees that are doable for us, but one of the agencies will only place children of Cathlic bparents with Catholic aparents, which I don't like, especially bc we are hoping for a Hispanic child, whose parents are likely to be Catholic. The other agency doesn't seem to place many Hispanic children period. I'd greatly appreciate any info regarding these low fee agencies! Thanks!

I would love any information PM'd to me as well. We are in the investigation phase at this point and the fees of an agency seem daunting but so far going through an agency seems to be a better fit for us. We are in new york if that is important. Thanks!